Real Madrid firing Alonso would be easy. Replacing him? Much harder

Real Madrid's stodgy but vital 2-1 win at Alavés on Sunday should have been just what the doctor ordered for embattled, under-fire coach Xabi Alonso. With only two wins in their previous eight games -- one in LaLiga and one in the UEFA Champions League -- the club's patience had already reached a breaking point.

Kylian Mbappé returning to the team at Mendizorroza to score his 26th goal in 22 matches, the previously "missing in action" Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo combining to produce the winner, and a successful debut for 19-year-old youth-team product Víctor Valdepeñas at left back, during a crisis of nine first-team players being injured or suspended, should have calmed the storm.

But that's not how things operate on Planet Madrid.

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The Spanish media have felt so heavily briefed in the lead-up to that tricky test in the Basque country that Alonso's team simply winning wouldn't be enough for him to remain in his post that there was a "ho hum, so what?" reaction to the way Los Blancos claimed victory -- specifically the quality of their play in the second half.

In his match report for Diario AS, Luis Nieto wrote that "it's impossible to say how long Xabi Alonso will cling to his position, but the match at Mendizorroza, result aside, won't help his chances," while Marca's Juan Ignacio Garcia-Ochoa wrote: "Xabi Alonso is suffering. A lot ... He had a terrible time at Mendizorroza. Alavés equalized, and every minute felt like a death sentence, living with the feeling that his job was slipping away."

In fairness, all the sports media reported that there continues to be a new unity between the embattled coach and one-time rebel Vini Jr., that Alonso has somehow revitalized Rodrygo (with his second goal in two matches). But across papers, television and particularly radio there's a level of discontent with how Los Blancos are playing which refuses to die down.

The terms of survival -- even though club president Florentino Pérez hasn't come out and announced them publicly -- are clear. if there is any kind of slip-up against lowly third-division Talavera in the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, at home to Sevilla on Saturday or to Real Betis after the winter break then Alonso won't make it to the Spanish Supercopa, held in Saudi Arabia from Jan. 7-11.

And it's there that heaven or hell beckons. If the 43-year-old coach, who won all there is to win in his playing career and then made history by making Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga champions for the first time, can beat Atlético Madrid in the semifinal and either Barcelona or Athletic Club in the final, then he'll finally be left alone to do his job until the end of the season.

But to come home without a trophy? Alonso will almost certainly be sacked.

What horrible conditions in which to cope with a brutal injury crisis (Éder Militão, Dani Carvajal, David Alaba, Eduardo Camavinga, Ferland Mendy and Trent Alexander-Arnold all out, plus Álvaro Carreras and Fran García suspended) as he tried to get his stubborn, ego-filled squad to produce not only wins, but flowing, dominant football.

But those are Alonso's problems. Madrid's problems run deeper. Which is why there is zero guarantee that removing Alonso, who only took charge at the end of last season, is the adequate answer.

Firstly, who to hire, and how could they avoid the eternal "out of the frying pan into the fire" dilemma? The dream appointment is Zinedine Zidane. He's probably the greatest single icon of Pérez's entire reign, which dates back across two spells to 2000. Zidane has style, class and grit, and he was serial winner with Madrid as both player and coach ... but he has long been dedicated to taking over from Didier Deschamps as France coach after the FIFA World Cup next summer.

He can have no interest in becoming a six-month fireman for Florentino: arriving midseason as he did once before, reacquainting himself with a baying media that he previously accused of trying to get him sacked, and then potentially heading off to take charge of Les Bleus with his reputation sullied or outright damaged if Madrid continue to underperform once he takes over.

Next in the frame? Jürgen Klopp. The German has long made it crystal clear that he is dedicated to his current executive role with the Red Bull sports group and that he's going to fulfil a promise to his wife, made during the tough times at Liverpool, that they travel the world and reap the benefits of his hard-won success.

The standby option: Álvaro Arbeloa. A spiky, controversial but currently successful Madrid academy coach who had a trophy-laden career as a defender with Madrid and Spain, and who has landed a fistful of trophies coaching in Los Blancos' junior divisions.

But with Madrid's president ever attentive to media vituperation, it was interesting to hear the high-profile and outspoken radio commentator, Antonio Romero, savaging Arbeloa live on radio from the media tribune before the Alavés game on Sunday.

He said: "Álvaro Arbeloa is undoubtedly the most hyped youth-team coach in Real Madrid's recent history. The kind of guy who, during José Mourinho's time, abandoned many of his teammates in order to curry favor with that coach, whose antics were widely appreciated at the club.

"Since then, Arbeloa has become a favorite of the Real Madrid president, his staff, and a segment of the Real Madrid fanbase. This stems from his previous ingratiating himself with Mourinho."

He added: "Unless Florentino Pérez has an ace up his sleeve, the man they are going to have to promote, the only one currently on the table, because he's a protected protégé of the club; there are no others. Whether he becomes a top-level coach or not, for now, the thing Arbeloa has most excelled at during his time at the club is in building relationships with those in charge."

There's a widespread feeling that whoever is coaching Los Blancos suffers from the problem that their ex-player, Gareth Bale, recently summed up by telling CBS: "I think everybody knows at Real Madrid it's about managing players sometimes rather than just tactics." In other words: calm, persuasive, ego-wrangling gurus are more likely to succeed than some hotshot full of ideas. Alonso has been learning this in-post, and it has been brutal.

The evidence is there: Rafa Benítez and Julen Lopetegui are two coaches renowned for their interventionist, infinite-detail, micromanaging tactical approach. They lasted, respectively, six and three months in charge at the Bernabéu. Meanwhile, renowned player whisperers, benign dictators and gentle-hand-on-the-tiller leaders such as Vicente del Bosque, Carlo Ancelotti and Zidane racked up year after glorious year and won a flood of trophies at the club without being tactical zealots.

Where are the new equivalents of those men? Few and far between. Mourinho isn't a benign dictator or a gentle-hand-on-the-tiller kind of guy, but he and Pérez clicked and he's certainly someone who toys with the psychology of a squad more than he tinkers with tactics. Might Benfica need to prepare themselves for an approach from the club they face in January's Champions League showdown matches?

Alonso comes from the group that includes Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, Thomas Tuchel, Unai Emery, Luis Enrique and their ilk. Does Arbeloa? It looks like we might discover that soon -- unless Alonso and his suddenly defiant squad can Houdini their way out of their current predicament as president Florentino hovers with his thumb ready to be turned downward like the old Roman emperors did in the Coliseum.

Best of luck, Xabi.