Xabi Alonso’s response to a dodgy refereeing call has brought the Real Madrid coach some criticism in Spain.
Madrid beat Real Sociedad 2-1 to maintain their perfect LaLiga start, but they had to do it with 10-men as Dean Huijsen was sent off after half and hour.
The Spanish defender took down Mikel Oyarzabal who was about to latch onto a ball over the top, and the official deemed him the last man.
However, Madrid obviously felt that Eder Militao was in a position to prevent a goalscoring opportunity, and that VAR should have been used to overturn the call.
Alonso was very strongly of that opinion, and now footage from Movistar has shown the coach seemingly suggesting bias from the referee.
“Jesus, I don’t want to, but you’re making me think badly, man,” he told Jesús Gil Manzano.
“You’re making me think badly, yes. But haven’t you seen that Militao is next to him? He’s next to him! He’s five meters away from the play!”
Responding to the footage, Cadena SER journalist Yago de Vega said: “It’s a ‘Mourinhada’. I don’t like these things.
“If another coach like Jose Mourinho or Diego Simeone did this, we’d give them a hard time.
“We don’t know his tone because we don’t have the audio. The message he’s sending to a referee is that he’s going to be made to think badly because there’s something against the team.
“I want to see Xabi Alonso when things get tough. It’s not a mix-up; Xabi Alonso is a character who has earned his stripes in the world of football, but I want to see how he handles himself in press conferences, on the pitch… In the first controversial decision that happened, he went to look for the referee.”
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