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“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” Xabi Alonso insisted, possibly protesting somewhat excessively. “When you’re Real Madrid coach you’re ready,” he added on the day before the English champions visit once more the Santiago Bernabéu for a new meeting of a contemporary rivalry. “I’m looking forward to what’s coming and that starts tomorrow, [an opportunity] to turn round the anger. In our heads, there’s only City. In football, for better or worse, things change quickly”. A defeat and things could alter for good, and permanently: this chance is an imperative, too.

Emergency Discussions After Desperate Loss at the Bernabéu

Following Madrid’s woefully inadequate 2-0 setback on Sunday, Alonso said he had “drawn conclusions,” and he was in plentiful company. Long after the final whistle, urgent meetings continued, the club’s leadership reaching their own verdicts after a solitary triumph in five league games. Their analyses were different and while severe measures remain on hold, forbearance is running out, the names of potential replacements already out. “These are scenarios you must deal with, yet my mind is fixed only on the game, on what I can influence,” Alonso said here

“For sure the coach had a good plan but, in the end we, the players, are the ones on the pitch,” the French midfielder said. “Losing by two goals to Celta points to a deficiency in our performance, not the coach's planning.”

A Swift Decline After Early Success

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 perpetually looming after a few setbacks, where even ties are unacceptable, and there’s invariably another candidate who can coach. Things have indeed changed fast, even if the seeds of the problem were there from the start. Presented as a tactical disciplinarian, the ideal solution after a season of laissez-faire and failure, Alonso was counter-cultural at a players’ club.

When Madrid secured victory against Barcelona in late October, they moved five points ahead at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the defeat was emphatic: 5-2 at Atlético. It also exposed fissures. Taken off after 72 minutes, Vinícius Júnior stormed off down the tunnel, reportedly threatening to leave the club. In a missive a few days later he said sorry to all but Alonso. Institutionally, rather than backing the coach, there was radio silence.

Frictions Coming to Light

Internally, the verdict was obvious: Alonso was wrong to remove Vinícius off. Pressed on the issue if he would make the same call, Alonso replied: “I don’t know what that question is for. If I see in the moment that I have to take a decision on the pitch, I do.” Tensions had been exposed, a disconnect between manager and certain squad members. Federico Valverde too had voiced his discontent openly. The components weren't meshing as they should. A typical grievance began to surface about all the instructions, the film sessions, the extended practices. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

Over a week after the clásico, Madrid were overcome at Liverpool, beginning a run of two wins in seven. Able to play direct, they beat Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those were held by Rayo, Elche and Girona. After a delay, talks were held to fix fault lines or at least mask the problems, to bring calm. Focus was directed at the footballers for the first time.

A Temporary Rapprochement

In Bilbao, where they had been gathered a day early, it seemed some compromise had been found; Alonso meeting their needs more than they did his. A thawing of relations was staged when Vinícius greeted the manager as he departed. A brief break followed. Four days later, though, Celta defeated them and so it disintegrates anew.

That it is known that Alonso’s future is under scrutiny is as significant 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 unfairness, not even truly persuading himself, Madrid were awful against Celta: an absence of character, poor commitment, a lack of organization.

The Coach: The Most Obvious Solution

But the simplest fix, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the actual football, dominated the buildup to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to refocus on the match, which he did with almost every response. The briefest response he gave might have been the most revealing, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the whole squad was behind him, Alonso replied in a one word: “yes.”

“Being Madrid manager is not about changing [the culture]; it is about adapting,” Alonso added. “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 team, a club, that goes together, and when attention was turned to the question of support or the lack of it from above, he answered: “Communication [with the hierarchy] is constant, and it comes from confidence, unity and affection. We’re all together in this. We’re mentally ready to face everything that comes: the team is united, convinced that we can win tomorrow, no one has any doubts about that. It is the Champions League. We are at the Bernabéu. The atmosphere will be special. That creates a different energy, including in the players.”