Last Sunday, Xabi Alonso was finally going to see all his players together for the first time, just four days before Real Madrid’s debut in the Club World Cup against Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal on Wednesday. Joining the group were Vinicius, Arda Güler, and Lunin, who had played matches with their national teams on the other side of the Atlantic.
Xabi Alonso will have to clear up his first uncertainties at Real Madrid since the Club World Cup
From last Sunday until this coming Wednesday, there will be three training sessions in the United States before the start of a competition that has sparked interest in the Merengue and which he approaches with a long list of unanswered questions.
And they will have to resolve them with real fire. Everything is moving at breakneck speed at this voracious club. For starters, it remains to be seen exactly how far Carvajal, Militao, Rüdiger, and Alaba have recovered. On Saturday, before the long flight, they completed part of the training session with the group.
The Whites are making their debut with a new coach on the bench and the recent signings of Alexander Arnold and Dean Huijsen. The brand-new Argentine signing, Mastantuono, on the other hand, will not be available for the Club World Cup and will join Xabi Alonso’s ranks in August.
It is a match that should be within the reach of the Tolosa-born coach’s side, in which Real Madrid will show their cards for the first time in a season full of new developments. Despite winning the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, Carlo Ancelotti’s side were far from their best and even too vulnerable in defense at various stages of the season.
He will have to make important decisions in record time
The defense, with an endless series of injuries, was the team’s most punished line last season. It is also the one that has the greatest uncertainty about the level to which the fallen players will be able to return. The Basque coach will have the aforementioned reinforcements in defense, but no signing has arrived for the left wing, as he requested upon his arrival.
This will force the coach to decide whether to resign himself to changing his system to adapt to another one with which he can get ahead with the players he has, or whether he prefers to recycle a player in that position and stick with the 3-4-3 formation he used at Leverkusen.
Xabi Alonso is considering a three-center-back option
The option most likely to be used to start the new era at Real Madrid is the three-center-back system. This is a formation that has brought him great success in Germany and which he is looking to bring to Real Madrid. In this 3-4-2-1 (or 3-5-2) formation, Alexander-Arnold would play as a right wing-back, a position that maximizes his offensive strengths and minimizes his defensive weaknesses.
That is why the club moved quickly after the end of the league season to strengthen the defense and give Alonso more tools to face the World Cup. Last Tuesday, they presented center back Dean Huijsen, who has trained with the team for four days, and on Thursday, right back Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has had two sessions with the rest of the squad.
No room for maneuver and no clear style of play
For all these reasons, Xabi will have to solve problems that will take time to sort out. The first, as we have said, is the lack of room for maneuver. When a coach arrives at a team, what he needs most is time to work and implement his game plan. But this time, the space he has to convey his ideas is more than limited.
Xabi Alonso needs to instill a new style of play, a clear style, something that will not be easy for players who have spent four seasons doing exactly what Ancelotti asked of them. It is a significant change in mentality, but with almost no time to assimilate it, the first official matches are already upon us.
The obligation to let players go without knowing them
At the same time, the former Bayer Leverkusen player will have to deal with some important departures from a squad like Real Madrid’s, which, of course, he does not know in depth. After the new signings, the Madrid coach now has 34 first-team players available for the match against Al-Ahli. Some are in the final stages of recovery from injury. Others are new signings.
In addition, he has numerous youth players to fill in several positions. It is in these areas that Xabi Alonso believes that the transfer window should be closed, but it is not easy because he has not worked with many of his players. It is clear that Real Madrid needs a slightly larger squad than in recent years to be competitive again, as long-term injuries are sure to return. But the team will have to be adjusted. And the coach knows it. The first test will be Al-Ahli in this Club World Cup debut.