How Real Madrid play: Xabi Alonso’s new ideas mean big change for Spanish giants

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Patience is not a word that frequently echoes in the corridors of the Santiago Bernabeu.

The demands of coaching Real Madrid mean that winning silverware is non-negotiable, and even those who do lift a trophy might still find themselves unemployed by the end of that season. Dealing with club politics and dressing-room diplomacy can sometimes be a higher priority than the tactical setup on the pitch, but Xabi Alonso’s arrival in June represents a new dawn in the Spanish capital.

Madrid had traits of ‘Vibes FC’ under predecessor Carlo Ancelotti at times, with the Italian’s quiet leadership meaning he would often empower and trust his players to make their own decisions in games. At their best, Ancelotti’s side was fluid, unpredictable and resilient. At their worst, they were disjointed, clunky, and devoid of ideas in crucial moments.

Alonso does not place the same importance on the individual, gaining plaudits for his coherent patterns of play when constructing a winning machine at Bayer Leverkusen that brought a Bundesliga title for the first time in their history.

The early signs suggest that he is keen to do the same at Madrid, having spoken about building a “team that plays as a unit” during their Club World Cup campaign this summer.

Alonso’s first months at the club have not been the easiest; tasked with winning a global tournament’s inaugural edition while conveying his tactical ideas to players he’d barely met under sweltering matchday conditions in the United States, he was using competitive games as glorified friendlies to experiment with his new squad. As their only actual friendly before the new season, last week’s 4-0 victory over Austrian Bundesliga side WSG Tirol was little more than a good runaround to knock off what little rust may have accumulated since their Club World Cup exit on July 9 — irrespective of the convincing performance.

Still, Alonso’s training sessions have been hands-on, intense and meticulous — including the use of drones overhead to record the action for later analysis. The circumstances might not have been ideal, but Madrid’s new coach has been able to get a head start in working with his squad and learning what more is required for the new season.

“I’m leaving with certainties,” Alonso said after that 4-0 semi-final defeat by Paris Saint-Germain in the States. “This tournament has taught me many things about what we are and what we have to improve. I’m leaving with a perspective for next season, when we will recover players, and there will be changes. Next season will be different, but I leave with clear certainties. I take all the information that this tournament has given me.” 

Expect to see Madrid morph into a team increasingly moulded in Alonso’s image as the season progresses. Some interesting themes emerged from those opening weeks of his tenure, including to do with formation, role switches and attacking conundrums — each of which is worth digging into further.

The obvious question that swirled around Alonso’s arrival was whether he would impose a similar 3-4-3 — or, more specifically, 3-4-2-1 — system that earned him so much success at Leverkusen.

The majority of Madrid’s Club World Cup was spent in a nominal 4-3-3 setup, but Alonso did experiment with a back-three system — midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni dropped in as the middle centre-back, the wing-backs stayed high, and Madrid formed a box midfield — in their final group game against Red Bull Salzburg and last-16 defeat of Juventus.

The early verdicts were mixed. Against Juventus, Madrid struggled to progress the ball against a stubborn defensive shape, with Alonso tweaking Tchouameni’s position in the second half as he advanced into the midfield when in possession.

Such is the fluidity that Alonso wants to instil in his squad, we could see this as a feature of Madrid’s structure, depending on the state of the game concerned. “I think Aurelien can be a hybrid, one way at one stage and another way at another. That richness gives us more options,” Alonso said after that 1-0 win over the Italians.

When Madrid have been strong at working the ball forward, it has often come in two forms.

The first is predicated on the joyous progressive passing of new centre-back Dean Huijsen, who has assimilated seamlessly into the left side of Alonso’s defence. With space to travel with the ball, Huijsen has already shown his tendency to stride forward before playing a searching, threaded pass to Vinicius Junior up front, or perhaps Fran Garcia making a run from left-back.

That left-sided ball progression will be particularly interesting when throwing new €50million (£43.2m; $58.6m) left-back Alvaro Carreras into the equation, with the 22-year-old able to play high as a traditional, marauding full-back or tuck in on the left side of a situational back three himself.

The second method that Alonso used to progress the ball was to have a midfielder dropping in to form a situational back three — allowing his full-backs to have a higher starting position during build-up.

At the Club World Cup, that player was often Arda Guler, who has looked impressive in a deeper role this summer. Guler will either pull to the left side of Madrid’s defence, akin to predecessor Toni Kroos’ well-established recent role when pulling the strings during his illustrious career…

… or Madrid’s centre-backs will pull wider with the Turkey international dropping between them to dictate proceedings and look for a penetrating pass forward from central areas.

Comparing his touches in the United States with those during last season’s La Liga campaign underpins how much more Guler is operating in the heart of the midfield under Alonso than he did doe Ancelotti.

The 20-year-old was earmarked by Ancelotti as the long-term successor to the mercurial Luka Modric (this summer, the 39-year-old joined Milan), and with the technical quality and tempo-setting ability he can offer, it looks likely that a centrally-located Guler will be a regular feature of Madrid’s play this term.

