A third game in a row without winning for Real Madrid. After their 1-0 defeat against Liverpool and this 0-0 draw at Rayo Vallecano before the break, the Merengues’ return to business was complicated, with a 2-2 on the lawn of promoted Elche, who could easily have won this meeting. The five-point lead over Barça following the Clasico has melted like snow in the sun, and the Catalans are now only a small unit behind their Madrid rival in the La Liga standings. More than the results, it is the content of the meetings that worries.
And if there is one man who crystallizes the criticism, it has to be Xabi Alonso. Certainly, some players have still missed out, like Trent Alexander-Arnold or Rodrygo, while a player like Kylian MbappĂ© who has often saved his coach in recent months has not been successful. But clearly, this disappointing draw is above all Alonso’s responsibility in the eyes of the media. His starting eleven with the presence of Fran Garcia as a left winger or the new tenure of a Rodrygo who had been bad for months had already caused a stir on social networks before the match, and the sequence of events proved that these choices were not the right ones.
The match in Elche, a turning point
The content offered by Kylian MbappĂ©’s gang, while the arrival of Alonso on the bench was accompanied by promises about the quality of the team’s play, is also very disappointing, and no one seems to know what the game plan or the philosophy of the Basque tactician really is. Not to mention the already well-known problems with certain locker room executives, such as Fede Valverde, Jude Bellingham or Vinicius Jr. If a dismissal is not expected to occur in the days to come unless there is general surprise, it seems difficult to imagine Alonso reversing the trend and getting out of this negative spiral. This match in Elche was a turning point, and it ended in huge disappointment.
Worried by the coach’s choices and the team’s lack of progress, Madrid journalists and consultants had more than clear opinions after the match. “Xabi Alonso is going through a delicate moment, I don’t see a good connection with the players. We saw it at Anfield, at Vallecas and at Elche, I have the feeling that the team is playing nothing”for example launched Javi Herraez on the Cadena SER. “Even he doesn’t believe in what he’s doing. Xabi Alonso is starting to look like Rafa Benitez »for his part launched the consultant Juanma Rodriguez on El Chiringuito. A few reactions among dozens or even hundreds, and an obvious and unanimous observation: no longer many people believe in Xabi Alonso in Madrid…
