Real Madrid lose at home, and show things that need addressing immediately.
Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, Marcelo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Toni Kroos, and so many more over the course of Real Madrid’s rich history. They aren’t just some of the best to ever play the game of football. They were also serial winners and great leaders.
It is still fresh in memory how Karim Benzema helped his young teammates, and even the experienced ones, after they went 2-0 down at Anfield in 2023. Benzema asked every player to calm down. I don’t know what he actually said, but they went on to win 5-2.
Real Madrid, at the moment, are missing those exact profiles. The talent is not an issue; with this team, it has never been one. Real Madrid boast some of the best players in every position. The difficulty, on many occasions, is getting them to function as a team. And other times, it is to get them to work hard and believe in themselves.
The problems, apart from the obvious injury crisis that Real Madrid are eternally close to, are not the physical aspect of things. It obviously does not help when half of the defense is injured, and then you get two silly red cards to make things worse for both full-back positions. However, the biggest challenge is their mentality.
This team is missing leaders. It is especially difficult for them to handle adversities. Severe head loss after embarrassing losses, players looking dejected long before the final whistle — there is just so much to correct. Players look defeated. Out of ideas. Chaotic. It was the same under Ancelotti last season.
Xabi Alonso can be blamed for a few things. He has made bad lineup choices, which this article will get into. He has also made plenty of bad substitutions during his time at the club, and does, to an extent, overthink his lineups and tactics in some matches. But there are also so many things that these players just aren’t doing right.
What happens if you sack Xabi Alonso? Who’d you bring in? Zinedine Zidane? Jürgen Klopp? Both of those managers would want the team to work hard, especially the latter. Both of those managers will require the team to be united and stick to their ideas. What happens when they don’t follow them after a few games? How would that make any difference to the situation now?
Also, why would they even want to come in? Why would Zidane not wait for the France job, especially after what happened towards the end of his previous stint? How would Real Madrid’s horrendous situation convince Klopp to come back into coaching just a year or two after he left Liverpool? How would his high-pressing ideologies work when Alonso’s haven’t?
You’d be stuck in a loop. This team needs leadership and mental toughness. They need to realise that the goal is to win, no matter how. They need to realise that the team’s interests eclipse their own. I don’t think sacking Alonso would change much of that. Not because he’s not at fault for anything — because he has made mistakes too. But some things happen which are out of his control.
Forwards are going 30 games without scoring. Midfielders are not being able to win duels, calm things down and take control. Defenders can’t defend a cross or set piece. It’s a bad situation, top to bottom. If you put blame on the manager, you also have to put equal, if not more blame, on the players for their lack of intensity and leadership.
A lot of this leadership bit also comes through Alonso. He has to choose whether he wants to win at Real Madrid or win the hearts of those at Real Madrid. Clearly, both things cannot be true simultaneously. He was brought in to lead the change. There were things that were different about Alonso’s tactics when he first started at the Club World Cup and at the start of this season. Alonso has deviated from them, presumably to help the superstars get more minutes.
"Changes will be made,"
It also means bringing on better players. Rodrygo, who has not scored a single goal in the last 31 games for the club, came on to help Real Madrid score a goal. Endrick, who is clearly not being trusted by Alonso — presumably due to his pending move to Lyon in January — would have a bigger impact if trusted upon, at least right now.
Endrick may or may not score goals; no one knows. But having him on the pitch as a right-winger would give the team the few things they desperately need from that flank: Chaos. Unpredictability. Pace. Presence. In the one game Endrick has played this season, he was a right-winger against Valencia, and he had a decent cameo.
Putting Rodrygo on the pitch solely because he is a star, and not keeping him on the bench because he is on the longest goal drought for any attacker in the last 20 years, is not something Alonso would have done at Bayer Leverkusen, or even in the first few months in charge at Real Madrid.
Having Endrick on would be something different. Currently, it feels like Real Madrid are stuck with the same crop of players making predictable plays. Endrick may not be the solution, but Alonso would not know that if he does not try.
Against Celta, Raul Asencio clearly struggled in the right-back spot. His output going forward was atrocious, especially against such a tight low block like Celta’s, and I can’t blame him. He is a central defender. His job was never to score or assist goals, or to put crosses into the box. However, it would’ve helped him if he had Endrick in front. Or any winger, for that matter. Real Madrid sorely needed that position filled, and Rodrygo, who was originally brought in to play on the right, started drifting inwards and towards the left as the game went on.
(Side note: it would’ve been interesting to see an attack of Kylian Mbappé, Gonzalo and Endrick. Not in every game. Not in a big game, either. But I’d have liked to see that happen. That seems like, at least on paper, a balanced front three. You get explosiveness and goalscoring threat from Mbappé and Endrick. You also get Gonzalo’s brilliant link-up play and aerial ability.)
There was also no intensity in this Real Madrid side, particularly after going behind. Real Madrid seemed shell-shocked. Dejected. They had accepted defeat. These sorts of things are what need changing.
There are a few things that Alonso has to improve on. There are bold decisions that he has to start making once again, to help Real Madrid win games. That’s the point, right? You can’t make everyone happy, and the sooner he realises that, the better it is. The players, especially, have to be more intense. They have to work hard. This is what they get paid to do.
Real Madrid’s players, coaches, higher-ups need to analyse what is going on, and what the club’s aspirations are, and which parties are willing to sacrifice for them to be achieved. Alonso needs to fix things. The players need to fix things. If they don’t, Real Madrid will repeat the cycle. They will keep trusting their players. These issues will once again arise under a different manager, and once again, the club will be embarrassed in their own backyard by a team that hadn’t beaten them there in 19 years. said Alonso after Real Madrid’s 4-0 loss to PSG in the Club World Cup in July. He needs to be bolder with his choices. Even if that means forcing players to be on the bench if they don’t fit his ideology or help the team win. Real Madrid need to set an example to show that players are not as big as the club, and that comes from making such decisions. These things stem from Alonso, too. He needs to go back to what he was trying until the Valencia game, because since then, Real Madrid have only won two of their last seven games in all competitions. One in five in La Liga.
Those are not great numbers. He needs to stick with what works and limit what doesn’t, even if that means having to bench a superstar or change their role