Sport

Xabi Alonso may be out of his depth at Real Madrid

During the 2023-24 season, Xabi Alonso was the hottest property in football coaching. He led Bayer Leverkusen to their first ever Bundesliga title with an unbeaten season as well as the German Cup. Only Atalanta’s demolition in the Europa League final stopped them achieving one of the most perfect seasons in club football history.

But Alonso’s reputation had long been secured by then. After impressing in his first coaching job with boyhood club Real Sociedad’s B team, he salvaged a fifth-placed finish after inheriting what appeared to be a full blown crisis midway through that season, before all the success in his only full campaign. When the hype became real, it emerged the Spaniard had a gentleman’s agreement with Leverkusen that he could leave to take over at Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, the three clubs he enjoyed success with as a player.

After winning the league in Leverkusen, Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool and Thomas Tuchel was sacked by Bayern. Alonso immediately reaffirmed his commitment for the following season; although commendable to stand by his club and finish the job, with a Champions League campaign ahead. But it also made clear what was really going on, with Carlo Ancelotti’s long-term future at the Santiago Bernabeu far from certain.

Sure enough, last summer, the 44-year-old replaced Ancelotti at Real Madrid. It is the biggest club in the world, unique in the way it operates, but that meant that, in a way, it was fraught with risk.

Alonso is a coach; his style of play is defined as high intensity with high pressing, set out in a 3-4-3 traditionally, but those principles are most important. At Madrid though, politics comes before football in a sense. While style of play is critical, it comes after winning, but also managing expectations and demands of the president, supporters and players. Even compared to Liverpool or Bayern, let alone Leverkusen, this was a completely different challenge, one he would have experienced from inside as a player, but nothing could have prepared him for what was in store. He needs time.

But he isn’t getting it. Issues have been building up for some time. Vinicius Junior has been in sharp focus ever since his reaction to being substituted in El Clasico in October; reports have since emerged he will not extend his contract while Alonso is in charge.

Since then, Madrid have lost the lead in La Liga to Barcelona. According to reports in Spain, should they follow up the weekend’s home defeat to Celta Vigo with another in the Champions League to Manchester City this week, Alonso will be sacked.

The entire situation with Vinicius is emblematic of the sort of trouble Alonso, and by extension anybody in that job, will face. At Leverkusen, on a man-management level, it was easy for him to create an underdog mentality; his young, talented squad was looking to disrupt. At Madrid, winning is the minimum expectation, and he has the best squad in the world in which to achieve. But players like Vinicius and Kylian Mbappe are effectively business entities these days, with scores of high level executives in their entourage ready to put pressure on when they are unhappy. It is a balancing act to not only find the right system, but keep harmony.

It is telling that Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane are the club’s most successful coaches in recent times, because their strengths lie in man management over tactics. Zidane has not held another post, but instantly commanded respect and utilised it properly, while Ancelotti, who had two spells in charge before taking the Brazil job, has seen and won almost everything in his career. His affable nature was necessary too.

Alonso is a modern coach, whose ideas are crucial to his way of working. That is not enough to succeed at Madrid, but once they appointed him, they needed to afford him opportunities to develop.

While the writing may be very much on the wall for Alonso, it shouldn’t be a blot on his career; he will be a top coach, potentially at Madrid in the future, but right now he seems out of his depth.