Spanish media: What will Real Madrid be like under Alonso?

With the Club World Cup coming soon, Xavi Alonso is committed to creating his own football style at Real Madrid. Among them, adopting a five-guard system may be one of his potential choices.

Xavi Alonso coaches Real Madrid has become a reality. He is currently fully focused on his first team work and faces the challenge of fully preparing for the upcoming Club World Cup. The young coach hopes to inject his tactical ideas into the team. His previous success at Leverkusen is obvious to all, and now the focus is on whether he will continue to use the five-guard system at the Bernabeu - a formation that was an unchanging core strategy during his time in Germany. There are three weeks left before the first game of the Club World Cup, and the European League's match mission during this period, whether the preliminary construction of the tactical system can be completed within this period will become a key issue.

After Ancelotti left office, Real Madrid exposed the problems of aging lineup and a decline in overall tactical execution. Not only has the personal condition of players like Vinicius and Rodrigo declined significantly, but more importantly, the team lacks clear and unified tactical ideas. This chaos ultimately led to a sluggish performance at the end of the season. Now, with Alonso taking over the coaching staff, the goal of the coaching staff is to reshape Real Madrid's original distinctive competitive characteristics through a series of firm tactical principles. Whether this brand new style of play that has rarely appeared in the Bernabeu before can be successfully implemented is exciting. One of the most eye-catching changes will be the potential introduction of a defensive system with five defenders. This is the tactical structure Alonso is commonly used in Leverkusen, but Real Madrid has hardly tried it in the past decade. Judging from the existing staffing, this possibility is not small. Rudiger, Asensio and Heisen can be the core of the defense, while the two wingbacks may be led by Alexander Arnold and Alvaro Carreras. Their similar style of playing may give coaches greater flexibility to implement this formation.

In addition, high-pressure pressing will also become the key training content in the new system. Last season, Real Madrid was weak in this regard, lacking the awareness of active counter-attack, and also lacking control over the rhythm of the game. In Alonso's philosophy, high-level oppression and ball-handling dominance are indispensable elements. He hopes to improve the strength and efficiency of the team during offense and defense conversion as soon as possible.

A team building model that has been proven to be successful

Alonso has a very shallow coaching experience (compared to Ancelotti), but he has proved that his tactical philosophy is extremely feasible with his results. In just three seasons, he led a team of Leverkusen, who is on the verge of relegation, to a reversal, and in less than two seasons, he quickly grew into a strong team that is only one step away from the historic triple-champion. Under his training, the team not only achieved the unbeaten victory in the Bundesliga, but also won the honor of double championships. The only regret is the loss in the UEFA Cup final. Although he has not coached the top league for a long time, it is enough to show the world that his playing style is indeed effective. Now, this success model will be brought to Real Madrid, one of the most watched clubs in the world. Let's wait and see if it will blossom in Spain.