Xabi Alonso was sacked as Real Madrid coach on Monday, after more than seven months in charge. His appointment excited many Madridistas, and he promised to bring about the tactical change that many had been crying out for.
With his stock high on the impressive work done at Leverkusen, Alonso was supposed to be the coach who brought Los Blancos into the modern era, in fluid, superior style. He was billed as a master tactician who will find solutions to the problems plaguing the Spanish giants during the difficult 2024/25 season.
It was felt that he would be given a comfortable time to concentrate his ideas and build a team that could compete very well. However, patience is a rare thing at the Santiago Bernabeu, and with no signs of Alonso succeeding in the job he was brought in to do, the club decided to abandon a project that never really took off.
A rough start
The Club World Cup was always seen as a distraction for Alonso. It was no secret that he was keen to start his new role after last summer’s tournament in the United States, rather than before it.
Instead he was thrown into competitive action, with little time to work with a team that was tired, demoralized and suffering from injuries at the end of a long unsuccessful campaign.
The absence of key man Kylian Mbappe for most of that tournament, due to stomach tuberculosis, has also made it difficult for the Basque coach to begin the task of transforming a star-studded, but disjointed attack. This was always going to be the most important job for the new man, after Carlo Ancelotti failed to resolve the Vinicius-Mbappe conflict in his final year in charge.
The 4-0 defeat by PSG in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup was the first big result back. Perhaps more damaging than the result was Alonso’s reluctance to accept the championship, insisting that the defeat was of an old season rather than what everyone hoped would be a bright new era. That at least gave the impression that he was on a different page from Florentino Perez from the start.
The club’s failure to sign Martin Zubimendi, a player admired by Alonso and a natural solution to their midfield woes, could also be seen as a lack of doors. If this Real Sociedad man had moved to the Bernabeu, instead of the Emirates, there are many chances that this Real Madrid team would have taken a very different color.
Instead, Alonso was forced to soldier on without a natural ball-playing midfielder, who can read the game and set the tempo. Efforts to shoehorn Arda Guler into a deeper role have shown flashes of promise. His link-up play with Mbappe was one of the highlights of the opening months of the 2025/26 season.
Although Vinicius’ form remains a concern, Alonso is at least able to get the best out of his other star forward. Despite the stunning goal return, there were signs that Mbappe had become a better player, able to press from the front and do many off-the-ball tasks that he was unwilling or unable to do.
The form of Alvaro Carreras, one of Real Madrid’s summer signings, has been another positive, and it should not be overlooked that Los Blancos have won 13 of their first 14 games this season. However, even then, there were signs that all was not well.
Warning signs
A 5-2 derby defeat to Atletico Madrid in September suggested Alonso had yet to find solutions to the big-game problems that plagued Ancelotti’s side last season. He was widely criticized for fielding a half-sized Jude Bellingham at the Estadio Metropolitano, in a game that saw Atleti dominate both physically and mentally.
The over-reliance on Mbappe was also clear from day one. The striker has scored 50% of Real Madrid’s goals in all of LaLiga and the Champions League this season.
The idea was that Alonso was building an often one-sided team designed to serve one player, already a huge departure from the role he was brought in to play.
Undoubtedly, that situation did not go down well with Vinicius, who twice reacted angrily to the substitution, most notably in El Clasico in October. His subsequent apology, which did not refer to Alonso, added fuel to the flames as reports of dressing room tensions grew.
In retrospect, perhaps that was an opportunity for the coach to stamp his authority on his players and remind everyone in charge. Having just beaten Barcelona in one of the best displays of his reign, Alonso was then in a strong position to make a strong play, without the risk of losing his job.
However, the Brazilian’s petulance was not punished, with Vinicius starting as a poor Valencia outfit was dismissed 4-0 the following weekend.
That, as it turned out, would be the culmination of Alonso’s short time in the Bernabeu hotseat. Just two wins from eight games followed, as Real Madrid’s season threatened to fizzle out completely.
Player power wins
Ironically, it was perhaps the 3-0 win in Bilbao against Athletic in December, one of the best nights of the last two months of 2025, when it all started to fall apart for Alonso.
The switch to a 4-4-2 formation, which often takes the form of a 4-2-2-2 in a more direct style, was a sign of a coach now willing to make big deals for a squad that had grown dissatisfied with his ways.
While successful on that occasion, it was another indication that Alonso was beginning to deviate too much from the equipment he was delivered. Other tactical changes followed that suggested Real Madrid were returning to the days of Ancelotti. That includes the reintroduction of Rodrygo on the right-back, after his manager said he views the 25-year-old as competition for Vinicius on the left.
Arguably without the tools needed to truly turn around the club’s fortunes, Alonso was taking a booming stance, and that continued right to the end. His team had 29% of the ball in his last game, a 3-2 Supercopa defeat against Barcelona.
As the Catalans prepared to collect the trophy, Alonso seemed to like his players to form a guard of honor for their rivals. Mbappe had other ideas, persuading his teammates to leave the pitch, and it was the striker who got his way, in a display of player power, hours before the coach was sacked.
Those images may define the final weeks of Alonso’s reign. Although short-lived, it could go on to have a lasting legacy at the Bernabeu, if only in terms of the types of coaches hired in the future. It may be a long time before we see another appointment of this nature at Real Madrid, with a dressing room that seems desperate to appease, rather than a leader.
Mark is a freelance football writer based in Madrid, and editor of LaLigaExpert.com. He has been linking LaLiga and European football since 2014.
