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“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the Real Madrid coach stated emphatically, perhaps affirming a tad forcefully. “When you’re Real Madrid coach you’re ready,” he added on the eve before Pep Guardiola's side return to the Santiago Bernabéu for the latest edition of a very modern classic. “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”. Losing and things could shift instantly, and definitively: this opportunity is an imperative, too.

Emergency Discussions After Desperate Home Defeat

Following Madrid’s desperately poor 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso said he had “reached some conclusions,” and he was far from the only one. Long after the final whistle, urgent meetings carried on, the club’s board forming their own opinions after a single win in five league games. Their assessments were different and while radical changes are being postponed, forbearance is running out, 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,” Aurélien Tchouaméni said. “If we lost 2-0 to Celta, there’s a problem that’s on us: it’s not the coach’s fault.”

A Quick Decline After Early 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 always just two losses around the corner, where even ties are unacceptable, and there’s perpetually an alternative who can coach. Things have indeed changed fast, even if the origins of the trouble were there from the start. Presented as a tactical disciplinarian, the ideal solution after a season of laissez-faire and failure, Alonso was an anomaly at a squad-centric organization.

When Madrid won the clásico in late October, they opened a five-point gap at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the setback was significant: 5-2 at Atlético. It also revealed cracks. Substituted on 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior stormed off down the tunnel, reportedly threatening to leave the club. In a letter a few days later he said sorry to all but Alonso. From the club's leadership, rather than reinforcing the manager, there was a conspicuous quiet.

Strains Emerging

Internally, the conclusion was obvious: Alonso was wrong to remove Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would make the same call, Alonso answered: “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.” Strains had been laid bare, a rift between coach and some players. Federico Valverde too had made his frustrations public. The puzzle pieces weren't aligning as they should. A common complaint began to emerge about all the orders, the video analysis, the extended practices. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

Nine days after the clásico, Madrid were overcome at Liverpool, starting a sequence of two wins in seven. When adopting a straightforward approach, they overcame Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those drew at Rayo, Elche and Girona. Eventually, talks were held to repair cracks or at least cover cracks, to establish peace. Focus was directed at the footballers for the first time.

A Fragile Truce

In Bilbao, where they had been assembled a day early, it seemed some compromise had been found; Alonso accommodating their demands more than they did his. Reconciliation was displayed when Vinícius hugged the coach as he departed. A brief break followed. A few days after, though, Celta beat them and so it falls apart once more.

That it is public knowledge that Alonso’s future is on the line is as notable as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be rebutted, but it is calculated. 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 terrible against Celta: an absence of character, no attitude, an absence of tactical shape.

The Gaffer: The Simplest Fix

But the weakest link, 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 redirect attention to the match, which he did with almost every response. The most concise reply he gave might have been the most telling, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the complete roster was behind him, Alonso replied in a solitary term: “yes.”

“Being Madrid manager is not about changing [the culture]; it is about adapting,” Alonso stated. “We know the culture of Real Madrid pretty well; that is why it is the biggest club in the world. You have to adapt, learn a lot, interact with the players. Some days are good, some not so good. We have to face that with energy and positivity, that is the only way to turn things around.”

It was when he was asked if he felt alone that Alonso talked of a unit, a club, that goes in unison, and when attention was turned to the question of endorsement or the deficit 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.”