Xabi Alonso and Real Madrid have started the La Liga season in perfect fashion, winning their first six matches – something the club has achieved only six times in its history. With rivals Atlético Madrid up next and a tough run of fixtures following that, can they keep the winning run going?
The last decade has been a strange one for Real Madrid.
Few would dispute their status as one of the world’s greatest clubs. They’ve won a record 15 European Cups after all, including six in the last 11 years.
And yet, for many, there’s been a lingering sense that they’ve fallen short of being a truly great team.
Were they incredibly talented and capable of winning any game against any opponent? Absolutely. But were they consistently coherent? With every injury-time winner, every miracle the world witnessed, the suspicion grew that they were a team built on individual talent and not tactical acumen.
Florentino Pérez and his recruitment team built a squad of superstars, but the tactical blueprint often seemed vague. Madrid usually found ways to outscore opponents, but much of the process felt left to chance.
Xabi Alonso doesn’t like leaving things to chance. As a player, he was meticulous in his management of the ball, and he has carried that approach into management.
“We are still under construction,” he said after Real Madrid’s recent win over Levante, his sixth league game in charge, and his sixth victory, not including their Champions League success over Marseille.
“We have only been here for 51 days and there are still a lot of games. We are building a solid base to be competitive in all competitions. There are a lot of things we have to improve on but the path we are on is good.”
It’s a recurring theme in his interactions with the media. He knows he has a lot of work to do, and tougher opposition to face in the coming weeks. That starts with Atlético Madrid at the weekend, while they also face Villarreal and Barcelona in the coming weeks. Real now face the toughest five-game stretch of any La Liga side, according to our Power Rankings.
Real Madrid Fixture Difficulty
Xabi’s words serve as a warning that challenges await. But they also come as a promise that he is going to make this team even better than what we have seen so far.
No more leaving things to chance. Xabi Alonso wants control.
Building The Base
The starting point for Xabi has been improving Madrid’s defence and he has done that by improving how they manage the game when they have the ball.
The below graphic compares the playing styles of every La Liga team from last season to the current one. For Madrid, it shows a small, but significant change. Their build-up play has become slightly slower and more methodical, which should result in less chaos.
Last season, Madrid allowed 1.47 counter-attacks per game but that has almost halved to 0.83 this season.
LaLiga Play Style Graphic
Without the ball, last season, and indeed for several seasons prior to Xabi taking over, Real’s ability to pressure was scattershot and sometimes non-existent. This season, they’re changing that.
Madrid press more intently now, with their PPDA (the number of passes they allow their opponents to make before attempting to win the ball back) down at 10.8 this season compared to 12.1 last.
This campaign, they’ve won the ball back within 40 metres of their opponents’ goal 8.8 times a game; that’s almost two times more per game than they managed last season.
Real Madrid High Turnovers
But maybe even more significant is the number of shots they are generating from those high turnovers – 2.5 per game compared to 1.2 last season. When you have an ensemble of the world’s best forwards attacking a scrambling defence twice as often as they were last season, well… it’s not very good news for the opposition.
Overall, 28% of Madrid’s high turnovers have ended in shots this season, while no other team has had as many shot-ending high turnovers in Europe’s big five leagues this season.
It’s not just that they’re creating more chances for themselves; it’s also shaping how opponents play. Teams are increasingly hesitant to step out of their own half, wary of Madrid’s press.
Under Xabi Alonso, attacks take a touch longer to develop. An extra pass or two allows their rest defence to settle. And that ties into Xabi’s philosophy, which is a simple one: defend with the ball. Madrid’s field tilt, a measure of territorial dominance that looks at the share of possession each side has in their attacking third compared to their opponent, has jumped up this season from 64.1% to 72.4%.
Where opponents once needed only a hopeful punt forward to spark a counter, Madrid now squeeze them higher up, forcing longer, less dangerous breaks. More of the action unfolds far from Thibaut Courtois’ goal – exactly how Alonso likes it.
Madrid have also grown more cynical. They’ve already collected four yellow cards for tactical fouls in six league games, compared with 13 across 38 matches last season. If that rate holds, it’s a major jump – and a sign of a team more committed to defending collectively.
Signing of the Summer
They have been helped by the signing of Álvaro Carreras, one of La Liga’s standout players this season and an early frontrunner for signing of the summer.
With the arrival of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen from the Premier League, Carreras flew under the radar. A Real Madrid academy graduate, he left as a teenager, struggled to make an impact at Manchester United, and spent time on loan at Preston North End and Granada before a year at Benfica. Madrid kept pushing to bring him home and that persistence is now paying off.
Despite the bigger, more headline-grabbing transfers at Madrid last summer, Carreras has been their best signing. Trent has struggled to adapt, Huijsen and Franco Mastantuono have played important roles but Carreras has become central to how Alonso’s side functions.
Álvaro Carreras Heat Map
Against Levante on Tuesday night, Carreras recovered the ball 16 times, the most by any outfield player this season in a game in La Liga. He is the perfect full-back for Alonso’s shape-shifting side. He gets up and down the left flank endlessly, has good defensive instincts and can play in multiple positions. He even started at left centre-back during the week.
Xabi The Tinkerman
That adaptability has been another key aspect of Xabi Alonso’s start to life as Real Madrid manager. More often than not, his system is built around the players, rather than the players being forced into a pre-defined idea of the role they have to play.
He’s used just 22 players so far, but he’s constantly adjusting his selections and setups. His 3.6 changes per game is the sixth-highest rate in the league and clear evidence of a manager fine-tuning his formula.
One thing he won’t budge on is his double pivot. Aurélien Tchouaméni and Federico Valverde have been rock solid there so far. Valverde has traded in his wings for roots at the base of midfield, where he can still influence the game. He isn’t physically everywhere anymore, but his influence on the team is more precise now, more consistent and more repeatable.
Apply Vibes As Necessary
On top of this solid structure, Real Madrid’s individual brilliance continues to shine. There will still be games where Alonso is left standing on the touchline with little more than a prayer – but he has built a framework that gives his stars the best platform to decide matches.
Kylian Mbappé moved to Real Madrid to win the Champions League and to move himself closer to winning the Ballon d’Or. After finishing just seventh in this year’s rankings – his joint-lowest in six years – it felt like he was moving further away from winning the award, not closer to it.
But this season, he is leading the line at Madrid like a future Ballon d’Or winner. The Frenchman has seven goals in six games; only Harry Kane has more (eight) across Europe’s top five leagues. Mbappé is second (6.07) behind only Erling Haaland (6.26) in expected goals, and his 6.2 shots per 90 is way more than anyone else in Europe right now.
Kylian Mbappé xG Map
The fixtures ahead are unforgiving – the Madrid derby, El Clásico at the end of October, plus Champions League clashes with Juventus and Liverpool in the next six weeks. These are the challenges Alonso keeps warning about.
But his Real Madrid project is firmly under way. The foundations are in place. Now we wait to see the fruits of his labour.
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