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“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” Xabi Alonso declared, maybe asserting a tad forcefully. “When you’re Real Madrid coach you’re ready,” he added on the day before Manchester City visit once more the Santiago Bernabéu for another meeting 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 duty, too.

Emergency Discussions After Poor Home Defeat

Following Madrid’s desperately poor 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso revealed he had “formed his own assessments,” and he was far from the only one. Late into the night, crisis talks continued, the club’s hierarchy forming their own opinions after a single win in five league games. Their diagnoses were different and while radical changes are temporarily shelved, tolerance has limits, the names of possible successors 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 said here

“Undoubtedly the manager prepared a solid strategy, but ultimately, we the footballers are the ones performing,” Aurélien Tchouaméni remarked. “Losing by two goals to Celta points to a deficiency in our performance, not the coach's planning.”

A Quick Decline After Initial Promise

City will be his twenty-eighth outing in charge of Madrid and it might be his final one at a club where a state of emergency is always just two losses around the corner, where even sharing points is insufficient, and there’s invariably another candidate who can coach. Things have indeed changed fast, even if the roots of the crisis were there from the start. Sold as a tactical disciplinarian, exactly what they needed after a season of laissez-faire and failure, Alonso was counter-cultural at a star-driven institution.

When Madrid triumphed in El Clásico in late October, they established a five-point lead at the top. They had secured twelve victories in thirteen competitive games, although the defeat was emphatic: 5-2 at Atlético. It also exposed fissures. Substituted on 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior headed directly for the dressing room, reportedly threatening to leave the club. In a missive a few days later he apologised to everyone except Alonso. From the club's leadership, rather than reinforcing the manager, there was silence.

Frictions Coming to Light

Internally, the assessment was clear: Alonso shouldn’t have taken Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would repeat that decision, Alonso replied: “I am unsure of the purpose of that query. If, in the moment, I believe a decision is required on the field, I will make it.” Frictions had been exposed, a disconnect between manager and certain squad members. Federico Valverde too had voiced his discontent openly. The pieces weren’t fitting as they should. A common complaint began to surface about all the orders, the film sessions, the lengthy training. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

More than a week after the clásico, Madrid were beaten by Liverpool, initiating a spell of two wins in seven. Capable of a more direct style, they beat Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those were held by Rayo, Elche and Girona. Belatedly, talks were held to fix fault lines or at least mask the problems, to restore tranquility. Focus was directed at the footballers for the first time.

A Fragile Reconciliation

In Bilbao, where they had been gathered a day early, it seemed some agreement had been reached; 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. Two days off followed. Subsequently, though, Celta defeated them and so it disintegrates anew.

That it is understood that Alonso’s future is under scrutiny is as notable as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be denied, but it is calculated. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about injuries and injustice, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were awful against Celta: a lack of style, a deficient mentality, an absence of tactical shape.

The Manager: The Simplest Fix

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 nearly each answer. The shortest answer he gave might have been the most telling, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the entire team was behind him, Alonso replied in a single word: “yes.”

“Being Madrid manager is not about changing [the culture]; it is about adapting,” Alonso continued. “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 by himself that Alonso talked of a collective, a club, that goes hand in hand, and when attention was turned to the question of endorsement or the deficit 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.”