🔗 Share this article

“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the manager insisted, maybe asserting a tad forcefully. “If you coach Real Madrid, you are prepared for anything,” he added on the morning before Manchester City visit once more the Santiago Bernabéu for another instalment of a contemporary rivalry. “I anticipate the challenge ahead, starting tomorrow—an opening to redirect the disappointment. Our minds are fixed solely on City. Football, for better or worse, is a game of swift changes.” A defeat and things could shift instantly, and for good: this opportunity is an duty, too.

Crisis Talks After Poor Setback

Following Madrid’s desperately poor 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso said he had “formed his own assessments,” and he was not alone. Into the early hours, urgent meetings carried on, the club’s hierarchy forming their own opinions after a solitary triumph in five league games. Their assessments were not the same and while drastic decisions are being postponed, tolerance has limits, the names of candidates already in the public domain. “These are scenarios you must deal with, yet my mind is fixed only on the game, on what I can influence,” Alonso commented

“Undoubtedly the manager prepared a solid strategy, but ultimately, we the footballers are the ones performing,” one of the squad's leaders remarked. “Losing by two goals to Celta points to a deficiency in our performance, not the coach's planning.”

A Swift Decline After Early Success

City will be his twenty-eighth outing in charge of Madrid and it might be his final one at a club where a crisis is never more than a couple of defeats away, where even draws will not do, and there’s perpetually an alternative who can coach. Things have indeed shifted swiftly, even if the seeds of the problem were there from the start. Sold as a systems coach, exactly what they needed after a season of lack of discipline and disappointment, Alonso was a cultural shock at a players’ club.

When Madrid secured victory against Barcelona in late October, they established a five-point lead at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the setback was significant: 5-2 at Atlético. It also exposed fissures. Substituted on 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior stormed off down the tunnel, seemingly ready to quit the club. In a letter a few days later he expressed regret to all apart from Alonso. Institutionally, rather than backing the coach, there was silence.

Strains Brought to the Surface

Behind the scenes, the verdict was obvious: Alonso ought not to have substituted Vinícius off. Asked here if he would do that again, 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.” Frictions had been exposed, a disconnect between trainer and a portion of the team. Federico Valverde too had voiced his discontent openly. The puzzle pieces weren't aligning as they should. A familiar lament began to slip out about all the directives, the video analysis, the extended practices. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

Over a week after the clásico, Madrid were defeated at Anfield, starting a sequence of two wins in seven. When adopting a straightforward approach, they defeated Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those tied with Rayo, Elche and Girona. Eventually, talks were held to mend divisions or at least cover cracks, to establish peace. Focus turned on the footballers for the first time.

A Temporary Truce

In Bilbao, where they had been brought together a day early, it seemed some agreement had been established; Alonso yielding to their requests more than they did his. A thawing of relations was displayed when Vinícius greeted the manager as he departed. A brief break followed. A few days after, though, Celta beat them and so it unravels again.

That it is public knowledge that Alonso’s future is on the line is as important as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be denied, but it is calculated. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about fitness issues and bad luck, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were terrible against Celta: an absence of character, no attitude, no structure.

The Gaffer: The Most Obvious Solution

But the most vulnerable point, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the sporting matters, was the central theme to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to refocus on the match, which he did with nearly each answer. The most concise reply he gave might have been the most telling, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the whole squad was behind him, Alonso replied in a single word: “yes.”

“Being Madrid manager is not about changing [the culture]; it is about adapting,” 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 isolated 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 replied: “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.”