Alonso’s Real Madrid starts La Liga with fresh energy and ambitious football

Real Madrid, with various new signing sessions, approaches the new season with Fresh Hope under recently appointed coach Xabi Alonso, looking for the page to a disappointing end of the Carlo Ancelotti era with «ambitious» football.

Former Liverpool and Los Blancos midfielder Alonso saw this summer at the Club World Cup in the United States. There is enough work to do, as Paris Saint-Germain Madrid has hit 4-0 in the semi-final.

«Things will be different … We will start all over again,» said Alonso, although some of his findings from the tournament will undoubtedly influence his approach.

Madrid fans also received their first glimpse of the plans of the Basque tactician, and also from England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Alonso showed tactical flexibility and used both a four-man and three-man defense, while his predecessor Ancelotti tended to stay at the back and was criticized because he was not adaptive enough in games.

Alonso, on the other hand, wanted to adjust things during matches if he could, including the positioning of his players, and would like to impress his team, they all have to help defensively and with printing.

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«We have and want everyone to defend – the 11 players on the field must be involved defensively,» said Alonso during the tournament, specifically asked about Star Forwards Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe.

«They need to know how we want to press, and without that things will be very complicated,» Alonso continued.

«Vini, Jude (Bellingham), Fede (Valverde), Kylian, who must also improve in the front.»

Alonso wants to get the balance that Ancelotti did not reach last season after the arrival of Mbappe from PSG.

Although the French superstar scored 43 goals under Ancelotti, it was not enough to inspire a Madrid side that ended the season without a big trophy, while Barcelona La Liga lives back as part of a domestic Treble.

Mbappe’s disease with a belly bug kept him out of the group matches of Madrid at the Club World Cup, but at his first start was in the destruction by PSG.

«We must be self -critical, but it will also serve us as a guide for where we should improve,» said Alonso.

If Alonso can find the formula for Mbappe and Vinicius to work together without sacrificing too much from possession, it can still be seen, while Winger Rodrygo is not part of the coach’s plans, play a bit-piece role in the States.

– See you and new faces –

Madrid goes into the season without Luka Modric in the team for the first time in more than ten years, with the experience and quality of the Croatian a big miss for a party that misses some fraud in midfield.

The hope of Los Blancos is that the Turkish playmaker Arda Guler can thrive there and become a player who can control the pace of a game.

«The coach tries to let us have more control over the game, and that’s better for me,» said Guler.

The 20-year-old should have many opportunities to play at the start of the season with Jude Bellingham set aside until mid-October after shoulder surgery to solve a long-term problem.

By that time, new arrival and fellow England International Alexander-Arnold may have settled in the side.

The full-back, which came from Liverpool before the end of his contract, so that he could play at the Club World Cup, adds a further attacking quality to a Madrid team that is full.

Madrid hopes that Dean Huijsen can help solve at the back, while Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono also join, with Los Blancos spending more than 170 million euros ($ 200 million) this summer.

The return of Dani Carvajal from a long-term knee injury is another piece of good news for a Madrid side that needs it after the 2024-25 campaign was more remarkable for the club’s attacks than for success on the field.

Alonso, hoping to play an «ambitious» game with «emotion and energy», wants the world to talk about Real Madrid’s football again.