Inside Real Madrid: A dramatic defeat puts Xabi Alonso’s position in serious danger – The Athletic

Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Real Madrid, our weekly series to follow throughout La Liga’s 2025-26 season.

Every week, we will bring you key information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Madridista with reporting you can trust.

The information contained in this article reflects multiple conversations with various sources at Madrid, all of whom wanted to speak anonymously to protect relationships.

What’s the biggest talking point at Real Madrid right now?

The future of head coach Xabi Alonso. There is real pressure around the 44-year-old after Sunday night’s 2-0 home defeat by Celta Vigo. It means Madrid have taken just six points from a possible 15 in La Liga.

After beating Barcelona 2-1 on October 26, Madrid were five points clear at the top of the table. They are now four points behind their Clasico rivals, who won 5-3 at Real Betis on Saturday. Third-placed Villarreal have a game in hand on Madrid and are only one point behind them.

Alonso’s side had two players sent off in Sunday’s game. Fran Garcia was dismissed in the 64th minute with Celta already 1-0 up, before Alvaro Carreras saw red in added time, after which Celta scored a second. Endrick, an unused substitute, was sent off for protesting Carreras’ red.

Celta looked the better side for much of the game and home fans jeered the Madrid players from the stands. To make matters worse, Eder Militao hobbled off in the 24th minute. The Brazilian centre-back looks likely to miss between three and four months. A club statement said he suffered a “tear in the biceps femoris muscle in his left leg, affecting the proximal tendon”.

All of this has added a fresh level of intense scrutiny around Alonso’s leadership. Appointed as Carlo Ancelotti’s replacement in May, he enjoyed a mostly positive start, but has since seen his authority badly weakened, and the team are not performing on the pitch.

Could Alonso be sacked?

Following Sunday’s defeat, Real Madrid’s senior leaders, including president Florentino Perez and general director Jose Angel Sanchez, held internal discussions about the team’s situation and Xabi Alonso’s future.

Based on what was discussed, none of the sources around the club consulted by The Athletic for this article felt confident in saying Alonso would still be in charge if Madrid were also beaten by Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Ideally, Madrid would like to keep Alonso and continue to have faith in the project, but results are what matter most at such a demanding club.

Alonso reacts on the sidelines on Sunday night (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Although the board does not believe Alonso is solely to blame for the situation, they are unhappy with the team’s image and recent results. Furthermore, there is concern that a significant part of the dressing room does not have a good connection with the coach and his ideas.

Madrid have a shortlist of candidates in case they decide to part ways with Alonso, with Alvaro Arbeloa highly regarded for the position. The former Liverpool and Madrid defender is in charge of Madrid’s reserve team, Real Madrid Castilla, who play in Spain’s third tier.

Sources at Madrid, who are well connected to the board, also point out the confidence and affection that Perez has for Zinedine Zidane. However, it is unclear whether a move would be made for him. In recent weeks, sources close to the 53-year-old have spoken of his desire to take charge of the France national team.

Perez turned to Zidane in similar circumstances in March 2019, after poor results under Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari. That was despite the Frenchman controversially leaving the club in May 2018, having won a third consecutive Champions League title.

Spanish media outlets, including El Mundo, also mentioned Jurgen Klopp as an option. A source close to the German told The Athletic he was happy in his role with Red Bull. 

In his post-match press conference, Alonso faced a series of questions about his position.

“I believe that together we know we can turn the situation around,” he said. “We know what self-criticism and high standards mean at this club; we know that defeats hurt a lot, but we have to look ahead.”

Alonso gave the squad two days off after Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Athletic Club, something that has not aged well. The decision has been frowned upon at different levels within the club, with the argument that the team needed more time to prepare against Celta.

What happened in Sunday’s game?

Madrid looked to have finally turned a corner with an impressive team display in that win at Athletic. All those good feelings quickly evaporated.

Celta were more efficient and precise in possession and attack and deserved to win the game. Madrid gave the ball away 14 times more than their opponents and had twice as many shots on goal, without success.

Also worrying is a lack of resilience. Just as in the 2-2 draw at Elche on November 23 and the 1-1 draw at Girona on November 30, Alonso’s team went behind and could not find a way back.

After Garcia’s sending off — for two yellow card fouls within a minute — Madrid finally seemed to at least increase the intensity of their efforts. Kylian Mbappe had perhaps the best chance to equalise, lifting a delicate lob just over the bar. TV footage picked up Alonso reacting to Garcia’s sending off by saying: “Oh Fran, you’ve got to be f*****g kidding me.”

In time added on, Carreras was dismissed for saying to referee Alejandro Quintero Gonzalez: “You are really terrible (Eres malisimo).” That sparked a series of protests from the Madrid bench, including from 19-year-old Endrick, who was also shown the red card.

Endrick (not pictured) is shown the red card (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

Those protests continued after the match. Also mentioned in the referee’s report was Dani Carvajal’s intervention in the tunnel after the referee and his assistants had made their way off the pitch.

The 33-year-old is currently injured, but he came down from his seat in the stands towards the end of the game to join those criticising the referee from the sidelines. Quintero Gonzalez wrote in his match report that Carvajal said to him: “The level you give and then crying in a press conference.”

That was in reference to what happened before April’s Copa del Rey final defeat by Barcelona, when match referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea cried as he detailed the impact criticism from Real Madrid’s in-house television channel and other outlets had on him and his family.

For his part, Celta striker Borja Iglesias gave his version of events in the post-match mixed zone.

“It got more heated than I thought it would,” he said. “In the end, there were a lot of stoppages, some fouls that left us all wondering, and they got a little more desperate than they should have.”

What should we look out for this week?

Now, everything is focused on the City game on Wednesday. It feels like a pivotal moment in the season. It will be very interesting to observe how the home fans receive Alonso and the players.

There might be at least some good news on the injury front. Following Militao’s injury, defenders Dean Huijsen and David Alaba are in the final stages of their recoveries from muscle problems and could rejoin the team in the coming days.