The function
$$f(\alpha)=\cos (\tan (\alpha))-\sin (\alpha)$$ will not show explicit roots (remember that is already the case of $x=\cos(x)$). SO, you will need a numerical method, so a reasoble guess for the solution you are looking for since there is an infinity of roots.
If you look for the ones close to zero, compose Taylor series to get
$$f(\alpha)=1-\alpha -\frac{\alpha ^2}{2}+O\left(\alpha ^3\right)$$
Solving the quadratic will give two roots
$$a_-=-1-\sqrt{3} \sim -2.732 \qquad \text{and} \qquad a_+=-1+\sqrt{3}\sim 0.732$$ while the "exact" solutions (given by Newton method) are
$$a_-\sim -1.287 \qquad \text{and} \qquad a_+\sim 0.710$$
Edit
Staring from @logichtech's answer, we need to find the zero's of function
$$f(t)= \cot(t) -t$$ which is not very well conditioned because of the dicontinuities induced by the cotangent.
It is then much better to consider function
$$g(t)=\cos(t)-t \sin(t)$$ the roots of which being closer and closer to $n\pi$ because of the sine.
So, let expand as a Taylor series function $g(t)$ around $t=n\pi$. This will give
$$g(t)=\sum_{k=0}^\infty a_k (t-n\pi)^k$$ where the coefficients make the sequance
$$\left\{1,-\pi ,-\frac{3}{2},\frac{\pi }{2},\frac{5}{24},-\frac{\pi
}{24},-\frac{7}{720},\frac{\pi }{720},\frac{1}{4480},-\frac{\pi
}{40320},-\frac{11}{3628800}\right\}$$ Now, using series reversion
$$t=k+\frac{1}{k}-\frac{4}{3 k^3}+\frac{53}{15 k^5}-\frac{1226}{105
k^7}+\frac{13597}{315 k^9}-\frac{1531127}{8960 k^{11}}+O\left(\frac{1}{k^{12}}\right)$$ where $k=n \pi$.
Using the above, compare the approximation and the solution given by Newton method for the $n^{th}$ root
$$\left(
\begin{array}{ccc}
n & \text{approximation} & \text{solution} \\
2 & 3.42544789218750 & 3.42561845948170 \\
3 & 6.43729815226868 & 6.43729817917194 \\
4 & 9.52933440521558 & 9.52933440536196 \\
5 & 12.6452872238531 & 12.6452872238566 \\
6 & 15.7712848748157 & 15.7712848748159 \\
7 & 18.9024099568600 & 18.9024099568600
\end{array}
\right)$$
For the very first root, the same procedure would lead to
$$t=\frac{200683117717}{95234227200 \sqrt{6}}\sim 0.860285$$ while the "exact" value is $0.860334$.