“I agree with Arda that he needs to be close to the ball,” Alonso said ahead of the second group game, against Pachuca of Mexico. “He’s one player that is special because the more touches he has, normally the better he plays himself — and the better the team plays.”

The fluidity of Guler, Tchouameni and Federico Valverde’s roles in and out of possession is likely to be an ongoing theme next season as Alonso looks to break a game down into phases and situations rather than fixed positions.

For Valverde, the Uruguay international had different responsibilities defensively against Borussia Dortmund in the Club World Cup quarter-final, dropping in to form a situational back five and support Trent Alexander-Arnold when out of possession — before Madrid snapped back into a back four when they got the ball.

Alexander-Arnold’s arrival from Liverpool this summer has also offered tactical questions for Alonso to solve when setting up the right side of his attack. There is little doubt that the 26-year-old can be integral in helping with Madrid’s ball progression from the right flank, but his summer performances often had him arriving onto the ball in an isolated zone, which is not quite his game.

Over their six matches in the United States, there were occasions when Madrid overloaded on the left side to leave Alexander-Arnold as the isolated out-ball on the other flank. However, as they had no established right-sided attacker for him to dovetail with, the England international’s strengths were not being maximised. 

This is shown below, as Madrid lure Juventus to one side before switching to Alexander-Arnold — but with no team-mate around him to support, his attempted take-on leads to the move breaking down.

With uncertainty over Rodrygo’s future, Madrid are currently short of right-sided forwards, which might mean that Alexander-Arnold will have to adapt his game slightly in terms of how he arrives into an attack. The €63.2million (£54m) signing of 18-year-old Argentina international Franco Mastantuono from River Plate, who plays on the right wing or as a No 10, brings a new option here, too.

Ironically, Madrid have the opposite issue on the left flank, with Alonso still tasked with finding the optimal method to fit Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe into a coherent unit after some struggles under Ancelotti in year one.

A record-breaking 31 La Liga goals in Mbappe’s debut season would suggest there’s little to worry about, but the skew that Madrid have toward their left flank is palpable. Some 43 per cent of their attacking touches came in their left third of the pitch last season, the highest share of any La Liga side. Not only does that make them more predictable in attack, it can provide more imbalance when Madrid lose the ball — particularly given Vinicius Jr and Mbappe are not players renowned for their defensive work rate.

In Mbappe’s absence during the Club World Cup’s early stages due to acute gastroenteritis, Vinicus Jr was often playing more centrally in a strike partnership with 21-year-old academy product Gonzalo Garcia — allowing wing-back Fran Garcia to maintain the width on the left flank.

As shown below in that final group match with Salzburg, when used in a 5-3-2 system, Vinicius Jr was able to make penetrative runs in behind to arrive on goal, rather than receiving the ball closer to the touchline with more to do.

Those plans were canned after Mbappe’s return to the starting line-up against PSG in the semi-final, with an attack that looked, at best, clunky. Garcia’s prolific stint — scoring four goals and assisting once — meant he retained his place that day, pushing Vinicius Jr to the right side of the attack, with Mbappe on the left.

It was clear that it was an approach doomed to fail from the opening minutes. The lack of attacking coherence was one issue, but the meeting with Luis Enrique’s European champions highlighted how much work Alonso still has to do in creating a robust unit when Madrid are out of possession.

“One thing that is clear to me is that we have to defend (with) all of us — all 11 players have to be involved,” Alonso said in a press conference before the Club World Cup began. “They have to come together and know how to press. Without that, it’ll be very difficult, and that’s why we’re all involved. Vini Jr, (Jude) Bellingham, Valverde, Mbappe, those up top, the defence also has to push. The closer we are, the better distances we will have. The first thing I said: we have to improve the gaps and how we attack and defend.”

Notwithstanding the blistering June and July heat many of those Club World Cup games were played in, the lack of energy from Mbappe and Vinicius Jr meant those gaps were far too easy for PSG to expose as they repeatedly picked Madrid off at will. When instilling an aggressive, player-for-player pressing structure, every team-mate is required to pull in the same direction. If not, those dominoes can fall quickly — as Madrid found out that day.

Tactical improvement looks likely under Alonso, and he has already shown he is willing to make adjustments to his side — both during and between games — to adapt to the qualities of the given opponents and maximise the strengths of his own squad.

Crucially, the task the 43-year-old faces on the domestic and European stage is not to be underestimated. In Spain, Alonso must try to overcome arguably the strongest Barcelona side in a decade, now under the stewardship of Hansi Flick. In Europe, he witnessed the gap in quality first-hand between his side and PSG as the latter dismantled Madrid in that Club World Cup tie just over a month ago, going three goals up inside the first half an hour. 

The to-do list is not short then, but that tournament will have clarified Alonso’s priorities for his new side.

Despite him being such a decorated player in his days at the Bernabeu, sentiment will only go so far — Madrid fans will expect to see an immediate impact under their new head coach.

(Top photo: Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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