Five-point lead over Barcelona in the first week of November; trailing by a point against their arch-rivals after the first weekend of December. Real Madrid have imploded in only five match-days in La Liga.
Xabi Alonso’s men have won just one of their last five matches in the league (a 4-0 stroll at Valencia on November 1) and the alarm bells are ringing at the Bernabeu. Their Champions League form has been better compared to their domestic predicament — placed fifth on the table with four wins after five rounds — even though Wednesday’s match against Manchester City at home is expected to indicate whether Alonso will stay at the helm in the New Year.
The spectre of a second consecutive season without a major silverware looms over the horizon and the loud boos even before the first half ended at the Bernabeu during the 0-2 setback against Celta Vigo — their first home loss of the season — meant the fans want action and fast.
“We need to turn the page as quickly as possible,” Alonso, whose team played with nine men after two red cards, said after the Celta defeat. “There’s a long way to go in La Liga. And we have the Champions League match against City to react and get rid of this bad taste in our mouths.”
Initially, Alonso’s takeover from a much more lenient Carlo Ancelotti seemed to have paid off. But as the season progressed, stories of dressing room discontent have emerged. One thorn is Vinicius Junior, the Brazilian who openly showed his anger after being substituted during the Clasico against Barcelona on October 26.
In the 21 games he has played so far in all competitions, the Fifa Player of the Year has got just five goals and as many assists. That’s far from the last season when he got 22 goals and 19 assists in 58 matches in all competitions. While Kylian Mbappe — 16 goals in La Liga and nine in the Champions League in the ongoing season — has shone ever since he arrived from PSG in the summer of 2024, Vinicius’s form went south.
Reports of differences of opinion between the players and the coach have gone to such an extent that Alonso had a reconciliatory meeting with the stars in the last week of November. The setbacks in La Liga and the close win at Olympiacos in the European Cup a couple of weeks back show that nothing has changed.
Injuries have also compounded Madrid’s woes. Brazilian defender Eder Militao, who suffered two knee injuries in the last two seasons, was one of the standout players under Alonso. As luck would have it, Militao hobbled off the Bernabeu pitch in the first half on Sunday and joins David Alaba, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dani Carvajal, Dean Huijsen and Ferland Mendy on the injury list. Militao suffered a tear in the femoral biceps of his left leg and could be sidelined for around three months. “We’re struggling with injuries. It was hard for us to react,” Alonso rued. “It hurts, we’re angry, and we understand why people are angry,” he was candid, too.
The imbalance in the team is also coming to the fore. In the last few seasons, Europe’s most successful club used to find goals in the last 10-15 minutes of the game. It was like, if you lead 2-0 at half-time against Madrid, chances of a comeback from the Spanish giants were always high. That has stopped.
There are a few comeback headlines these days. Maybe an odd match against Valencia in January this year, when trailing 1-0, they got two in the 85th and the fifth minute of second-half injury time. Or against a rag-tag Manchester City in last season’s first-leg Champions League knockout round playoff match. That was in February.
Madrid need to rediscover their DNA as early as possible. A No. 9 who is strong in the air may be on the way during the January transfer window. Mbappe is brilliant, but unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, the Frenchman is not known as someone who has aerial prowess. When Alonso was doing wonders with Leverkusen in 2023-24, he got Borja Iglesias from Real Betis as a back-up to Victor Boniface. Iglesias was at the Celta starting line-up on Sunday and tormented his former manager. Alonso, if he manages to save his job, will need a lift, to bring Madrid back from the present slump.