Real Madrid Vs Al-Hilal [1-1] Club World Cup 2025: Xabi Alonso’s First Hurdle – Tactical Analysis

The Xabi Alonso era at Real Madrid did not get off to the best of starts, but there were some promising signs in their opening match of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup against Al-Hilal. 

Of course, we have to sit back and remember this is a Club World Cup, and the players, for lack of a better term, looked exhausted playing in the extreme humidity of Miami in June. 

Xabi Alonso demonstrated his versatility during his time at Bayer Leverkusen.

Die Werkself didn’t suddenly become an invincible team overnight.

It took Alonso time to build the foundation and for the players to buy into Leverkusen’s strategy for the team to win multiple trophies.

The same is true about Real Madrid. 

There are also many new players joining Alonso’s Los Blancos.

Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold made their debuts in this match, while Gonzalo García started as a striker, with Kylian Mbappé absent due to illness. 

The biggest question for Xabi Alonso is whether he can turn Real Madrid into an elite pressing team. 

According to Opta, Carlo Ancelotti’s team finished eighth in LaLiga in terms of high turnovers, and on too many occasions, players were not fully committed to pressing high up the pitch, which meant Real Madrid were played through quite easily at times. 

Because Mbappé and Vinicius Jr. don’t do much defensive work, Ancelotti favoured Real Madrid playing a 4-4-2 low block, but elite teams like Arsenal and Barcelona easily figured them out. 

For Alonso to transform Real Madrid into an elite out-of-possession team, there will have to be incremental steps taken to achieve this goal.

It started on Wednesday in Miami. 

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Real Madrid Out Of Possession

This game was also Simone Inzaghi’s first as Al-Hilal manager, and I am sure he knew Alonso was going to try to press their build-up.

Right away, he had goalkeeper Bono go long to the wide areas, where he set up a 2v1 against Fran García. 

From there, they were able to flick a header on and create a dangerous attack using a very simple technique. 

Real Madrid did try to press Al-Hilal’s build-up, but Inzaghi’s side was able to rotate it side to side using Bono as a +1 and create openings down the flanks. 

Al-Hilal split their centre-backs wide, making it a longer distance for Real Madrid to close them down.

So, when they rotated the ball back to Bono, he passed it to Kalidou Koulibaly.

There was space for him to play it to Renan Lodi, who then played it in behind to Salem Al-Dawsari. 

When Real Madrid settled into their low block, it was primarily a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Aurélien Tchouaméni positioned in front of the back line of four.

With a full roster and everyone back from injuries, Xabi Alonso’s life will be easier, but in the short term, he will have to figure out what to do with Rodrygo and Trent Alexander-Arnold out of possession.

Al-Hilal repeatedly targeted Real Madrid’s right flank because both teams have below-average defenders.

At Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold had Ibrahima Konaté as cover, but now he doesn’t (at least right now) have one of the best defenders in world football to cover for him.

There were numerous instances when Lodi would push forward and create 2v2 situations against Alexander-Arnold and Rodrygo, which caused Real Madrid considerable problems in the first half due to their qualitative superiority.

Real Madrid Build-Up 

Xabi Alonso’s build-up is a mixture between Pep Guardiola’s positional play and Fernando Diniz’s relationalism.

He loves four-man combinations to overload the opponent in the first couple of phases. 

The use of Trent Alexander-Arnold was interesting, too.

Because of his passing range, he’s perfect for the Alonso system.

When they overload and draw opponents into one side of the pitch, he likes to have his team play switch balls to the opposite full-back in space. 

However, we’ve also seen Alexander-Arnold’s elite ability to invert into the middle of the pitch in build-up. 

Early on, he was inverting alongside Aurélien Tchouaméni so that Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde could push up a little further and create a box midfield to try to obtain a central overload against Al-Hilal. 

There were also times when he was used as a traditional right back, with Tchouaméni acting as the single pivot.

This means that if Valverde drops in, Real Madrid have a 4v3 on the right side.

As a result, Alexander-Arnold was able to play a ball in behind to Rodrygo, who was isolated 1v1 against the full-back. 

It looks like Xabi Alonso is not going to use Alexander-Arnold in the same way he used Frimpong.

Alexander-Arnold is one of the best long-range passers in world football, and Real Madrid already has a great right winger in Rodrygo; therefore, it would make sense for him to utilise him in a similar role to how he was used at Liverpool.

To start the second half, Real Madrid switched to a back three and pushed Alexander-Arnold into the midfield.

Xabi Alonso loves these overload situations to isolate players on the opposite wing.

At Leverkusen, Grimaldo often pushed forward, but at Real Madrid, he has one of the best wingers in the world in 1v1 situations.

The role of Jude Bellingham is also going to be interesting.

Xabi Alonso had the benefit of an elite number 10 in Florian Wirtz at Leverkusen, and Bellingham can become something similar for Alonso at Real Madrid.

He was roaming all day against Al-Hilal, trying to find pockets of space.

Under Ancelotti, Bellingham was utilised in various roles, but his most effective position was that of a box-crashing striker two years ago.

Here, we can see him dropping in a pocket of space centrally and playing Gonzalo Garcia in behind.

Xabi Alonso wants his teams to play through the middle.

At Leverkusen, they constantly overloaded the middle of the pitch and often ranked near the bottom of the Bundesliga in terms of the number of crosses completed into the penalty area.

He wants the passing distances to be short so that he cannot only quickly pass the ball through the opponent but also draw in that defence to once again isolate wingers in wide areas.

We saw a little bit of that in the second half on Wednesday.

These types of central overloads are going to become the norm at Real Madrid.

Under Ancelotti, when Real Madrid played against better teams, they didn’t really even try to play through the middle.

They would often overload the wide areas to get their wingers into 1v1 situations.

The problem with doing that is that often, they had to settle for a cross into the box, and Kylian Mbappé is not an aerial threat against the opposing centre-backs.

For Alonso, being aggressive in trying to play through the middle with these types of overloads and quick passing will allow Real Madrid to reach a different level than they did under Ancelotti.

Conclusion

There were certainly signs of Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen in Real Madrid for their first match against Al-Hilal.

The build-up patterns with four—and five-man combinations will become more prevalent when he has his entire squad at his disposal.

It was clear that Trent Alexander-Arnold would not be used in the same way as Jeremie Frimpong.

His passing range will be vital to Xabi Alonso when they create overloads in build-up, and he will be able to switch the ball to Vinicius Jr. in space down the left-hand flank.

Out of possession, there is a lot of work to be done.

Real Madrid finished the match with a PPDA of 12.8 and forced only three high turnovers.

Of course, it’s hard to press for a full 90 minutes in the humidity of Miami coming off a long season.

Alonso has repeatedly stated that everyone must work hard defensively for Real Madrid to become an elite out-of-possession side.

Under Ancelotti, they were a solid low-block defending team, but Alonso doesn’t want them to be only that.

During the 2023/2024 season, Alonso’s side averaged 2.18 shots off high turnovers per 90 minutes.

Real Madrid only averaged 1.21 points per game last season in La Liga.

Alonso also has to worry about defending on his right flank.

Teams are going to target Rodrygo and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

All in all, it was a decent first match for Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid, who created 2.7 expected goals and dominated the second half.

Alonso is currently laying the foundation similarly to how he did in his first season at Leverkusen.

He has the most talented squad in the world and the technical players to have one of the best build-ups in the entire world.

It’s going to take some time for him to turn Real Madrid into an elite high-pressing team, but if he can mould it into something similar to what he had at Leverkusen, Real Madrid will return to being Europe’s elite club once again.