It may not have been the most definitive stretch of the season, but it was at least a very difficult one, in which Real Madrid were given a proper test of their abilities. How good is this team now? How strong
are they mentally? Tactically?
Getafe, Juventus, Barcelona, Valencia, Liverpool, Rayo Vallecano. By the time Real Madrid concluded this block before the international break, there shouldn’t have been any obituaries nor any imaginary trophies, one way or another. You could’ve steamrolled them all before collapsing in the spring, or fail miserably now and win trophies in May and June. What we did know, though, is that, by the end of this stretch, we’d have a solid way of measuring how good this team is.
“We’re going to go all the way with this squad,” Xabi Alonso said in the pre-game press conference the day before Real Madrid faced Juventus. “We’re growing and we can play well. We can compete consistently. We have a complete squad with different qualities. We have dynamic players with the potential to develop. My job is to invest in them so they’re better at the end of the season. In two months we’ve seen the development of many. We want to compete now and we’re doing well. With the ambition to keep improving.”
Alonso did not take over the same unified team that existed in the 2023-2024 season. When he arrived, there was a dispirited locker-room that went through the ringer, suffering multiple humiliations the season prior. Some players were low on confidence. There were fragments that needed to be repaired.
One of his biggest tasks was to rekindle Vinicius Jr, the rightful winner of the 2024 Ballon D’or.
“The reason is that Vinicius is very good and fundamental, decisive,” Alonso said when asked whether or not it was his arrival as a manager, and his decision to relieve Vinicius as an undisputed starter that unlocked the Brazilian last month. “I’m happy to see Vinicius enjoying himself, smiling… Before the Getafe match, we talked about the impact he could have and how he could change the game off the bench. We need him to be focused on the game and what he does well. His day-to-day performance is good and he responds very well in games.”
Probably the most striking thing is that after all of this — after Real Madrid just lost one game during the aforementioned difficult stretch — is that there are already talks of a crisis, despite being top of the league.
“I can’t give Xabi Alonso advice,” former Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said in a press conference with Brazil during the international break. “I watch all the Madrid matches because I want to see how the Brazilians are doing and I see the team is doing very well. They have won almost all the matches, but unfortunately in football you can’t always win. Sometimes you have to draw. One thing I learned at Real Madrid is that a draw here is the prelude to a crisis. No jokes. You have to get used to that. We already know that the main evaluation of a coach is the results, and so far the results have been spectacular. Leading the league and among the top eight in the Champions League. What more can we ask of Xabi? I see a solid team, especially in defense, and very effective upfront. Mbappé is doing very well and Bellingham is back. I think Xabi can succeed without any problem,”
How many more reminders do we need that Xabi Alonso’s project has just begun? By the time Real Madrid concluded their 4 – 0 win over Valencia, they had officially cemented their best start to a La Liga season in 64 years. Not Zinedine Zidane, not Carlo Ancelotti, not Vicente del Bosque, nor Jose Mourinho achieved the feat — you’d have to go all the way back to Miguel Muñoz, who ran rampant in the 1961-1962 season with one of the best football squads ever assembled.
Again, Alonso’s start to the season is not a definitive claim to greatness. It will be meaningless if it ends without trophies. But the point is this: the truth about Real Madrid is somewhere in the middle. On one extreme it’s DEFCON 1 — a lost dressing room full of egos and a manager who is not respected (false), and on the other end, it’s a team loading its first ever treble. Neither of these scenarios are true.
Sometimes we’re too blinded to see the middle ground, where the truth really lies. Real Madrid have to improve against elite opposition who play with high intensity, and until proven otherwise, they are not on the level of teams like PSG, Bayern Munich, or Arsenal. On the other hand, Alonso has raised the team’s floor, improved the team’s press, has got his attacking stars to buy in to defensive effort, and is building something that will gradually improve over time.
He has yet to figure out his best XI and formation. He will chalk that up to “adaptability” — that Real Madrid have different looks and a “big squad”.
But at some point he will have to land on something. The challenge will be keeping everyone in rhythm — including those who are frozen out. Dani Ceballos has barely cracked 300 minutes in La Liga. Rodrygo and Brahim Diaz are both under 300 minutes. Gonzalo Garcia is under 100. Endrick has just 12.
Part of the issue with their lack of playing time (and they’re all capable players who are good enough to contribute) is that they’re going to come in cold when you need them. Such was the case when Rodrygo was thrown on the field on the right wing in Anfield.
Kylian Mbappe has racked up over 1000 minutes in the league. It took Alonso 85 minutes to take the Frenchman off in the 4-0 bloodbath against Valencia. Valuable minutes for Gonzalo Garcia were on the table.
“It’s a matter of quality of the individual players,” Alonso said to me the day before Clasico when asked about whether or not there are times where Real Madrid need a target in the box, especially after the team made such good use of Gonzalo Garcia in the Club World Cup. “We have another kind of striker with much more mobility, accuracy with his passing, accuracy with his movements…. And we need to use that. But, we know that we need to be flexible to choose another approach in another game, and the squad is big enough for that.”
The pressure to play Gonzalo Garcia more (which seems silly to state, given that there is generally no pressure to field players from La Fabrica, and more pressure to field expensive stars) will likely mount as the season progresses. Gonzalo’s profile is often exactly what Real Madrid need on the field, and with Trent Alexander-Arnold — one of the greatest crossers of his generation — back, you have to wonder how so many creators can be deployed together without someone to consistently create for.
Alonso has many challenges. Many of those challenges are tactical — but many of them are not. Keeping the squad harmonized and making sure the players feel an important part of the project is at the top of the list.
