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“This is a team, it is a club, and we all go together hand in hand,” the Real Madrid coach stated emphatically, maybe affirming a little too much. “If you coach Real Madrid, you are prepared for anything,” he continued on the day before the English champions step back into the Santiago Bernabéu for a new edition of a very modern classic. “I anticipate the challenge ahead, starting tomorrow—an opening to redirect the disappointment. Our minds are fixed solely on City. Football, for better or worse, is a game of swift changes.” Failure and things could change immediately, and permanently: this opportunity is an imperative, too.

Crisis Talks After Poor Setback

Following Madrid’s desperately poor 2-0 home defeat on Sunday, Alonso revealed he had “reached some conclusions,” and he was not alone. Into the early hours, crisis talks continued, the club’s board forming their own opinions after a mere one victory in five league games. Their diagnoses were divergent and while severe measures are being postponed, forbearance is running out, the names of possible successors 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,” one of the squad's leaders remarked. “A 2-0 defeat to Celta indicates an issue that lies with us, not the manager.”

A Quick Deterioration After Early Success

City will be his twenty-eighth outing in charge of Madrid and it could be his last at a club where a crisis is never more than a couple of defeats away, where even ties are unacceptable, and there’s perpetually an alternative who can coach. Things have indeed shifted swiftly, even if the origins of the trouble were there from the start. Presented as a structured planner, precisely the required remedy after a season of permissiveness and underachievement, Alonso was a cultural shock at a squad-centric organization.

When Madrid secured victory against Barcelona in late October, they opened a five-point gap at the top. They had won 12 of 13 competitive games, although the defeat was emphatic: 5-2 at Atlético. It also highlighted flaws. Replaced in the 72nd minute, Vinícius Júnior marched straight down the tunnel, threatening to walk straight out the club. In a missive a few days later he expressed regret to all apart from Alonso. Institutionally, rather than reinforcing the manager, there was silence.

Frictions Brought to the Surface

Internally, the assessment was evident: Alonso was wrong to remove Vinícius off. Questioned on this point if he would make the same call, Alonso answered: “The intent behind that question eludes me. When a situation on the pitch demands a choice, I make it.” Strains had been brought to the surface, a separation between manager and certain squad members. Federico Valverde too had expressed his irritation publicly. The components weren't meshing as they should. A familiar lament began to emerge about all the instructions, the video analysis, the long sessions. Who did he think he was, the manager?!

Nine days after the clásico, Madrid were defeated at Anfield, starting a sequence of two wins in seven. Capable of a more direct style, they beat Olympiakos and Athletic Bilbao but between those drew at Rayo, Elche and Girona. After a delay, talks were held to mend divisions or at least paper over the issues, to bring calm. Focus was directed at the footballers for the first time.

A Fragile Reconciliation

In Bilbao, where they had been brought together a day early, it seemed some agreement had been established; Alonso meeting their needs more than they did his. A thawing of relations was orchestrated when Vinícius hugged the manager as he departed. A brief break followed. A few days after, though, Celta beat them and so it disintegrates anew.

That it is understood that Alonso’s future is on the line is as important as the fact it is. If Madrid beat City, that can always be disputed, but it is calculated. Alonso knows that. He also knows, for all that he tried to talk about player absences and unfairness, not even truly believing his own words, Madrid were dreadful against Celta: a lack of style, no attitude, a lack of organization.

The Gaffer: The Easiest Target

But the simplest fix, is always the manager, and Alonso’s future, more than the on-pitch performance, overshadowed the preparation to this game. However much the man who is still Madrid’s manager kept trying to bring it back to the match, which he did with almost every response. The briefest response he gave might have been the most telling, had he truly believed it. Asked if he felt the whole squad was behind him, Alonso replied in a single 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 unit, a club, that goes in unison, and when attention was turned to the question of support or the lack of it from above, he replied: “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.”