Real Madrid players are reported to be divided over manager Xabi Alonso, who has struggled to win over the full team despite still being well placed in both La Liga and the Champions League so far in 2025–26.
After the disappointment of last season resulted in the exit of modern Bernabéu legend Carlo Ancelotti, Alonso’s hiring was billed as a great ‘homecoming’ for the honorary Madridista.
The former Spain international won it all during five years as a player from 2009 to 2014 and had established himself as one of Europe’s top young managers following his time in charge of Bayer Leverkusen that delivered unprecedented success for the German club.
Alonso took over a new-look team in transition ahead of the Club World Cup—eliminated at the semifinal stage—but still began the new campaign with 13 wins from 14 matches. Things have gone south over the past month, taking a 1–0 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League and then drawing three consecutive La Liga fixtures to fall behind Barcelona in the standings.
Yet there have grumblings about Alonso for longer than that.
writes that a “mix of players” currently remain “unconvinced” about the 44-year-old’s methods. However, others feel the manager is not the one to blame for the sudden malaise.
Tensions within the squad have been rumored all season and the same report notes that Alonso’s “messages are not getting through to the players,” which has obvious consequences. It is also suggested that there are certain players who are “incompatible” with each other, with a source present at Valdebebas on a daily basis last season claiming that creating a balanced team that includes Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham is “impossible.”
Ancelotti managed to achieve great success in 2023–24 when Vinicius Jr and Bellingham were working in tandem, winning both the Champions League and La Liga in a relatively rare double. But Mbappé’s arrival that summer meant there had to be changes and things never quite worked.
It seems like those issues haven’t been resolved, with Mbappé still scoring goals but neither of the other two performing like they had done previously. The friction between Alonso and Vinicius Jr in particular has been well documented, with the Brazilian frustrated by his lesser role and reported to be refusing to sign a new contract while his relationship with the manager remains poor.
It clearly hasn’t helped that Alonso has recently been forced to play without Antonio Rüdiger, Éder Militão, David Alaba and Dani Carvajal due to various injuries, contributing to conceding seven goals in the last five matches and compounding the issues with attacking chemistry.
