A setback that reopens old doubts

The “extra life” Xabi Alonso earned in Athens with the hard-fought 4–3 win over Olympiacos barely lasted four days. Sunday’s 1–1 draw in Girona — Madrid’s third consecutive draw in LaLiga — exposed a problem that’s starting to take root: Real Madrid has not only lost the top spot, it has lost its direction.

The contrast is stark. From the adrenaline of the Clásico win, the 4–0 demolition of Valencia, and a run that hinted at stability, Madrid has now fallen into its worst spell of the season: defeat at Anfield, three league draws away from home, and a team far from the clarity and authority Xabi promised back in August.

A project that refuses to take off

After the abrupt collapse at the Club World Cup — the painful 4–0 defeat to PSG — Xabi insisted that his real project would truly begin with the start of LaLiga. But the reality is different: Madrid looks more regressive than evolving.

The team opened the season with seven straight wins, followed by the heavy 5–2 derby loss, then a bounce-back run of six consecutive victories… only to fall again into a slump that puts the spotlight squarely on the manager.

Tactical decisions have not helped. At Anfield, Camavinga as a right winger. At Vallecas, Brahim starting after barely playing in the previous two matches. At Elche, Fran García deployed as a left winger. The experiments continue, but the solutions do not arrive. Even against Olympiacos, the substitutions destabilized the team and nearly cost Madrid the win.

Güler, the substitutions, and an attack without ideas

The most telling episode came in Girona: Arda Güler, arguably Xabi’s biggest personal bet, was substituted at halftime after a quiet first 45 minutes. With the match level, Madrid resorted to endless crosses without an alternative plan. The numbers sum it up: 26 crosses, only three dangerous finishes.

Worse still, Gonzalo García, the natural No. 9 and aerial finisher, came on in the 90th minute — exactly when Trent Alexander-Arnold, the team’s best crosser, was coming off. The lack of coordination in the substitutions was impossible to ignore.

A worrying streak and a defining test ahead

Three straight league matches without a win — Madrid’s worst run since February 2025 — have erased the cushion the team had built. And the schedule offers no respite: this Wednesday, Madrid visit San Mamés, one of the most hostile grounds in LaLiga.

A failure to win could leave Xabi Alonso in genuinely dangerous territory: it would mark the club’s longest winless streak in the league since 2018–19, when Julen Lopetegui’s five-match drought ended with his dismissal after the infamous 5–1 Clásico at the Camp Nou.