The midweek trip to Bilbao to face Athletic Club appeared pivotal for the future of head coach Xabi Alonso, but Madrid responded with possibly their best performance of the season, recording an impressive 3-0 victory.
The pressure cranked up for Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League visit of Manchester City, and Madrid’s old foe Pep Guardiola. A tough ask, especially after an injury sustained by Kylian Mbappe.
But Madrid responded: they flew out of the blocks and overwhelmed City with their energy as Rodrygo, of all people, found the net for the first time in 32 games.
Now it’s two wins from eight in all competitions, a run of form a club of Madrid’s standing normally can’t tolerate. So where do they go from here?
A club in crisis?
Marca’s front page this morning reads “No credit” with the sub-heading saying “another defeat leaves Xabi Alonso increasingly shaken.”
Speaking on the Goals Show after the game, TNT Sports’ Julien Laurens had a similar feeling.
“I think there’s a big chance (it will cost Alonso his job),” he said. “They go to Alaves at the weekend, which should be a straightforward game, but you don’t know.
“Even in the Champions League, they go to Monaco and play Benfica, Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, on the last day. They will finish top 24, there is no doubt.
“But they were five points clear of Barcelona (in La Liga) three weeks ago, they’re four points behind now. It’s just not going well.
“He’s going to be under more pressure, more scrutiny, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s not there by the weekend.”
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Courtois makes ‘outstanding’ double save to deny Man City
Video credit: TNT Sports
Following the trip to Alaves, Real visit Talavera in the Copa del Rey and wrap up the first half of their season with against Sevilla at the Bernabeu.
Games against two bottom-half La Liga teams and a team bottom of their group in the third division should in theory pose no trouble. But Madrid have dropped points against Rayo Vallecano, Girona and Celta this season – all bottom-half teams as the table looks now.
Ally McCoist called the City game for TNT Sports in the Bernabeu and heard the disappointment of the Madrid crowd, clearly audible for TV viewers watching at home. Like Laurens, he was left unimpressed by what he saw.
“I was (disappointed in Real Madrid), but I’ve got to balance it in saying City were very impressive and I thought really, really comfortable, going a goal behind,” McCoist said.
“It’s interesting because I heard Steve McManaman saying that their energy levels were better than what they’ve been. I thought their energy levels were poor. I thought they were sloppy at the back and I thought the two goals they lost were preventable.
“Yes, I can totally understand it (where speculation over Alonso’s future is coming from), on what I witnessed tonight. The only thing I would say, from his point of view, I hope, I really do hope, he gets one or two of his injured players back very, very soon, because that will help.”
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A positive turning point?
As McCoist pointed out, there were those who felt that, actually, things are perhaps turning around.
As he eluded, watching pitchside for TNT Sports was former Real Madrid winger McManaman, who liked what he saw.
“I think it will be alright, to be honest” he said of Alonso’s future. “Things have transpired against him, losing Kylian Mbappe today, playing players which he hasn’t really trusted this year – the likes of Endrick – but they were down to the bare bones.
“I thought their energy levels were actually better tonight than they had been at Elche and Girona. They’re missing seven or eight key players, so I think this should be enough to calm everybody down a little bit. I don’t think they were so bad where everyone will say, ‘He needs to go.'”
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Standing alongside McManaman was Steven Gerrard, who agreed with McCoist that the performance wasn’t good enough. But the former Liverpool captain also did not get the sense that Alonso has lost the dressing room.
“I certainly expected more from Real Madrid. I was expecting them to play with more intensity and energy in that second half, show more quality,” Gerrard said.
“They played in flashes but it wasn’t enough to get back into the game. Man City deserved the three points tonight.
“I don’t think it was a performance from Madrid of a team that wants the manager out at all. I thought they did try, they did their best, but too many big players were missing from the starting XI tonight.
“You look at (Antonio) Rudiger’s stupidity in giving the penalty away and also the defensive lapses for the first goal. If they have their first-choice team out tonight, those goals are probably avoided.”
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Courtois ‘does really well’ to keep out deflected shot
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Players on side
“We’re still trying to work it out within the changing room regardless of what goes on outside. We know that’s not helpful,” Bellingham said.
“One thing is how we’re managing games. (In) certain points where we have to suffer, it feels like we always concede and it puts us on the back foot and makes us have to play a way we don’t want to.
“But in the changing room we have what we need to turn it around, we need maybe a bit of luck or maybe something we need to discuss internally. I have faith this season isn’t over just because we’re in a bad run of form.
“(I’m behind the manager) 100%. The manager has been great. I personally have a great relationship with him and I know a lot of the boys do too.
“After that run of draws we had some great conversations internally and felt we’d put that form behind us but the last couple of games … No one is downing tools, no one complaining or moaning. We take it on the chin and keep fighting.”
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Bellingham has ‘full faith’ Madrid can snap ‘bad run of form’
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Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois echoed those thoughts in the mixed zone, saying: “We have shown that we are behind the coach, we have played well, we have given 100% and that has been seen on the field or at least it is the feeling that I have from the field.”
Central defender Raul Asensio added: “All I can say is that the dressing room understands the message Xabi Alonso is sending out and the dressing room is behind him 100%.”
What do the stats say?
We asked our friends at Opta to compare the numbers from last night’s game to the previous 21 Madrid had played across all competitions and this is how it looked.
| Real Madrid | First 21 games (per 90 minutes) | v Manchester City |
| Big chances | 3.8 | 3 |
| Touches in opp. box | 38.4 | 25 |
| Total shots (inc. blocks) | 19.9 | 16 |
| Shots on target | 7.6 | 1 |
| Total fast breaks | 1.5 | 2 |
| High turnovers | 8.7 | 5 |
| Direct attacks | 3.0 | 5 |
| Direct speed (m/s) | 1.74 | 1.44 |
| Errors leading to shots (inc. goals) | 0.7 | 3 |
Not out of the woods yet
As our colleagues at write, while things seem a bit more positive for Alonso, that doesn’t necessarily mean the pressure is off: “Another defeat – either in Vitoria or in the subsequent matches against Talavera in the Copa del Rey and Sevilla in La Liga – would put him back on the chopping block.”
“Just days ago, the trip to Saudi Arabia (for January’s Supercopa d’Espana) was considered crucial. Now, the focus is on these three upcoming matches as the decisive period.”
