Of the 19 managers Real Madrid have appointed this century, only two have truly mastered the delicate balance of guiding egos as much as tactics — a skill this fiercely unique club demands. Xabi Alonso has yet to show he can do the same.
It’s not hard to see why Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso is already feeling the pressure.
The club has won the Champions League a record 15 times, is widely regarded as the biggest in world football, plays in a newly expanded, world-class stadium, and boasts a star-studded squad featuring Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior — valued at over £1 billion ($1.3 billion).
No wonder their fans get frustrated when Real lose their tactical and emotional discipline, lose two players to red cards, lose 2–0 at home to mid-table Celta Vigo and lose further ground to Barcelona, their deadly rivals, in the race for La Liga. Defeat triggered jeers from fans and an emergency meeting of the club’s powerbrokers. Patience is not a word that exists in the Bernabéu. Real Madrid are a great football club and an even bigger soap opera, a sort of “Home and Olé.” Their fans are criticized at behaving in an entitled fashion, and there is undeniably an arrogance to many Madridistas. They would counter that they have a lot to be arrogant about. Look at the trophies in the museum.Fans wave replicas of the European Cup, swirling the pyro smoke. Ninety minutes before kickoff, they head to the top of the road, turn right and swell the numbers already gathering at the roundabout by the Bernabéu.
Luxury coaches carrying the squad swoop by, led by outriders, sirens flashing and police horses keeping the fans back. Gareth Bale, the flying Welshman who once graced Real’s wing, would sit by the window on the bus, watching the scenes, feeding on the adrenalin flowing from the fans. When you’re in among the Real crowd you sense the power of the support, the passion and the constant craving for success. Alonso’s job is to meet that demand. He began the season confidently, being awarded Manager of the Month for August in La Liga, but the 44-year-old now fights for his job.
Real have historically had very high standards. When the team doesn’t live up to expectations first heightened by Alfredo Di Stéfano, Francisco Gento and Ferenc Puskás in the 1950s, fans show their disapproval. They wave their white hankies and, often, the manager tends not to last long after that.
The clock ticks loudly at the Bernabéu. Alonso deserves time but managers rarely get that at Real. He did superbly in Germany, coaching Bayer Leverkusen to the Bundesliga title and turning prospects like Florian Wirtz into £116 million players, yet he’s already being written off at Real. It shows how brutal the situation is that Alonso is a well-loved former player. He represented Real on 192 occasions. He won the 2014 Champions League, although was suspended for the final against Atlético Madrid. None of this association with the club wins him extra time as coach. It’s deliver or depart.Real have had 19 head coaches in the 21st century, including two stints apiece from Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti. Those two hulking figures cast shadows that Alonso struggles to escape. In their most recent spells in charge, Zidane oversaw 114 games and Ancelotti 234. That hints at patience. Between Zidane’s two stretches, Julen Lopetegui lasted 14 games and Santiago Solari 32. Blink and they were gone. It’s a ferociously demanding job.Alonso will know the demands and potential denouement whatever happens in a challenging collision with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the Bernabéu tonight. Guardiola’s deep association with Barcelona will toy further with Madrid’s febrile emotions.
The City game will be only Alonso’s 28th game in charge at Real, which measured observers would consider too short a time to judge him. But the engaging Spaniard, a popular player during his time on the field at the Bernabéu, finds himself under siege. The fans are turning, the media is turning and Madrid pundits and journalists can be merciless when they sense vulnerability. Alonso deals with a fusillade of questions ranging from speculation about his successor to claims that he’s lost the dressing room.There seems no understanding that the squad is imbalanced, that Alonso might not have chosen all the recent signings and that his options are impeded even further by injuries. Defence alone is missing Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dani Carvajal and Éder Militão. There is little sympathy. Fans used to higher standards expect better.
Everything about Alonso is scrutinized, especially the people skills required to control and inspire such an ego-filled dressing room.
Ancelotti achieved it through his quiet authority, a raised eyebrow here, a simple instruction there. Ancelotti’s revered reputation as coach and player ensured players responded to him. Having a stellar coach with a humble personality and great wit, players understood better the concept of sacrificing themselves for the cause. Ancelotti is the master at coaxing, as much as coaching.Zidane’s name contributed greatly to his successful running of the Real dressing room. In the presence of greatness, players bowed down and lifted their work levels. Zidane and Ancelotti made players feel loved, their egos stroked. Those players demanding “medals on the table” from two such coaches would need a long table. Ancelotti has won the Champions League twice as a player and five times as a manager. Zinedine won it once as a player and three times as a manage