When Real Madrid appointed Alvaro Arbeloa in lieu of Xabi Alonso mid-season, there was little hope or optimism for a turnaround. The club churned in one of its worst seasons in modern history two seasons ago, under Carlo Ancelotti. One season later, they turned to Alonso, an entirely different kind of manager, to fix the problems and bring in a new vision.
That experiment lasted half a season. So, there was little optimism when he was sacked. If both Ancelotti — one of the greatest managers in football
history — and Alonso — a club legend and up-and-coming tactician — couldn’t make it work, how could a Castilla manager with no experience be the man to turn the sinking ship around?
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It will be fascinating to see where Arbeloa will be this summer. How successful will he be in the next two months? Does he pull off a major title? Whatever you think about him, if he does that, it will be impressive — especially with the amount of injuries he’s had to navigate, and because he was asked to put out a raging fire in a house that was up in flames.
If he does win the league or the Champions League, it wouldn’t make sense sacking him. If he comes up short in both, but the process is promising by the end of the campaign, there’s still a chance he stays — especially if the players back him. (And by all accounts, the players do back him.)
Since taking over, Arbeloa amassed nearly as many losses as Alonso in just over a month. It’s hard to blame him for any of that, and even if he fails by May, it’s hard to blame him even for that, really. In many ways, the club saw him as a transitory piece — almost addition by subtraction because club president Florentino Perez was done with Alonso. But transitory coaches always have a chance to prove themselves. They are trying out for a permanent position.
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Say what you want about Arbeloa, but he’s done a lot of good things since taking over from Castilla. In a short time, he has done what Alonso couldn’t: spark the individual brilliance of his best players. Noticeably, Valverde and Vinicius have improved. Arbeloa has also quietly put together some interesting tactical principles, with a lot of great strategic counter-pressing and advanced positioning of the midfielders who are making runs into the box to compensate for the lack of targets that exist (due to not having a traditional striker). Valverde, Tchouameni, and Thiago Pitarch are occupying center-backs; Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold are making constant overloads and underloads — and he’s even gotten Fran Garcia to be efficient at the same thing. Defensive lines are finally starting to sweat playing against this team, dealing with numbers and pressure. It’s more unpredictable now, more difficult to defend.
Another huge positive that’s put Arbeloa in the black: his trust in the youth academy. Arbeloa has been decimated with injuries throughout the squad. He hasn’t complained, and instead, gone full throttle trusting Castilla. He’s treating the ‘kids’ as if they are established veterans with master keys in their pockets.
“I think I can die happy after a night like tonight,” Arbeloa said fielding six academy players under the age of 21 (for the first time in Real Madrid history) in the 4 – 1 win over Elche. “For someone who came through the youth ranks and made it to the first team after spending many years in the academy”
Arbeloa has started Pitarch against Manchester City twice, while getting really impressive minutes from Cesar Palacios, Diego Aguado, Daniel Yañez, and Manuel Angel. Probably the only reason players like David Jimenez and Cestero are not playing more is because those positions are covered a little bit better, and, because Castilla needs them. (Arbeloa pretty much called up the entire Castilla mainstay for the game against Elche, while Castilla was left without many of their best players — and still won 4-0 on the same day!)
Arbeloa has gotten creative compensating for the absences of Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, and Rodrygo Goes. Namely, he’s unleashed Valverde into a free role. The Uruguayan has scored four golazos in two games; and somehow that’s underselling him. He’s been even better than that description. Valverde’s off-ball movement broke City over and over again, gave his teammates solutions, and there’s no need to wax lyrical about his defense more than we already have. He’s a one-man machine playing in three different positions.
“Yeah, I think so,” Arbeloa said when I asked him if it’s challenging to keep Valverde in those attacking zones (where he’s unstoppable) when other attacking stars come back. “Fede can play anywhere, and, wherever he plays, he plays really well. And now I think he’s playing at his best. He can score goals, he can run, and he has this freedom to move in the field — and I think when Mbappe or Jude Bellingham come back with the team, we will need this version of Fede.”
If I had to bet, I think Real Madrid can get the attacking version of Fede, even when Mbappe and Bellingham return. I would go even further: I think you can get Bellingham in those attacking zones as well.
Of course, with Mbappe back, you’re probably not going to get hat-tricks from Valverde and Bellingham, but you will still see them in threatening positions in the final third, and this guess is based on how Arbeloa has used all his midfielders of late: With intent to give the team numerical superiority in and around the opponents’ box.
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This is a naive take, but one that I have, and at least I’m admitting that I’m naive about it: We haven’t really seen how Arbeloa’s team would function with everyone healthy, and with stars returning now that he’s learned from some mistakes. One interesting thing about Arbeloa is that he is not stubborn about his own ideas. If something doesn’t work, he doesn’t go back to it; if he sees something that needs to be changed, he’ll change it early. He does not ‘overthink’. He has a good balance of simplicity in his tactics while understanding how to give opponents’ headaches and working with his own players to find a vision that suits everyone.
There is another obvious argument against my naivety: We really shouldn’t measure how good this team is based on what they did against Manchester City — a team they wiped off the field last season before regressing to the mean. Football moves quick. The Getafe game provided doom, now the team is ‘back’. What do Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid have in store for this rollercoaster?
But things have slowly started to stack up positively. Two players who Real Madrid really needed to step up in the absences of Bellingham and Militao have been Güler and Huijsen. Güler had struggled getting to his best initially with Arbeloa; Huijsen regressed since the Club World Cup.
But both look great now. Güler was instrumental escaping pressure against City at the Eithad; while Huijsen looks like the Huijsen that Real Madrid thought they signed: A composed ball-playing center-back who plays vertically both with his passing and ball carrying.
“We knew that Manchester City were going to press us in the first 15-20 minutes,” Arbeloa told me after the second leg. “And obviously they created some chances. We needed to keep the ball a little bit more. It’s not easy when you don’t have these experienced players. But I think players like Huijsen, or Arda Güler, or even Thiago — they made a great impact in the team. Obviously they are growing. They are getting some experience with these types of games, so I’m really happy. We are a young squad, we know that. But we are brave and we are going to face Bayern Munich with a lot of confidence.”
Güler is starting to prove he can play in deeper zones —which was a big question mark for people. In order for this team to function, one of Bellingham or Güler will have to be deeper than the other. But sometimes we also overcomplicate it. If both can prove they are capable of interchanging with each other or co-existing in the same line, they can still both thrive. Güler was often deeper than all three of Pitarch, Tchouameni, and Valverde throughout different game states over the two legs vs City. Bellingham is one of the most versatile players in the world and can slot in to those positions easily.
Can Arbeloa juggle accordingly with Mbappe and Bellingham (soon to be) back?
