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Real Madrid’s New #24? (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Monday, June 9, was Xabi Alonso’s first day at Real Madrid, and he asserted his authority by arriving at the club’s facilities an impressive three hours earlier than the schedule, reports Sergio Lopez in a report for AS.
Such was the eagerness in the former midfielder that he arrived earlier than most of the club’s employees.
Interestingly, the Real Madrid players, who were available for training, were not called until 10 AM, which is why Alonso spent much of his time settling into the club’s facilities and calling together his staff, which included his fitness trainer, the technical assistant and the assistant coach.
A tactical meeting
The outlet mentions that there was a tactical meeting between the aforementioned personnel, which ‘lasted for hours’. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss different approaches and what to focus on.
As reported before, it is very much likely that Alonso will not just force his Bayer Leverkusen tactics on this Real Madrid roster. Rather, he will assess the players he has and will then make a detailed plan based on that.
Xabi Alonso began his Real Madrid tenure from Monday. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
As far as the training is concerned, the new manager only had five first-team players available, namely, Lucas Vazquez, Raul Asencio, Fran Garcia, Dani Ceballos and Rodrygo.
What about the rest?
On the other hand, the likes of Thibaut Courtois, Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Federico Valverde and Brahim Diaz did very specific exercises.
Coming back to the training, the publication mentions that the first session under the Spanish coach had a lot of intensity, so much so that the squad felt ‘strength and enthusiasm’.
Now, with the first session done, Real Madrid will begin to welcome the usual suspects, including their new signings Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold.