Alonso Fights for His Job in Latest Instalment of Modern Classic

“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the Real Madrid coach insisted, perhaps protesting a little too much. “If you coach Real Madrid, you are prepared for anything,” he remarked on the eve before the English champions return to the Santiago Bernabéu for the latest instalment of a frequent heavyweight clash. “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.” Failure and things could alter for good, and definitively: this chance is an imperative, too.

Urgent Meetings After Poor Setback

Following Madrid’s woefully inadequate 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso stated he had “reached some conclusions,” and he was far from the only one. 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 analyses were different and while radical changes are temporarily shelved, patience is finite, the names of potential replacements already circulating. “These are scenarios you must deal with, yet my mind is fixed only on the game, on what I can influence,” Alonso commented

“For sure the coach had a good plan but, in the end we, the players, are the ones on the pitch,” one of the squad's leaders stated. “Losing by two goals to Celta points to a deficiency in our performance, not the coach's planning.”

A Rapid Decline After Early Success

City will be his twenty-eighth outing in charge of Madrid and it may prove to be his farewell at a club where a state of emergency is never more than a couple of defeats away, where even sharing points is insufficient, and there’s perpetually an alternative who can coach. Things have indeed evolved rapidly, even if the roots of the crisis were there from the start. Hailed as a tactical disciplinarian, the ideal solution after a season of permissiveness and underachievement, Alonso was an anomaly at a squad-centric organization.

When Madrid won the clásico in late October, they established a five-point lead at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the loss had been heavy: 5-2 at Atlético. It also exposed fissures. Taken off after 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior marched straight down the tunnel, threatening to walk straight out the club. In a missive a few days later he said sorry to all but Alonso. At the executive level, rather than reinforcing the manager, there was silence.

Tensions Emerging

Internally, the assessment was clear: Alonso shouldn’t have taken Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would do that again, Alonso replied: “I don’t know what that question is for. If I see in the moment that I have to take a decision on the pitch, I do.” Tensions had been laid bare, a disconnect between trainer and a portion of the team. Federico Valverde too had made his frustrations public. The puzzle pieces weren't aligning as they should. A typical grievance began to emerge about all the instructions, 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 overcame Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those were held by Rayo, Elche and Girona. After a delay, talks were held to mend divisions or at least paper over the issues, to restore tranquility. Focus turned on the footballers for the first time.

A Temporary Rapprochement

In Bilbao, where they had been assembled a day early, it seemed some compromise had been found; Alonso yielding to their requests more than they did his. A thawing of relations was orchestrated when Vinícius hugged the 44-year-old as he departed. A couple of days' rest followed. A few days after, though, Celta overcame them and so it falls apart once more.

That it is known that Alonso’s future is on the line is as important as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be disputed, but it is calculated. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about injuries and unfairness, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were awful against Celta: no identity, a deficient mentality, no structure.

The Coach: The Easiest Target

But the simplest fix, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the actual football, 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 virtually all his replies. The briefest response he gave might have been the most revealing, 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 added. “We understand the ethos of Real Madrid thoroughly; it's what makes it the globe's greatest club. One must adjust, absorb knowledge, engage with the squad. Certain days bring success, others less so. We must confront this with vigor and optimism; it's the sole path to reversal.”

It was when he was asked if he felt isolated that Alonso talked of a team, a club, that goes hand in hand, and when attention was turned to the question of support or the lack of it from above, he replied: “Dialogue with the leadership is ongoing, founded on trust, togetherness, and mutual respect. We are all united in this endeavor. We are psychologically prepared for any challenge: the squad is unified, certain of victory tomorrow, without a shadow of doubt. This is the Champions League. We are playing at the Bernabéu. The environment will be electric. That generates a unique dynamism, even among the players.”