🔗 Share this article

“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the Real Madrid coach stated emphatically, perhaps protesting a little too much. “When you’re Real Madrid coach you’re ready,” he added on the morning before Pep Guardiola's side step back into the Santiago Bernabéu for another instalment of a contemporary rivalry. “I’m looking forward to what’s coming and that starts tomorrow, [an opportunity] to turn round the anger. In our heads, there’s only City. In football, for better or worse, things change quickly”. A defeat and things could shift instantly, and permanently: this opportunity is an duty, too.

Crisis Talks After Poor Setback

Following Madrid’s woefully inadequate 2-0 loss at their own stadium on Sunday, Alonso said he had “drawn conclusions,” and he was in plentiful company. Into the early hours, emergency discussions carried on, the club’s leadership drawing their own conclusions after a solitary triumph in five league games. Their diagnoses were divergent and while radical changes remain on hold, patience is finite, the names of potential replacements already circulating. “One must confront such circumstances, but my focus is solely on the match, on elements within my power,” Alonso commented

“Certainly the trainer devised an effective approach, but when it comes down to it, the players execute on the field,” one of the squad's leaders said. “Losing by two goals to Celta points to a deficiency in our performance, not the coach's planning.”

A Rapid Decline After Initial Success

City will be his twenty-eighth match in charge of Madrid and it might be his final one at a club where a turmoil is never more than a couple of defeats away, where even ties are unacceptable, and there’s always someone else who can coach. Things have indeed shifted swiftly, even if the origins of the trouble were there from the start. Hailed as a systems coach, precisely the required remedy after a season of laissez-faire and failure, Alonso was a cultural shock at a star-driven institution.

When Madrid won the clásico in late October, they moved five points ahead at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the setback was significant: 5-2 at Atlético. It also revealed cracks. Replaced in the 72nd minute, Vinícius Júnior headed directly for the dressing room, threatening to walk straight out the club. In a letter a few days later he expressed regret to all apart from Alonso. Institutionally, rather than reinforcing the manager, there was a conspicuous quiet.

Frictions Emerging

Internally, the conclusion was evident: Alonso was wrong to remove Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would repeat that decision, Alonso replied: “I am unsure of the purpose of that query. If, in the moment, I believe a decision is required on the field, I will make it.” Tensions had been brought to the surface, a separation between coach and some players. Federico Valverde too had expressed his irritation publicly. The pieces weren’t fitting as they should. A common complaint began to slip out about all the orders, the film sessions, the long sessions. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

More than a week after the clásico, Madrid were defeated at Anfield, initiating a spell of two wins in seven. Able to play direct, they beat Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those tied with Rayo, Elche and Girona. After a delay, talks were held to mend divisions or at least paper over the issues, to bring calm. Focus turned on the footballers for the first time.

A Temporary Truce

In Bilbao, where they had been gathered a day early, it seemed some compromise had been reached; Alonso meeting their needs more than they did his. Rapprochement was displayed when Vinícius greeted the coach as he departed. A brief break followed. Subsequently, though, Celta defeated them and so it disintegrates anew.

That it is public knowledge that Alonso’s future is in doubt is as notable as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be denied, but it is intentional. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about player absences and bad luck, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were awful against Celta: a lack of style, poor commitment, no structure.

The Manager: The Most Obvious Solution

But the simplest fix, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the on-pitch performance, overshadowed the preparation to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to redirect attention to the match, which he did with almost every response. The shortest answer he gave might have been the most telling, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the entire team was behind him, Alonso replied in a solitary term: “yes.”

“The role of Real Madrid coach isn't to alter the culture; it is to adjust,” Alonso continued. “The culture of Real Madrid is well-known to us; it's the reason for its status as the world's premier club. Adaptation, continuous learning, and player communication are key. There will be highs and lows. Meeting challenges with drive and a positive mindset is the only route to improvement.”

It was when he was asked if he felt by himself that Alonso talked of a team, a club, that goes in unison, and when attention was turned to the question of backing or its absence from above, he commented: “Communication [with the hierarchy] is constant, and it comes from confidence, unity and affection. We’re all together in this. We’re mentally ready to face everything that comes: the team is united, convinced that we can win tomorrow, no one has any doubts about that. It is the Champions League. We are at the Bernabéu. The atmosphere will be special. That creates a different energy, including in the players.”