How reasonable would it be to sack Xabi Alonso?

It’s no secret that Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso is under immense pressure at the club right now. Especially after what many are perceiving as a mini-slide over the last month or so. But I’m not so sure that the pressure is really warranted when you zoom out and look at what he’s done in his short tenure so far.

Real Madrid sit second in LaLiga, just 4 points off leaders Barcelona. To go along with that, they are in the top-8 in the first phase of the Champions League, which would guarantee them safe passage into the knockout stage of the competition, having only lost games to Liverpool and Manchester City – not exactly easy matchups.

Take the fact that they have only left two games pointless in LaLiga too, and you see that Real Madrid have only lost four games all season. To put it lightly, the idea that Alonso is having a terrible season is simply not right.

So, why does it feel like Alonso is destined to lose his job? And to emphasise just how much that is the running narrative, Jamie Carragher’s statement that ‘he’d be lucky to make it to the new year’ on CBS last week wasn’t deemed an outlandish one in the slightest. In fact, it has been reported by Fabrizio Romano that Real Madrid may have identified former player, and current B team coach Alvaro Arbeloa as Alonso’s most likely successor already.

Okay so let’s break it down then. What are some of the key reasons that have or could have led to Xabi Alonso being under so much pressure?

Reason 1 – He doesn’t have the best relationship with some of the star players.

Now this first reason is both the one that has grabbed the most media attention, but also the one that is most likely to be the driving factor behind his current situation. It is no secret that Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior is currently unhappy at the Bernabeu – with his very public outburst after being substituted in El Clasico giving the entire world an insight into just how fractured his relationship with the manager really is. Vini Jr has also reportedly refused to sign a new contract with the club due to the struggles that he and Alonso have had in seeing eye to eye.

And it’s not just Vinicius Jr that Alonso hasn’t had the best start with. There is a picture being painted by sources such as Sports Illustrated and SportBible indicating that the players are split between those who believe in Alonso and those who don’t. After Real Madrid’s 2-1 loss to Manchester City in the Champions League, Rodrygo spoke post-game with CBS and said, ‘it’s a difficult moment, for us, and for him too. Things are not going for us and I wanted to show everyone that we are together with our coach‘, which would indicate that despite some players being desperately unhappy with life at Madrid, there are some that truly believe in the vision that their manager has.

But after all we are talking about Real Madrid here, a club that is notorious for giving its players the upper hand in the player-coach dynamic. Guillem Balague and Thierry Henry spoke to this on CBS this past week, with Balague stating that at Madrid, ‘the players have 90% of the power, and the coach has just 10%’. Now if you just think rationally about those numbers, and the fact that the relationship(s) has not been symbiotic thus far, you can begin to understand why Alonso is under so much pressure despite Madrid faring relatively well so far this season.

Reason 2 – His systematic preferences don’t fit the squad

In his previous job at Bayer Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso established himself as a brilliant tactical mind as he led his Leverkusen squad to an unprecedented invincible Bundesliga season which culminated in them lifting the league trophy. And Alonso did it by predominantly using a 3-4-3 formation that maximised his best players and elevated them to relative superstardom. With players like Florian Wirtz, Alejandro Grimaldo, and Jeremie Frimpong being some of the most exciting and promising players in the world during that time.

As I alluded to briefly in my piece on why Frimpong and Wirtz have experienced bumpy starts to life at Liverpool, that Leverkusen squad and system was a match made in heaven. Taking players out of that and placing them into different situations is bound to cause some unrest. And that is not unique to just the players, Xabi Alonso will undoubtably be adapting to coaching in a different setup.

Real Madrid often line up in a 4-3-3, and will sometimes tweak it into a 4-2-3-1 formation. And while Alonso played for teams like Liverpool, Bayern Munich, and even Real Madrid in similar set-ups, coaching it is a completely different task. To expect him to spend years coaching a specific, and very unique system, then seamlessly transition to something completely different is maybe a little too ambitious. But then again, what else would you expect from Real Madrid, right?

Nonetheless, Alonso has done a relatively good job in keeping Madrid competitive when you consider just how different his last two jobs have been, and he is showing that the difference in formations and personnel is not too much for him to overcome.

Reason 3 – The expectations at Real Madrid are uniquely lofty

Real Madrid are supposed to win. They aren’t like Barcelona in the sense that they’re not expected to play a certain way. They aren’t like Premier League clubs that just want to be in the title race come seasons end. They’re unlike almost any team in the world because no matter who is out there on the pitch, or running the show from the sidelines, Real Madrid are expected to win… everything. And although Xabi Alonso has won an overwhelming majority of his games so far, he does find himself second to Barcelona in LaLiga, and not as dominant in the Champions League as maybe some would’ve hoped for.

And that is part of the job – you will be expected to do things at Real Madrid that you aren’t expected to do anywhere else, and that is probably why they’re one of the most successful clubs of all time.

And when you think about it like that, the question of whether it is reasonable for Alonso to be under this amount of pressure has already been answered – it is inherently unreasonable because the expectations are.

You’re expected to win games. You’re expected to change the way you coach (sometimes drastically) to fit the squad you’re given. Your star players are expected to be world beaters (at all times). You’re expected to help those star players shine. But then you’re also expected to win every single game.

It is an incredibly difficult balancing act, and when you boil it right down to those elements, you become even more appreciative of the managers who have succeeded at Madrid like Zidane, Ancelotti, and Del Bosque. As a young, inexperienced manager, it might just take Alonso some more time to figure out exactly how to balance all of those expectations.

What’s the takeaway then?

So, after examining these three reasons that Alonso is under so much pressure right now, can we confidently say that he deserves the sack? In my opinion, no. I’d argue that sacking him right now would be both rash and unfair.

Yes, he may not get on with some players but it has only been a few months, and he may mend those relationships or even find ways to be successful without them.

It may be true that his preferred system does not fit the current squad, but it isn’t outlandish to assume that he can tweak his ideas in a way that make them compatible with this Madrid side. After all, he is a young coach (44) and has a lot of time to make refinements to his ideologies.

And finally, the expectations at Real Madrid may be lofty, and previous managers may have set a very high bar, but Alonso is really not that far off where Madrid want to be. They are just 4 points of the league lead with the majority of the season left, and have given themselves a good chance to progress easily into the Champions League knockout stage. To say he’s not doing well would simply be untrue.