This is The Guardian.

Hello and welcome for the Guardian Football Weekly. Is it time up for Jabby Alonzo?

Defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League isn't a disaster, but the writing is on the wall, apparently, for the new Rail Madrid manager.

Are the egos of rail players just too big to listen to tactics? Too good to press. Newcastler minutes away from a big win in Labourcus and while Arsenal win again, some goals from Mad Wake here, Martinelli too. We'll round up the rest of the Champions League action before a Premier League preview. The Tyne Weir Derby is back. and we'll leave plenty of time for Philippe to get stuck into the World Cup draw,

the ticket prices, drinks, breaks and the Ethics Committee.

All that plus your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Barry Glendening, hello. Hi, Max. From the racing post, Mark Langdon. Hi, Max. Bonjour, sa va, Philippe O'Clair. Sa'a very, Max. Bonjour. And, Ola, how'stas? Sid Lowe. Very good, thanks, and you. For Part Uno, Solomente. Anyway, right, let's start at the Bernal then. Real Madrid won, Man City, two, another loss of Real Madrid. One winning their last five in the league, Sid. Their worst run in four and a half years. And, I mean, you was telling me yesterday, Alonzo's basically gone, which from the outside seems kind of mad. Yeah, but it's round Madrid and it's the nature of it. And I think you've got to look slightly beyond the results to, to the mechanics within the dressing room, to the way that they're playing, to the level of performance, to the kind of tensions that you always get at round Madrid. On Sunday night, after they were beaten by Celta de Vigo, and they weren't just beaten, they were pulled about the pitch by Selta Vigo. It was really fascinating to watch actually. There was a meeting at the Bernabelle long into the night, plenty of the people around the president feeling like maybe it's not a bad idea that he gets sacked. There was an inclination to do that then, but there was a decision to hold on in part

to kind of allow, I suppose, this game to be a sort of a judgment, if you like, upon them.

And the difficult thing now is that this game is slightly inconclusive because you can take a

step back from this.

And of course, this is what was happening partly last night and say, well, this is against Manchester City, who are a very, very strong team. You lose two one to a debatable penalty. It doesn't really matter whether it's debatable, but, you know, it wasn't so clear cut as to say, and to say, wow, you know, you got absolutely battered. You hit the bar in the last minute going for a comeback. There was a bit of a reaction from the team. They've got eight players missing through injury.

And so you can create a kind of, if you like, a positive narrative around it. But it's still only now two wins in the last eight games. They've got two more before Christmas. I think I'm right in saying they go away to Alavis this weekend and then play against Severe. plus a cop-a-o-ray game,

which they really shouldn't lose

against third-tier team

Talavera, which is about an hour south. And so there's, there's a huge amount of pressure there. It's that pressure there because of all of those elements, and in particular, of course, because the fault lines are showing. And the fault lines are showing. And, of course, it's always much, much easier, and particularly at a club like Graham Madrid, to replace the manager and the replaced players. I'm going to strip this down to the most simple thing imaginable, which is, if you like, the kind of the mindset that underpins this. And the most simple, simple thing imaginable in terms of that mindset is, there's only one Venetius, but there are loads of managers out there.

Right. Is that simple? I mean, is it just about him? Because this idea, there's this sort of very oversimplified idea that, you know, Real Madrid players have just, they've got such massive egos that they just want to be given a ball and say, off you go, which is sort of what, which is sort of debasing how good Ancelotti was,

unless that's what he did, right?

I think it does. a ball and say, off you go, which is sort of what, which is sort of debasing how good Ancelotti

was, unless that's what he did, right? I think, I think it does debase Ancelotti and I think,

you know, it's kind of incumbent upon it to not always go down that route, but there is a temptation

to do that. And if you look at the managers that have been really successful over the last,

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