On Monday, May 26, Xabi Alonso said in his presentation as a new white coach, a phrase that will chase him if he fails to meet her. As ambitious as necessary, as long as dangerous. “I want the team to transmit energy and emotion. That people say: 'That is Real Madrid'. The challenge is to get the potential from the template. We all go to one. If we turn on that, we will have a very powerful force.” For 22 days he seemed to have achieved it, until on July 9 everything fell apart before the PSG, the best team in Europe.
Florentino's obligation with the World Cup
The Basque coach started working without players. He locked himself in Valdebebas with his 'staff' to draw a fast plan that allowed Real Madrid to face the Club World Cup with guarantees. A tournament that was marked in red on the calendar by Florentino Pérez. “In this club we always want more. We are excited to face the US Club World Cup. I am convinced that our players are going to leave the soul to get what would be the third title of the season, “the president ambitioned on June 8.
For the highest white president, it was an obsession that, as happened with the European Cup, Real Madrid was the first to win a tournament that will win prestige with the passage of editions. That is celebrated every four years and that implies, really, all continents, gives you a value that in principle only knew how to give the Madrid entity. It was the way to cover up the blows received in a season in which, although Florentino speaks of two titles – the Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup – knows that they are only two minor glasses for a showcase that has been empty.
“This is not the starting point of the next season. There are positive things in this process, the same not today. But it is not the beginning of the next campaign, it is the end of the previous“, Xabi Alonso wanted to protect himself, aware that of all possible scenarios, the only one who cannot afford Real Madrid is a 4-0 in which he was light years of his rival. The win was so blunt that he threw on the ground the illusion that had been achieved in the previous weeks, where the Basque project had gained credit after each match.
Gonzalo, the one who best understood Xabi Alonso
The debut against Hilal had two faces, with an initial proposal of continuity with respect to Ancelotti that Xabi Alonso corrected in the second half. On 4-3-3, with which he also claudicated in front of the PSG, It can never be the system of a team unable to fulfill the maximum that Tolosarra himself promised in his long setting. “We look for a collective sense in the pressure and beginning of the ball. That will give us stability and allow us to take out the individual qualities.” Without block and attitude, its method lacks practical effectiveness.
That is why it was as important for him to find a player as committed as Gonzalo. Together with the incombustible Valverde, he has been the best man of the Club World Cup, where players such as Rodrygo have been indicated. The Brazilian started in the initial encounter against the Saudi squad and from there disappeared. He has already understood that he has the open door of torque. Raúl Asencio also threw everything built in the ground last campaign and, with a judicial case still open, will be relegated to the last step of the rotation in the axis of the rear.
On the contrary, Xabi Alonso had found a great ally at the exit of the ball like Dean Huijsen. Until his expulsion in the quarterfinals against Borussia Dortmund was the beginning of the end of Real Madrid in the tournament. From the PSG outrage, the most positive conclusion that the former Madrid player takes out is that Militao is better central than the Canary and Rüdiger. Although he had more than 243 days of inactivity, after the serious second consecutive injury he suffered, the Brazilian, in just half an hour, showed that he must form with Huijsen the head couple of Madrid.
Mbappé and vinicius, incompatible with pressure
Asencio's expulsion against Pachuca brought the most interventionist Xabi Alonso. He reorganized the team after the hydration pause and developed a 4-4-1 with Punta Vinicius that passed over the Mexican team. The luxury was already resolved, to introduce, for the first time, the defense with three centrals that would already apply fully against Juventus. In front of the Italian painting he went back to Tchouaméni, who, depending on Lebero, feels more comfortable than tied to a scheme of two centrals.
For the base of the play, Xabi Alonso trusted his initial destiny in Arda Güler, but as soon as he unprotected him, removing Valverde, by obligation, in front of the PSG, the Turk got rid like a sugar. Real Madrid escaped the only player who could have forgotten Kroos in the medium term: Martín Zubimendi, a player who idolize the Basque coach. With the already agitated market, the white team still has the same as a problem that originated German's early retirement. Although the biggest problem for Xabi Alonso is, paradoxically, in his best men.
Mbappé got out of the map of the group stage by a stomach virus. He gradually entered until against the French team, Xabi Alonso did not dare to sit or Vinicius. With both of Liza, Real Madrid lost the sense of pressure. In addition, the 4-3-3 decompensated the game in the center of the countryside, where Luis Enrique currently has the best players in the world: Vitinha, Joao Neves y Fabián. But they are his creations, hence the request of Xabi Alonso to have a creator can be responding to a “with this we have enough.”
More than 95% support in each US field
Beyond the return of Militao and Carvajal, the great news for Real Madrid, or rather for FIFA, was the pull that the club has in the US, where all the games played at home. He did it with an overwhelming majority, to the point that the capacity of the fields of the cities in which he played (Miami, Philadelphia, Charlotte and New Jersey) was always 95% in his favor. With more than 67,000 inhabitants, he was the only one of the 32 participants that hung the 'Sold Out' poster, with more than 67,000 average spectators.
They were the ones who put on their side when Kolo Muani failed before Courtois a hand in hand in eighth or when the Belgian goalkeeper himself prevented Borussia from taking the rooms to the extension. This was the most serious warning that ended up becoming a threat of death against PSG. Luis Enrique minimized Xabi Alonso in his first confrontation. Suddenly, the drones, the video sessions and the tactical flexibility that allowed him to move from 5-3-2 to a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 easily became an amalgam of lines in which no one moved with criteria.
“In football you have to be flexible, dynamic. I want us to choose the moments, that we have control with the ball and without it. That we handle the different contexts, achieve a proactive game and with initiative”, He ambitioned the day that an adventure began that began with enthusiasm and that, after the non -achievement of the Club World Cup, has ended in disappointment. A bitter sensation that is not cured with rest, such as the one that the players will now have, but with work.
