Real Madrid have grown to become one of the biggest teams in Europe and the world at large. In the past years, they’ve won several Champions Leagues and league trophies in Spain. However, this season could become one of the seasons where they might end trophyless.
Yes, several experts have predicted that Real Madrid could end up without a trophy this season and there’s good reason to believe this. This post has been written to provide factual reason why Real Madrid could end up trophyless in the 2025/2026 season.
Reasons Why Real Madrid Could End Up Trophyless in the 2025/2026 Season
Below are five reasons why Real Madrid will end up trophyless in the 2025/2026 season:
1. Adaptability Struggles
One of the most notable issues about Real Madrid team this season has been their struggles to adapt to a new style of play. For years, the Real Madrid have played under Carlo Ancelloti team which emphasizes counter attack and individual brilliance of teams.
In fact, Carlo Ancelloti tactics was mainly dependent on the kind of teams that they were playing against. As a result, they relied on individual brilliance more to win games. With Xabi Alonso, the style of playing is a little bit different.
He prefers his team to be focused on keeping possession and to be able to remain tactically disciplined throughout any match they played in. In addition, this style of play demands the Real Madrid players to press high and maintain positional awareness at all times.
Now, this is where the struggle lies. Normally, players like Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo are used to playing with freedom in attack. Almost throughout their careers, they have been only been demanded to identify spaces by themselves and run into these spaces.
However, Xabi Alonso brings something different. With him, it’s all about the structure of the team in attack. As a result, these players should be able to maintain structure at all times whether they attack or not. So far, this has limited the players and caused a decline in performance especially from Vinicius and Rodrygo.
2. Overemphasis on Attacking Inputs
Another area where Real Madrid have showed strength is their attacking prowess. However, this strength could lead to their biggest weakness if care is not taken.
Yes, the reason for this is that their attack is mainly dependent on Kylian Mbappe form. When he’s on form, Real Madrid look really unstoppable but when he’s having an off day, it seems everything crumbles.
In this season so far, this area has been exploited by opposition coaches and have worked. For instance, against Celta Vigo this season, Real Madrid attack was neutralized by a low block team. As a result, they struggled to attack and ended up losing the match by 1 goal.
The alarming issue about this is that when this happens, there seem to be a plan B for Xabi Alonso to execute. It begins to look as if Real Madrid whole team just keeps on spamming long balls with the hope of breaking the opposing team and this doesn’t end well for them.
In fact, it had also been noticed that in matches where Kylian Mbappé has been substituted early, Madrid’s attack often disintegrates into possession without purpose. For a team like Real Madrid, this could be like shooting themselves on the leg when tough matches begin to come up.
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3. Declining Midfield Power
Over the years, Real Madrid team are known to be a team that shows strong midfield prowess. They have had players such as Toni Kross, Luka Modric and even Xabi Alonso himself have played in midfield for Real Madrid. For Real Madrid, the midfield is whee they get balance and are able to become dangerous in getting the final passes.
The midfield has helped them to be able to create defense splitting passes which ended up as counter attcks in late minutes of difficult matches.
However, it seems that Real Madrid have become a shadow of their former self when it comes to midfield prowess. Even with the few midfielders left, it seems that they cannot perform high to the standard of Real Madrid level.
For instance, Jude Bellingham has showed flashes of brilliance this season but has struggled with consistency due to injuries and Xabi Alonso’s system. Also, Eduardo Camavinga has gotten reduced minutes this season which has caused him to lose the drive that he had at Real Madrid.
As a result, we’ve seen how opposition midfields with superior physicality have out played Real Madrid effortlessly without stress.
If Real Madrid are thinking of getting their hands on any trophy this season, then they should fix this problems before it becomes more noticeable than it is already is.
4. Insistent Defensive Problems
In many matches this season in the La Liga abd in the UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid have suffered from serious injuries especially to their defensive backline. For example, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s injury had an injury that sidelined him for many months.
Aside from the injury problems, Real Madrid have also had to struggle with defensive problems. In many matches, we’ve seen how Xabi Alonso have used different center back defensive combinations to find a solution to the problems. However, this has led to even more problems for him.
This issue has caused opposition forwards to attack Real Madrid’s defense especially when they face strong teams from the EPL or La Liga. In all of this, Real Madrid’s back line has repeatedly shown difficulty in recovering from attacks of these kinds
Conclusion
Real Madrid 2025/2026 season has been quite a rollercoaster one. In the beginning of the season, they looked formidable in attack and defense. Now, as the season reaches it end, the team has begun to look shaky and it seems that if things don’t go as expected, it could lead to them becoming trophyless at the end of the season. The signs have been highlighted in this article. So, the sooner Xabi Alonso’s led Real Madrid fixes this issue, the better for them.