Xabi Alonso is ‘dead’ as second-gear Man City, Bellingham and Rudiger condemn Real Madrid boss | OneFootball

After Real Madrid were booed off following their 2-0 defeat to Celta Vigo on Sunday, Xabi Alonso fielded questions on his possible replacements, whether he had the trust of his players and if he felt lonely in a job by a baying set of Spanish journalists who make their English counterparts look like timid puppies as they smelt the blood of a man who wore the haunted look of someone weighed down by the most heavily scrutinised job in world football.

Real Madrid are second in La Liga, four points behind Barcelona, and had won four of their five Champions League games ahead of the visit of Manchester City. And yet, while Arne Slot retains his position at Liverpool after a run of six Premier League defeats in seven games and Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United tenure extends into a second year after the first was the worst in living memory, Alonso is – as one respected Spanish journalist said ahead of this game – “finished as Real Madrid manager”. What a mad football club.

Like yer da when faced with PG Tips over Yorkshire Tea, they don’t like change and continue to resist it, but in fairness to the fans, the ‘revolting’ players and president Florentino Perez, what looks to ostensibly be an absurd knee-jerk reaction to a perfectly reasonable start to Alonso’s Real Madrid tenure is bolstered by the ammo of just one win in their last five La Liga games and now two in eight in all competitions. All is not well.

It took very little pressure, quality or even effort from City for Real Madrid to crumble. A corner saw Josko Gvardiol climb above Jude Bellingham, Thibaut Courtois to fumble his header and for Nico O’Reilly to tap in. And Antonio Rudiger then all too obviously ignored the football while wrestling Erling Haaland to the ground eight minutes later to concede a penalty which was converted by the City striker.

A lead into a deficit before half-time and it could have been 3-1 after Real Madrid’s wholly predictable ‘woe is me’ schtick forced Courtois into a double save after an excellent run and cross from O’Reilly – who was outstanding throughout – while the Madrid players complained about the referee failing to award them an ‘evening up’ penalty for holding in the City box.

And with the gods now seemingly so firmly set on Alonso’s sacking, even goals scored by his side offer cause for dismissal.

It’s not a great look for the Spaniard that arguably the greatest casualty of his reign, somewhat bizarrely given his level of work-rate in comparison to the forward alternatives, opened the scoring for Real Madrid.

Rodrygo’s first touch from Bellingham’s zipped pass while running at full pace was superb, as was his arrowed finish across Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Madridistas, preying on any means to criticise the manager they want out of their club, will have questioned why this was just his fifth start of the season, if not immediately after celebrating his opener then while the rest of the game unravelled for Los Blancos.

Bellingham spurned perhaps their best chance to secure a point, lifting his dink agonisingly over the bar when played through expertly by Rodrgyo, but the low level of pressure exerted on Donnarumma’s goal was evident through City finishing this game with an xG of 2.58 compared to Madrid’s 1.44.

There were signs of fight from the home side and Alonso can be afforded the caveat of not having Kylian Mbappe and several other high-profile players for this game, but on the back of an ’emergency meeting’ held by the Madrid bosses after the defeat to Celta Vigo and suggestions from Spanish journalists that he was gone no matter the result here, Alonso’s tenure is surely at end after defeat.

“He’s dead,” those reporters insisted, as his modern approach – entirely at odds with the ‘let them play’ philosophies of the less interventionist and ludicrously successful predecessors Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane – has created a “toxic” environment where the players on the pitch are “not a team”.

And though there were signs of individuals playing for their manager, they did still look like individuals, beaten by a City side which barely got out of second gear to get the better of them and condemn Alonso.