The Real Madrid question Xabi Alonso must solve ahead of Club World Cup

Real Madrid have always been driven by star players - can Alonso break the cycle by imposing a tactical ideology to take the club into a new era?

Florentino Perez can already see a new place in history. The Real Madrid president has naturally watched all the archive footage of predecessor Santiago Bernabeu winning the first European Cup, in 1956, and now wants to emulate him by winning the first Club World Cup. Perez has been making grand proclamations about it fitting Madrid’s grandeur, as they prepare for the United States.

In order to do that, however, he also had to face up to the present and the future. He realised Madrid had to change, and not just as regards the identity of the manager. So did the very football identity of the team.

Perez has long been adamant Carlo Ancelotti’s successor had to be Xabi Alonso, mostly on the guidance of his more sophisticated football hierarchy, such as chief scout Juni Calafat. Perez then became even more adamant that Alonso had to take over before the Club World Cup. If Ancelotti had run his course, Madrid had to ensure they were up and running for this unique moment in history. Alonso was willing to accept, on one condition: Madrid had to secure certain signings this summer.

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Alonso will lead Real Madrid into a new era at the Club World Cup (Getty Images)

They haven’t all arrived yet, which adds to the challenge of only having three training sessions with his full squad before the Club World Cup starts.

Through all that, the competition has been given one of its more compelling storylines.

That is whether Alonso can impose a modern tactical ideology on a club that has traditionally been resistant to such thinking. Madrid have been the anti-Barcelona in that sense. They have never been a manager club, let alone an ideology club. As one rival chief executive said, “you almost get the sense they’d rather not have a coach”. Stars have always driven everything at Madrid, and Ancelotti’s facilitation of them was the main reason that he became the longest serving coach, after Bernabeu’s own appointment, Miguel Munoz.

It is perhaps instructive that Munoz, who himself lasted 14 years and won two European Cups, was also one of the club’s great players. He actually scored Madrid's first ever goal in the European Cup, in 1955, and was duly a part of those first champions.

Zinedine Zidane was another along those lines. Despite winning three Champions Leagues as a manager, he was often dismissed as a “clap your hands coach”. In other words, that he just enabled inherent talent. Toni Kroos and Luka Modric were the ones who imposed an ideology. It is at least striking that their partnership totally coincided with Madrid’s modern Champions League era, although it was started with Alonso himself in the Kroos role for 2014.

The 43-year-old, then, is not only a rare ideology manager that Madrid have appointed. He’s a rare ideology manager with the playing stature to back it up.

Alonso takes charge at the Bernabeu having enjoyed an successful career as a player both in Madrid and across Europe (Getty Images)

That is both what is needed at this club to transform their football approach, and what this club has always needed to succeed.

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The 2024-25 season seemed to show that even Ancelotti’s classic approach was less effective, especially now that individualism is not quite the distinctive advantage it used to be.

A certain freedom is returning to a less dogmatic game. Alonso himself typifies a new trend of applying Pep Guardiola principles but with greater pragmatism and adaptability.

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He now has to adapt a system for Madrid’s current stars, but at the point when it looks like a certain egotism has returned to the dressing room and the squad is ill-fitting. The most obvious problem is that the two best attackers, Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe, are also at their best in the same left-forward position.

Alonso’s plan isn’t so much to bypass that problem. Training and analysis session so far indicate that the Basque wants to play a 4-4-2 that can shift into a 3-4-1-2.

Mbappe and Vinicius are intended to be the two. That is why Rodrygo is going to be available for transfer, since there will no longer be a place for such a wide player. Alonso intends for the width to be provided by the full-backs, which is where the signing of Trent Alexander-Arnold makes even more sense.

Alonso must find a way to get the best out of both Mbappe and Vinicius (Getty Images)

If that potentially leaves the two at the back overly exposed, the idea would then be for the central midfielder to drop in. That is in turn why Madrid have been so frustrated at Arsenal advancing on Martin Zubimendi.

It’s all the worse that he’s considered the future of the Spanish national team. Madrid are likely to have to work elsewhere.

While all of this at least starts to make sense on paper, there is obviously so much more to Alonso’s approach than the arrangement of players. What makes that work are the rhythms, the interchanges and the understanding, that take time to instil.

Ismael Garcia Gomez is a Spanish coach currently serving as Galatasaray’s assistant manager, and respected as one of the brightest analysts. He believes it would have been difficult for Madrid to find someone better, especially as regards what they’re doing.

“I expect more tactical discipline and much more control of games,” he says. “The challenge is of course not only to win, but to impose a style that Madrid have never historically had. It’s more like Antonio Conte, or Barcelona, or Manchester City. Alonso will want a style that everyone knows, to say ‘this is Real Madrid’.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold has joined Jude Bellingham at Madrid in time for the Club World Cup (Getty Images)

The great question now is how quickly he can impose this, and to what extent we’ll actually see it at the Club World Cup.

Might the education process necessary - especially at a club that hasn’t had this - even inhibit the chances of fulfilling Perez’s ambition?

That’s the risk the president has taken, which is going to now require even more composure from Alonso.

This is a unique moment in time. The manager has to illustrate he can have a unique effect.

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