Alonso's Real Madrid Tenure: Tactical Clash and Squad Limitations

Key Quotes

"Florentino Perez we're sure was really angry at that not happy with how the team were playing and was seriously considering making a change on the bench alonso survived that into wednesday's game against manchester city from madrid were much better they started off the game with way more intensity organization passion than they had showed in previous games went ahead eventually lost to man city and that was kind of down to the real problems that madrid have both in how the squad is put together and in with a lot of injuries in defense at the moment."

Dermot Corrigan explains that despite recent poor performances and anger from fans, Xabi Alonso survived a potential sacking after the Manchester City match. This survival was due to a better team performance with more intensity and organization, though underlying squad and injury issues remain significant challenges for Real Madrid.

"The word is that alonso should have those three games at least to show that he's turning things around to get the team back playing better but it's still very dicey for him and there's still a lot of disappointment with how things have gone over the last month around madrid."

Dermot Corrigan highlights that Xabi Alonso has a limited window of three upcoming games to demonstrate improvement and secure his position. The situation remains precarious for Alonso, with ongoing disappointment surrounding Real Madrid's recent form over the past month.

"I think he's a big voice I think you can see that on the pitch as well yesterday kind of showing his frustration I think at times towards his teammates kind of geeing up his teammates that's something we've become used to seeing him from him really at his during his time at dortmund his time with england now I think he he also seems to be one of those kind of seemingly undroppable stars along with mbappé and and vinicius."

Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero discusses Jude Bellingham's significant influence within Real Madrid, noting his vocal presence on the pitch and his role as a leader. Lopez-Menchero suggests that Bellingham, alongside other star players like Mbappé and Vinicius, holds considerable sway and is considered a key, seemingly undroppable figure at the club.

"So, there's still time for Alonso to turn it around but it is going to be difficult it's a super interesting situation in that last year under ancelotti lots of people around the club within the dressing room in the boardroom thought that ancelotti had just maybe given some of the stars a little bit too much leeway he's known as a great man manager a guy who trusts the bigger players but guys like vinicius bellingham were not out of control but just needed a bit of a stronger hand and that was why alonso was brought in the club were happy with him to bring in new more modern methods of working and to try and organize the team better play a different style of football where ancelotti played a lot of counter attack and now the idea was to take the initiative in games to press up the pitch to be more aggressive all over the pitch and the board up to florentino perez you know we've reported where we're online with that idea the dressing room not maybe so much trying to get bellingham vinicius mbappé to press in an organized way is difficult as we've talked about here before so the idea was that alonso had to try and do that it worked for a while up to the clasico back in october when madrid were five points clear at the top of the table but then things pretty quickly fell apart."

Dermot Corrigan explains that while Xabi Alonso has time to improve Real Madrid's performance, the task is challenging. Corrigan contrasts Alonso's mandate for modern, aggressive tactics with Carlo Ancelotti's more laissez-faire approach, noting that while Alonso's methods initially showed promise, they have since faltered, particularly with player buy-in on pressing strategies.

"I think fundamentally it comes down to how project managers i guess if if you want to call it like that aren't always welcome at madrid they're not always the ones who who do well the guys with big ideas right we know that alonso has this brilliant cv from his time at leverkusen but that man management of the stars is so important at madrid I think if you look back to probably the last kind of project manager in that sense who was looking to fully change madrid's style of play was maybe julian lopetegui who you know last an incredibly short period of time as well under perez in 2018 so yeah it's it's been tricky for alonso and i guess i'm surprised that things have turned against him so quickly given that he's a former madrid star one of the kind of madrid legends of recent years but not surprised given the the wider context around the club and and what they've always acted like."

Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero suggests that Real Madrid often struggles with "project managers" who aim to implement significant stylistic changes, citing Julian Lopetegui as a past example. Lopez-Menchero believes that while Alonso's success at Leverkusen is notable, the crucial element of managing star players at Real Madrid is a significant hurdle, making Alonso's rapid decline unsurprising given the club's history.

"I think they're personally close as well their families know each other from their time together in germany but pep enjoyed winding up some of the madrid media would have known that that wouldn't have gone down well with the real die hard madrid supporters not with florentino either but the team played better than them before it if you thought they looked bad against man city you like against celta at the weekend was like comparatively a lot worse you know two players getting sent off for for silly things when the team are trying to get back into the game but there are huge problems with the the the squad like starting with the defense they're missing five defenders probably three of their best back four were missing eder militão got injured at the weekend and he's key for them he's their best defender by far he's the guy who has that intensity that aggression can press up the pitch is brilliant at nipping in front of a center forward to win the ball back."

Dermot Corrigan contrasts the performance against Manchester City with a previous match against Celta Vigo, highlighting that while the City game was disappointing, the Celta match was comparatively worse due to player dismissals. Corrigan emphasizes that Real Madrid's significant defensive injury crisis, particularly the loss of Eder Militão, is a critical factor contributing to their struggles.