
La Liga’s decline is an established reality; this season, both Real Madrid and Barcelona are not very powerful. Yet, Barcelona manages to both concede and score, whereas Real Madrid concedes but finds it hard to score. Alonso’s offensive strategy depends excessively on Mbappé’s scoring, and the weak firepower from the team’s second highest scorer makes the attack overly singular.
In the sixth round of the Champions League group stage, Real Madrid lost 1-2 at home to Manchester City in a comeback defeat. Mbappé was absent, and the Ballon d’Or winner Vinícius started and played the entire match but failed to score, extending his goal drought to 12 games. Vinícius has now gone two months without finding the net.
According to statistics, Real Madrid’s top scorer this season is Mbappé with 25 goals across all competitions, but the second top scorer Vinícius has only scored 5 goals. As the leading club in the Big Five leagues, having the second top scorer with just 5 goals after more than a third of the season highlights problems in Alonso’s tactical setup. Mbappé scores intensively but doesn’t track back, making it difficult for other players to score. If Real Madrid doesn’t change this, they risk ending the season empty-handed. Losing points to mid- and lower-table teams in La Liga has cost them dearly, dropping 9 points in the last 5 rounds and falling 4 points behind Barcelona. In the Champions League, they lost to Liverpool and Manchester City in tough matches. If Alonso cannot diversify Real Madrid’s attack, the team’s results will not improve, and his dismissal will be inevitable.