Could Champions League exit cost Zinedine Zidane his job at Real Madrid?

Things are looking pretty bleak for Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid at the minute. At the time of writing, Los Blancos are third in the La Liga standings, level on points with their El Clásico rivals Barcelona, but some eight points behind their bitter cross-city foes and runaway leaders Atlético Madrid, who also boast a game in hand over Spain’s big two.

It’s certainly going to be a difficult task to retain their La Liga crown now for Real Madrid, and they will look back at the defeats to Cádiz, Valencia, Deportivo Alavés and most recently Levante and wonder how they have found themselves in this predicament.

With a shock defeat to Segunda División B side Alcoyano spelling an end to Madrid’s Copa del Rey campaign, there is a real worry that defeat to Atalanta in the upcoming Champions League Round of 16 could be on the cards, and that would all but ensure that Los Blancos end the 2020/21 season trophyless, far from the standards set by their ever-demanding president Florentino Pérez.

Real Madrid were less than convincing in the group stages of the Champions League, scrapping their way out of a relatively easy group by their standards, and they now face last season’s surprise package Atalanta, who will be hoping to better their quarter-final run of last year.

La Dea arguably don’t pose as much of a threat as they did last season, but group stage victories over Liverpool at Anfield and Ajax in Amsterdam are proof that perhaps they can spring a surprise against Zinedine’s Los Blancos.

The true demise of Real Madrid this season is evident in the 2021 UEFA Champions League odds. Whilst they have the backing of the bookies to progress to the quarter-finals ahead of Atalanta, at around 16/1 they are far from fancied in the outright winner market and are some way behind favourites Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

It’s fair to say that, at this stage, Zizou is fighting for his job. The cup exit to minnows Alcoyano was dubbed as “one of the most embarrassing pages in Real’s history” by Spanish newspaper AS, and La Liga expert Guillem Balague understands that the board are disappointed with Zidane in regard to this season’s dire results and the lack of instructions from the manager.

"He's a legend of the club and they will wait to see how it progresses - they don't want to accelerate that because it's not a guarantee of anything," Balague said.

"But the disappointment is not just because of results, though those have not been good. They lost to Cadiz and Shakhtar Donetsk at home, lost 4-1 against Valencia, lost to Alaves at home, Shakhtar away and Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals of the Super Cup and now Alcoyano as well.

"These are bad results, but the disappointment is more than that. They saw him not giving any instructions at the end of 90 minutes against Alcoyano and no instructions at half-time in extra time. It kind of confirms the lack of instructions players get generally, as their football is mostly based on the quality of the players.”

Of course, the quality on the pitch is the key to how Madrid play. Players of their elite level need little guidance. However, the old guard are getting on a bit now. The likes of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Marcelo and Karim Benzema are all in their 30s, whilst big money moves for the likes of Eden Hazard, Vinícius Júnior and Luka Jovic haven’t worked out.

That aside, quality youngsters like Theo Hernández, Sergio Reguilón and Achraf Hakimi have been moved on, whilst the likes of Martin Ødegaard, Dani Ceballos and Brahim Diaz are regularly loaned rather than integrated into squad.

Defeat to Atalanta would certainly spell the end of Zidane’s second stint at Real Madrid, most likely when the current campaign has been concluded. However, either way it seems the 48-year-old is on borrowed time and the talk of Max Allegri or Raúl taking over at the end of the season is rife.