Xabi Alonso knows what’s wrong at Real Madrid. But he’s powerless to fix it – The Athletic
Xabi Alonso knew what he was getting into when he took over as Real Madrid coach in May.
The former Madrid midfielder, who remains close to his former manager and his predecessor at the Bernabeu, Carlo Ancelotti, was aware of all the issues which had made the Italian’s final campaign on the bench there so disappointing.
The problem now for Alonso — as was made clear by Sunday’s shambolic 2-0 La Liga defeat at home to Celta Vigo — is that the 44-year-old is struggling to impose himself on a situation he should have seen coming, but that he can do very little about.
Madrid still have the same problems as last year — a defence prone to injuries, a lack of discipline running through the squad and, most importantly, big stars not consistently showing enough commitment to the collective.
Alonso was not wrong when he insisted after the loss to Celta that the key moment of the game had been the serious injury suffered by Eder Militao midway through the first half with the score goalless.
When fully fit, Militao is now easily Madrid’s best and most important defender. The 27-year-old Brazil centre-back is key to the front-footed defending espoused by Alonso, with his intensity contagious to his fellow team-mates.
Militao’s exit forced Alonso into yet another reshuffle of his defence, and there was a clear deficit of both aggression and intensity as Celta scored their opening goal early in the second half. Madrid now fear he could miss up to four months with a hamstring injury.
That first Celta goal was neatly constructed by ex-Barcelona midfielder Ilaix Moriba and on-loan Bayern Munich winger Bryan Zaragoza, and impressively finished by Swedish forward Williot Swedberg.
But the replays showed how easily Celta passed the ball through Madrid’s lines, as Arda Guler, Federico Valverde, Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni jogged back without getting close to any opponent.
Swedberg then finished the move from an unmarked position, 10 yards out in front of goal, despite Antonio Rudiger and Alvaro Carreras both being seemingly well positioned to intervene.
Madrid knew last year they needed to reshape their defence, and more than €120million ($140m; £105m at current exchange rates) was spent along those lines to sign left-back Carreras, centre-back Dean Huijsen and right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold. All three have enjoyed some decent individual moments but, collectively, the team are still not defending well.
Huijsen and Alexander-Arnold were both watching injured from the stands on Sunday, along with club captain Dani Carvajal and the very rarely available David Alaba. Madrid revamped their fitness staff before this season in response to last year’s injury crisis, but the situation has not improved at all.
Discipline also continues to be a huge problem. Sunday’s second half saw defenders Fran Garcia and Carreras picking up easily avoidable red cards, for a silly second yellow and dissent shown to referee Alejandro Quintero Gonzalez respectively. Endrick, an unused substitute, also saw red for his protests from the bench.
Finishing with nine players brought embarrassment late in added time, when substitute Iago Aspas set up Swedberg to literally walk through the ramshackle Madrid defence, easily round goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and make it 2-0. Replays this time showed players including Bellingham and Vinicius Junior rushing back to try and do something, but that just raised the question of why they had not shown such commitment earlier in the game.
Real Madrid’s stars were unable to respond against Celta Vigo (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
Alonso was captured by Spanish broadcaster DAZN’s cameras saying, “Oh Fran, you’ve got to be f***ing kidding me” in reaction to his second yellow card. It recalled a similar reaction from Bellingham to referee Jose Luis Munuera Montero in a 1-1 draw with Osasuna in February, which led to the Englishman being sent off. Madrid backed Bellingham completely in that situation and appeared to see more conspiracies against them.
Carvajal going to see Quintero Gonzalez inside the Bernabeu after the final whistle — and bringing up the tension with officials around last season’s Copa del Rey final defeat to Barcelona — provided a further glimpse into the paranoid mindset from those at the very top of the club.
Indulgence of big names has also been clear in how Vinicius Jr escaped any repercussions for throwing a tantrum at Alonso after being substituted late in October’s La Liga Clasico victory against Barcelona.
That 2-1 victory against their main title rivals meant Madrid had won 13 of their first 14 games in all competitions this season. Alonso’s team had a five-point lead at the top of the table in Spain, and there were clear signs of the changes in tactics and mindset the Basque coach wanted to instil in his squad.
Since then, however, Madrid have won just two of seven games. They have slipped four points behind Barca in the table. Meanwhile, The Athletic has reported that Vinicius Jr will not renew his contract while his relationship with Alonso remains strained.
Most frustrating for Madridistas (and likely for Alonso) is that the big stars show signs of gelling in some games — the main galacticos were mostly excellent in the 3-0 win at Athletic Club last Wednesday.
After Sunday’s defeat, Alonso kept insisting “it’s just three points lost” and “we’re still on the right path”. But he also appeared to accept a reporter’s suggestion that his players were not consistently showing the intensity and commitment required in every game.
“That’s the responsibility of everybody — not just the players, the coaching staff, the club,” he said. “Between us all, we have to do things correctly, and see every game as the most important there is. It’s the responsibility and the job of everyone together.”
Any run of one win in five La Liga games for Madrid will always raise the question of whether the coach could soon be sacked. After Celta’s second goal on Sunday, angry whistles rang around the Bernabeu.
Whistles and boos at the Bernabéu stadium after Celta’s second goal. @TheAthleticFC pic.twitter.com/KS4dPB8fBT
— Guillermo Rai (@GuillermoRai_) December 7, 2025
The most likely potential replacements are either former Galactico Zinedine Zidane returning for a third time as coach or Alvaro Arbeloa stepping up from his job in charge of the Real Madrid reserves, who play in Spain’s third tier.
Neither looks an ideal fit at this point. Zidane is widely expected to take over the France national team after next summer’s World Cup, while Arbeloa, a close friend of Alonso, is still very early in his coaching career.
Both would also be faced with the same issues that have so hampered Alonso’s attempts to shake up the tactics and mindset among the squad.
Asked directly whether his job was on the line in Wednesday’s Champions League game at home against Manchester City, Alonso calmly replied that “what is on the line is three points in the Champions League”, but he will be well aware of the importance of such a high-profile game at such a difficult moment.
“We’re all angry, of course, it was not the game we wanted, or the result we wanted,” Alonso added. “We know the demands at this club, and that defeats hurt a lot. But we need to move on quickly, there is still a long way to go in the season. Wednesday against City is our best chance to remove the bad taste.”
A win against Pep Guardiola’s City would likely calm things considerably. It would be especially sweet for Madrid given how they celebrate victories against Barcelona icon Guardiola, and how president Florentino Perez feels that Madrid, a club still owned by its members (for now), face an unfair battle against clubs backed by nation states.
But the other side of that is that defeat against City would be even more hurtful for everyone at the club, including Perez. Wednesday’s match already looks key for Madrid’s season — and Alonso’s chances of staying on the bench long enough to truly fix the problems he inherited little over six months ago.
