Following Real Madrid\u2019s heavy 4\u20130 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semifinals, the conversation around the team\u2019s trajectory under Xabi Alonso has shifted. While the manager remains widely respected and supported, there\u2019s a growing awareness that the challenges ahead are deeper and more complex than initially expected.<\/p>\n
On Carrusel Deportivo, journalist Dani Garrido offered a candid evaluation of Madrid\u2019s performance and where the team stands heading into the preseason.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Real Madrid emerged from the tournament with any sense of clarity, Garrido didn\u2019t hesitate to praise the club\u2019s choice of manager\u2014but also didn\u2019t sugarcoat the situation:<\/p>\n
\u201cXabi Alonso is a fantastic coach, and the club made the right call bringing him in. But the word \u2018clarity\u2019 cuts both ways: it can come from positive signs, or\u2014as Xabi\u2019s tone suggests\u2014from lessons he won\u2019t want to repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garrido criticized Alonso for referring multiple times to the Club World Cup as not the first real title opportunity of the season. While perhaps intended to manage expectations, Garrido believes that stance didn\u2019t sit well with fans expecting more from the competition.<\/p>\n
Still, there were encouraging signs. As Garrido put it:<\/p>\n
\u201cMadridistas have reasons to see some green shoots: Huijsen is coming through, G\u00fcler has shown he can control the tempo and shine, Valverde looks in great form, and Gonzalo continues to impress. But the team still has old problems\u2014no pressing, no intensity, and Vinicius still hasn\u2019t quite found himself. Old problems and a few green shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The discussion since the defeat has often referred back to Madrid\u2019s biggest stars: Vinicius and Kylian Mbappe. Their inability to contribute defensively is a key storyline. Garrido acknowledged it\u2019s a delicate balance, but believes Xabi won\u2019t shy away from tough calls:<\/p>\n
\u201cXabi already had a strong personality as a player. He has very clear ideas and I think he\u2019s well equipped to handle this. He won\u2019t stay silent and he\u2019ll make decisions. He did really well at Leverkusen, but this is Real Madrid. I think he\u2019ll take us close to the line of the drastic\u2014he\u2019s capable of using a soft touch, but when needed, he\u2019ll use the hard one.\u201d<\/p>\n
While fans have been fixated on whether Vini and Mbappe can lead the press, Garrido offered a broader, more sobering perspective:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obvious that the only problem at Real Madrid isn\u2019t that Vini and Mbapp\u00e9 don\u2019t press. We\u2019ve seen some outrageous things at the back. It\u2019s one of the ten or twelve problems this team has.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is plenty for Xabi Alonso to think about in the weeks ahead as he plans for his first full season as Real Madrid manager. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Real Madrid\u2019s heavy 4\u20130 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semifinals, the conversation around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[821,414,8235,10715,8108,424,10714,4392,3977,824,828,403,99,470,659,10716,820],"class_list":["post-10697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-alonso","tag-and","tag-back","tag-clear","tag-down","tag-front-page","tag-has","tag-he","tag-ideas","tag-madrid","tag-managing","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-t","tag-very","tag-won","tag-xabi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}