When Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2–1 in Xabi Alonso's first Clasico at the helm, all appeared to be well at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Superstar players Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham were on the scoresheet. Madrid were five points clear at the top of La Liga. When Valencia were swept aside 4-0 six days later on November 1, Los Blancos had won 13 of 14 matches across all competitions in 2025/26.
A little over two months later, Alonso — a showpiece hire and a would-be Galactico of the dugout — is out of a job after a 3-2 defeat to Barcelona in the Supercopa de Espana final.
Results in El Clasico carry huge weight in one of football's most tempestuous rivalries, but there's more to this messy situation than panicking in the aftermath of losing to Barca, who have turned their November deficit into a four-point lead at La Liga's summit. Trouble has been brewing for a while.
Here, we look at why Madrid have dispensed with a man whose exploits at Bayer Leverkusen made him one of the most sought-after tacticians in Europe and replaced him with rookie B-team boss Alvaro Arbeloa.
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Why did Real Madrid sack Xabi Alonso?
Tactical confusion
There are undeniable parallels to be drawn between this latest Madrid sacking and the current maelstrom at Manchester United: two historic European footballing institutions acting on reactionary impulse, fueled in part by that very status.
Alonso arrived at Madrid 12 months on from his historic clean sweep in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen, who stormed through an undefeated Bundesliga campaign en route to a long-awaited first title. That success was achieved by a well-drilled team playing in a 3-4-2-1 setup.
Unlike Ruben Amorim, who stuck rigidly to a similar system at United after using it to dominate Portuguese football at Sporting CP, Alonso pragmatically acknowledged that three centre-backs would go down like a lead-lined Champions League trophy with Madridistas. Madrid have typically played with variants of 4-2-3-1 this season.
However, this has looked more like a fudged compromise than an act of decisive conviction. Within the early season winning run, there were several narrow victories where the scoreline masked patchy performances. That should be no great crime for a team and a coach adapting to one another, but Madrid's decision-makers virtually wear their impatience as a badge of honour.
A scoreless week as Los Blancos lost 1-0 to a misfiring Liverpool at Anfield and drew 0-0 at Rayo Vallecano started a sharp slide. It was certainly an unhelpful time for the calendar to throw up six successive away games and, by the time Madrid lost to Celta Vigo and Manchester City in the space of four days at the Bernabeu, Alonso was on the brink.
6 - Real Madrid coaches with the best win percentage in all competitions:
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 12, 2026
75% - M. Pellegrini 🇨🇱
71.9% - J. Mourinho 🇵🇹
71% - R. Antic 🇷🇸
70.8% - C. Ancelotti 🇮🇹
70.6% - R. Firth 🏴
70.6% - XABI ALONSO 🇪🇸
Decision. Pic.twitter.com/pDj75Y4kOt
A stay of execution comprised five straight wins prior to the loss to Barca. But a look at the match statistics from that game, where Madrid were second best in all departments and had just 29% of the ball, painted a stark picture. It was one thing to survive on wits, pride and moments of individual brilliance during the vibes-laden success of Zinedine Zidane and Carlo Ancelotti, but Alonso was supposed to move Madrid beyond that. If he couldn't against their biggest rivals, it didn't feel impolite to ask what the point of this all was.
According to AS, Alonso expressed "exhaustion with the situation" in the meeting that confirmed his fate at Madrid's Valdebebas training base.
MORE: Sacking Alonso highlights Real Madrid's unsolvable manager problem
Clashing with Vinicius and the stars
Of course, working amid Madrid's unique pressures makes the idea of a philosophy and ideas coach succeeding seem virtually impossible. Alonso being a much-loved former player felt like it could be a serviceable work-around.
One of the primary challenges at Madrid is placating the stars, massaging their egos and keeping the whole self-important circus inside the tent. It's why Ancelotti was so successful and Jose Mourinho left in a state of open warfare with all of his senior players.
Alonso is obviously temperamentally far more closely aligned with Ancelotti than Mourinho, but suggestions of a difficult relationship with the struggling Vinicius Junior became such common knowledge that Diego Simeone heckled the Brazil star about his dwindling Bernabeu status during last week's Supercopa semifinal against Atletico Madrid.
By the time of the Supercopa, Rodrygo was back in situ having seemingly being cast aside earlier in the season. Both he and Vinicius have endured considerable goal droughts, leaving far too much of the burden on Mbappe's shoulders. The France superstar has struggled with injuries recently, while fitness problems are not the only reason Trent Alexander-Arnold has only started five La Liga matches since his high-profile switch from Liverpool. The formidable Federico Valverde has spent too much time plugging that hole, out of position at right-back.
There has been nothing like Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos' 2013 mutiny against Mourinho, but once a coach and the big-name players at Madrid don't appear aligned, things only usually end one way.
Real Madrid DNA
Ah yes, this classic. What does it really mean? Who know or cares, so long as it adds to the trophy haul.
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Arbeloa has never held a senior head coach role in his life, but he has worked with Madrid's youth categories and Castilla teams, just like Zidane did. He just gets "it", knows the club, all that stuff. So did Alonso, but he was foolish enough to play for Bayern Munich, crib from Pep Guardiola, manage in the Bundesliga and let big ideas into his head. Silly man.
After trying on the straightjacket of tactical conformity, Madrid are back in the loose-flowing robes of their vibes era. Arbeloa will say nice things in front of and behind closed doors; Madrid will win most of their games because they're Real Madrid and have vastly more resources than anyone else in La Liga. All will be declared well with the world until Arbeloa has the temerity not to win the Champions League, and the whole cycle will begin again.
The run of Champions League success under Ancelotti and Zidane obscures the fact Madrid really don't win La Liga's two-horse race anywhere near often enough, especially at a time of self-inflicted financial crisis at Barcelona. But then, Madrid always think they know best and play by their own rules. Sacking a head coach brought in to be a different type of leader for being exactly that is the latest maddening example of this.