Liverpool's Alonso Dilemma: Assessing the Risks of a Coaching Change

Arne Slot was supposed to be the next long-term architect at Anfield. A title in his first season, a contract through 2027, a sense that Liverpool had moved seamlessly into a new era. That illusion has evaporated in less than a year.

After a catastrophic 2025-26 campaign, the club finds itself staring at a decision it never expected to make so soon: whether to cut loose a Premier League-winning coach and turn to Xabi Alonso – a legend on Merseyside, but a man still carrying the scars of a brutal spell at Real Madrid.

Slot under pressure as season unravels

The numbers are damning. More than €400 million spent, and Liverpool look nothing like champions. The defence of their Premier League crown has collapsed; they sit 20 points behind leaders Arsenal, marooned in fourth and nowhere near a title race.

The cup record is even harder to stomach for a club that has built its modern identity on big European nights and domestic finals. Out of the Champions League early. Out of the FA Cup early. Out of the League Cup early. No momentum, no trophies, no sense of direction.

Slot’s football, once hailed as the fresh, high-energy evolution of the Klopp era, now faces relentless criticism. Not just tactical debates, but fierce, often scathing assessments of his methods and in-game management. English media reports suggest Liverpool’s hierarchy are no longer treating this as a blip. They are at least considering a change.

And when Liverpool consider a change, one name inevitably rises above the rest.

Alonso: adored at Anfield, questioned in Madrid

Xabi Alonso has long been seen as the natural heir to the Liverpool dugout. His intelligence, his history at the club, his tactical reputation – all of it made him the presumed front-runner for the LFC hot seat.

But Liverpool, according to AS, are no longer looking at Alonso through the lens of nostalgia. Before they entrust him with a fragile squad and a restless fanbase, they want to know why his time at Real Madrid ended in such spectacular failure.

The story from Spain is not pretty.

Multiple reports describe a fractured Madrid dressing room under Alonso. What began as a project to modernise the team’s structure and style quickly turned into a power struggle. By October, the tension had spilled into the open.

Key figures such as Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde openly criticised Alonso’s approach. They bristled at the long tactical meetings, the heavy video analysis, the attempt to reshape habits that had been formed under Carlo Ancelotti. Sessions grew longer. Tempers shorter.

Yet the dressing room was not united against him. Another group of players backed Alonso’s methods and his attempt to overhaul the system. They saw the complaints, particularly from Vinicius, as something else: frustration from a star whose role and influence no longer matched what he had enjoyed under Ancelotti.

The result was a split right down the middle of one of the most powerful squads in world football.

Disrespect, revolt and a coach left exposed

What followed went beyond the usual grumbling about a demanding coach. Reports from Spain describe behaviour that crossed the line into outright disrespect.

Some players, it is said, pretended to fall asleep during tactical sessions. Others chatted while Alonso spoke, ignoring instructions, undermining his authority in front of the group. For a coach trying to impose structure and discipline, it was a direct challenge.

Those antics infuriated the players who still backed him. They also pushed Alonso himself to the edge. According to reports, he finally snapped in one meeting, stunned by what he was facing.

“I didn’t realise I’d walked into a nursery here,” he is said to have shouted.

By the time the dust settled, Alonso was out. Madrid moved on. He remains without a club.

Liverpool’s risk calculation

This is the dossier Liverpool are now studying. On one side: a beloved former midfielder with a sharp tactical mind and a clear idea of how he wants his teams to play. On the other: a recent, high-profile collapse at a club where player power and dressing-room politics swallowed his project whole.

Anfield is not the Bernabéu. The culture is different, the expectations shaped in another way. Yet the stakes are no less severe. Liverpool are in a fragile state after a season that has shredded confidence and exposed fault lines in the squad.

Slot still has time on his contract and a title already on his CV. But contracts do not protect managers when the mood turns and the results keep sliding. The question inside Liverpool now is not only whether Alonso is the right man – but whether this is the right moment to hand him a squad that has already chewed up one season’s plan.

If the club decide to move, they will be betting that the Madrid experience hardened Alonso rather than broke him.

If they hesitate, it will be because they fear that what happened in Spain could happen again – this time in a dressing room that once sang his name.