{"id":306971,"date":"2025-12-09T13:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/306971\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T13:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:16:07","slug":"four-things-xabi-alonso-must-do-to-save-his-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/306971\/","title":{"rendered":"Four things Xabi Alonso must do to save his job"},"content":{"rendered":"

Xabi Alonso is on the brink of being sacked by Real Madrid<\/a>, having only won two of his last seven matches across all competitions.<\/p>\n

The club trails Barcelona by four points in La Liga and a growing section of the Madrid dressing room appears to be unhappy with Alonso\u2019s management.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve taken a closer look at his current situation and have assessed the four things he must do over the coming weeks in order to save his job.<\/p>\n

Beat Manchester City<\/p>\n

Even a draw might not be good enough for Alonso, given the pressure that\u2019s currently on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

According to reports in Spain, the 44-year-old will be sacked if Real Madrid lose against Manchester City tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s likely that only a win against City will restore confidence in Alonso, given some of the recent results that Madrid have endured.<\/p>\n

In Europe, Alonso\u2019s side have boasted a good record, having won four of their five Champions League matches so far.<\/p>\n

However, having already lost against Liverpool, Man City will prove to be a sturdy test in midweek.<\/p>\n

QUIZ: Can you name Real Madrid\u2019s top 20 Champions League goalscorers?<\/a><\/p>\n

Rekindle his relationship with Vinicius Junior<\/p>\n

If Alonso wants to last in the Real Madrid job for the foreseeable future, he\u2019ll have to fix his relationship with Vinicius.<\/p>\n

According to reports from last month, the Brazilian has told Real Madrid that he won\u2019t renew his contract with the club while his relationship with Alonso remains strained.<\/p>\n

When managing a club like Madrid, managing egos is arguably just as big a job as being tactically switched on.<\/p>\n

Recent reports have claimed that Alonso\u2019s relationship with the winger is now on the mend, but the pair still don\u2019t completely see eye-to-eye.<\/p>\n

Find the right tactical balance<\/p>\n

From the way Alonso had Bayer Leverkusen playing, there\u2019s no doubt that he\u2019s had to adjust his tactics since joining Madrid.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest problems facing Alonso is how Madrid defends when out of possession. He\u2019s been clear that he wants the entire team to press, but it\u2019s obvious that he\u2019s struggled to implement those ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my view, we all have to defend. The 11 players have to press,\u201d Alonso said back in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cVinicius Jr, Jude, Fede Valverde, Mbappe. All of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Madrid\u2019s latest loss against Celta Vigo, the Spaniard came out with a scathing quote about his sides work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were better with 10 men than with 11. Simply because at 10 men, at least we started running and working hard,\u201d Alonso said after the game.<\/p>\n

Become less reliant on Kylian Mbappe<\/p>\n

Mbappe has been in fine form<\/a> under Alonso, but similar to Man City with Haaland in the first few months of the season, Madrid are arguably too reliant on the Frenchman.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when Mbappe has failed to score this season, Real Madrid have only won twice and failed to win the other three matches.<\/p>\n

Across all competitions, he\u2019s scored 25 goals this season, which is 20 more than any other Madrid player has managed.<\/p>\n

Mbappe will usually produce the goods, but when he doesn\u2019t, Madrid have a big problem that Alonso needs to fix.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Ranking five of the favourites to replace Xabi Alonso as Real Madrid manager<\/a><\/p>\n

TRY A QUIZ: Planet Football\u2019s Ultimate Real Madrid Quiz: 30 questions to test your knowledge of Los Blancos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso is on the brink of being sacked by Real Madrid, having only won two of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,1172,35432,1705,101,56,54,55,40765],"class_list":{"0":"post-306971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-latest","10":"tag-popular","11":"tag-real-madrid","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-xabi-alonso"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}