Real Madrid and Xabi Alonso have separated just seven months after a marriage that began at the Club World Cup last June and ended at the Spanish Super Cup, which the Whites lost to Barcelona on Sunday. Meanwhile, the project got off to an exciting start but culminated in a gradual loss of confidence in Jeddah. Many believed that the fact that they did not suffer a crushing defeat to Barcelona would preserve the manager’s legacy for a long time, but Madrid have no honorable defeat.
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removable pressure
There are both sporting and non-sporting reasons for Xabi Alonso’s departure, but the latter can be attributed to the Basque manager’s management of the dressing room. Obviously, results matter. At the Club World Cup, they showed an incredible performance in the semi-final against PSG, and despite their good performance, they failed to win the championship. Nevertheless, the project went well, as the team was already showing the hands of a new coach. The high press in particular started to take a dangerous turn and mysteriously disappeared after the 5-2 loss at Metropolitano, the first defeat of the season. As it turns out, it’s deadly.
No trace of rock and roll
Because the rock and roll that was promised never materialized. The team almost always seemed to lack vitality and energy, and their physical readiness was in question. Like Ancelotti, he continued to have difficulty against low blocks, and the famous pressing that should be a characteristic of the team was rarely seen. There were only glimpses of looseness in some games, such as the LaLiga game against Barcelona at the Bernabéu. An oasis in the desert of a team that has failed to generate the electricity that was promised and, as the game progresses, looks more and more like Ancelotti’s Madrid in 2024-25.
There is no football between
You don’t have to blame everything on the coach. Xavi asked for brains, but the club gave him no brains. They invested 60 million euros in Mastantuono, almost the same amount as Zvimendi’s move to Arsenal. Modric’s departure was a decision by the club that went against the coach’s standards and the players’ wishes, leaving Madrid’s midfield without a strong base. Choameni, Camavinga and Fede Valverde have many virtues, among them being that they don’t set the team’s tempo or spin the play delicately. Only Bellingham has that quality, but he’s played in so many positions that he doesn’t seem to know what criteria to apply to each position.
Ieda’s ball game
The lack of ability to play the ball from the back became noticeable in the Super Cup. Against Atlético, Courtois fended off pressure from the Rojiblancos and made nearly 40 long kicks in order to find a second play with Gonzalo and Jude. The image of a small team without resources or courage faded only slightly in the final, where long balls remained the mainstay of the team’s attack. In Madrid, it’s not just what you do, but how you do it, and the image of the small club in Jeddah was too much for Xavi, who was already in dire shape when he arrived in Arabia.
The crisis of Vinicius
In fact, criticism of Xavi started leaking out almost from the beginning. He is a very interventionist coach, paying special attention to tactical details, videos and boards, which many Real Madrid players were not happy with after Ancelotti’s more relaxed style. Some cracks soon began to appear, with Vinicius being substituted for a few games early in the season. The situation exploded in the Clasico, when Vini’s new substitute demonstrated their disagreement in front of 80,000 spectators at the Bernabéu and hundreds of millions watching on television. The club did not sanction the player and left the matter in Xavi’s hands. The crisis was not resolved, and relations between Brazilians and Basques, which had never been fluid, deteriorated. But Vini was not alone among the group of critics.
Divisions within the dressing room were another factor that ultimately weighed on Xavi’s sacking, and Xavi was also criticized for not providing continuity in his work with young players such as Gler and Mastantuono, who left the team after their performances began to deteriorate, until their eventual breakdown.
