Why Real Madrid sacking Carlo Ancelotti is a mistake

There is only one club in world football where you could win the UEFA Champions League three times and be sacked twice.

It is, however, the caveat that comes with accepting the job as Real Madrid manager, and despite winning a third European title with the club last season, Carlo Ancelotti is set to be dismissed within 12 months of UEFA Champions League glory once again.

As it did the first time, the dismissal feels like more of a punishment for failure than a desire to move in a new direction. It wasn’t that Ancelotti had suddenly become a bad manager deemed unworthy of the role when he was first sacked, and the fact he’d guided Real to La Decima the previous year mattered little.

It was the failure to deliver a major trophy and losing a European semi-final to Juventus – denying a first El Clasico UEFA Champions League final – meant the club had to take action. That they were so short of potential successors that Rafael Benitez got the job was not a factor.

Five coaches later and Real were back where they started, this time going cap in hand to Don Carlo.

Ancelotti is going to be removed once again and, as it was last time, it may well prove to be a mistake.

In Real Madrid’s defence, this time is slightly different; in Xabi Alonso, they have not just a former player who understands the magnitude of what it is to be a Madridista, they have one of the world’s most promising young coaches.

Dubbed Neverkusen for their inability to win trophies, Bayer Leverkusen didn’t just win the league under Alonso, but did so without losing a single game, also going on to win the DFB Pokal. But for an inspired Atalanta performance in the Europa League final, they’d have gone an entire season unbeaten in all competitions and won three trophies.

Naturally, such an accomplishment put Alonso to the top of a lot of major clubs’ managerial wish lists, with Alonso being seen as Ancelotti’s successor since last season.

• What Xabi Alonso said on Bayer Leverkusen future

Given his age and status as a former player, Alonso will likely get more rope than Benitez (25 games), Julen Lopetegui (14 games) and Santiago Solari (32 games), but he’ll quickly need to get to grips with the job and implement his philosophy on the Real squad.

There’s no denying Alonso is a talented coach and shrewd tactician, but it’s not hard to see it taking time to adjust to his methods, which will be a significant shift from what we’ve seen under Ancelotti.

To accommodate the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham has been forced to play a deeper role, while Mbappe has still wanted to drift to the left side to a position already occupied by Vinicius Jr., and even those minor tactical tweaks have seen Real Madrid perform below the level set last season without Mbappe.

Alonso, should he bring his 3-4-3 system over from Leverkusen, will need to fit some square pegs into round holes, while new additions in key areas are a must.

The width from Alonso’s Leverkusen comes from his wing-backs Alex Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong, while he’ll want three players at the back all capable of playing the ball, and it’s an area where Real already look short of options.

Aurelien Tchouameni has often been deployed at the back this season, while Antonio Rudiger is 32 years old and Lucas Vazquez is nearly 34 years old.

Rudiger would occupy one of the slots, with Ferland Mendy, Tchouameni and Raul Asencio options as wide centre-backs, though it’s an area to strengthen in the summer.

The arrival of Trent Alexander-Arnold would fill one of the wing-back roles, though there’s no obvious player for the left-hand side with Fran Garcia and potentially even Rodrygo asked to play there, though Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez could be a ready-made player for the system.

Federico Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga look like ideal midfielders for Alonso’s system, which would free up Bellingham to play further forward as one of Alonso’s number 10s next to Vinicius Jr with Mbappe once again leading the line.

In an attacking sense, Alonso should be able to squeeze all of his star players in, though it might require slight adjustments, for example Vinicius playing more centrally, Rodrygo playing on the left and in a deeper role, and Mbappe staying centrally, but the key to Alonso being a success at Real Madrid will be getting the buy-in from his attacking stars to press with intensity from the front.

Alonso’s system worked to great effect in his first season, but there are extremely few examples of a three-at-the-back formation working at the elite level of the game over a sustained period of time.

Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea won the UEFA Champions League by playing three at the back, but it wasn’t a system suitable to a league campaign.

Of course, if Alonso can guide them to another European crown, a sub-par La Liga campaign would be seen as an acceptable trade-off.

Failure to win a major trophy this season meant Ancelotti had to go, but there are no guarantees that, despite his unprecedented success in Germany, Alonso will be an instant hit.

It will likely require patience as Alonso attempts to imprint his ideas on the Real Madrid squad, but Real Madrid is a club where patience is in very short supply.

Liam Williams

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