Xabi Alonso sends storm warning to Mbappe & Vinicius with new tactical plan

Xabi Alonso has always been very clear throughout his coaching career on how he wants his team represented on the field, and that isn’t about to change at Madrid. In only a little over one week as Real Madrid’s new boss, Alonso has brought upon himself to convey same message to the players.

As reported by Spanish publication La_SER, Alonso has made one message clear to the team: “Those who do not run and those who do not make an effort WILL NOT PLAY.” 

The plan is to cancel the reactive mindset of the players, and instill more of a pro-active one. For example, Real Madrid ran around 12km less than Arsenal in that 3-0 defeat at the Emirates. This equals the distance of one player on the field, meaning Real played like they had one man less. Alonso’s idea is to trash such problems.

Alonso demands his strikers to run for every ball.

As per the source, Alonso does not want his attackers to just stand up field waiting for a scoring opportunity. His message to them is this: “It’s not going to be enough to just stay waiting for them to give you the ball so you can score. You’re going to have to RUN FOR EVERY BALL.”

He continued by saying: “You don’t have to run like defenders, but you have to constantly pressure the defense.”  This shot is directly aimed at Mbappe and Vinicius, two players who showed very little defensive actions last season.

According to AS, the Spaniard had a meeting with his staff in his very first days as a Real Madrid head coach. The objective of the meeting was to decide on what aspects to focus on the most. The final message was clear, ‘PRESSING.’

The idea is for the team to be able to win the ball as soon as they lose it. The team has been working on that in every single training session.

The coach doesn’t want his team to sit in a low block in demanding games as they did in recent years. He wants an aggressive high press in trying to win the ball. The desired press structure is expected to be a compact one, as he’s against individual pressing.