The Alexander-Arnold and Rodrygo dynamic showed Real Madrid's problems will take time to fix
There was a theme in Xabi Alonso's first post-match press conference as Real Madrid head coach: improvement will take time.
After Madrid's 1-1 draw with Al Hilal in their opening game in the Club World Cup, Alonso portrayed a calm figure who knew his side were still early in the process.
'Whoever thought everything was going to work perfectly…,' said Madrid's head coach. 'We knew what things were going to work well and others that we have to keep working on to improve.'
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After a season when Madrid looked porous out of possession regardless of their defensive shape, one thing Alonso needs to improve is the team's structure without the ball.
Madrid's 4-3-3 against Al Hilal morphed into a 4-4-2 when Alonso's side were defending in a mid-block, with Jude Bellingham or Vinicius Junior slightly behind Gonzalo Garcia.
The defensive problems mainly came down the right side, where Al Hilal's intricate wing play mesmerised Trent Alexander-Arnold and Rodrygo. In terms of their positioning, Madrid's players were usually a couple of yards short or blocking passing lanes that were already covered.
Below, as Garcia presses Kalidou Koulibaly, Rodrygo holds his position to force the ball wide. However, Al Hilal's left-winger, Salem Al-Dawsari, is dragging Alexander-Arnold inside the pitch, which means Renan Lodi is able to exploit the space once he receives the pass from Koulibaly.
The lack of communication between Madrid's right-back and winger, and the speed of the move, catches them out.
Alexander-Arnold is left in between Lodi and Al-Dawsari, who is attacking the space from the right-back's blind side…
… and the ball is played into his path, but Raul Asencio intercepts it.
Rodrygo is miles away from the action and it is alarming that Al Hilal's left-back, Lodi, is in position to receive the return pass if Asencio does not stop Al-Dawsari.
In this next example, Alexander-Arnold, Federico Valverde and Rodrygo are in the correct positions as Al Hilal are rotating their left side.
When Al-Dawsari plays the ball back to Lodi…
… Rodrygo takes a couple of steps inside the pitch to maintain Madrid's horizontal compactness. Meanwhile, Aurelien Tchouameni is keeping an eye on Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, as Lodi plays the ball to Ruben Neves.
However, Tchouameni leaves Milinkovic-Savic free when the Serbia midfielder drops to receive the ball from Neves.
On top of that, Rodrygo does not adjust his position in time to support Alexander-Arnold, who is in a one-versus-two situation and being dragged inside by Nasser Al-Dawsari.
This allows Milinkovic-Savic to find the other Al-Dawsari in space…
… and the captain dribbles inside, before combining with the Serbia midfielder, but his shot misses the target.
In another example, Al Hilal's holding midfielder, Neves, is in a left-back position and Lodi is higher up the pitch while the ball is at Yassine Bounou's feet.
Before the goalkeeper plays the long pass to Lodi, Madrid's right-winger Brahim Diaz is in a peculiar position, where the only assumption possible is that he does not want to leave Garcia defending Koulibaly and Neves on his own.
However, that leaves Lucas Vazquez, who replaced Alexander-Arnold, in a one-versus-two situation. Madrid's right-back is initially narrow due to the positioning of Al-Dawsari, and when the ball is approaching Lodi, he hesitates about contesting the aerial duel…
… which leaves him in no-man's land. Diaz's weird positioning and Vazquez's hesitancy allow Lodi and Al-Dawsari to combine…
… before the left-winger sets up Marcos Leonardo, but the centre-forward misses the target.
There were other instances where the reaction of Madrid's right-winger was simply late. Here, Koulibaly chips the ball towards Lodi…
… and Alexander-Arnold is in position to contest the aerial duel. But Rodrygo reacts late to the second ball, and Al-Dawsari wins it, with his left-back in a position to support the attack.
Al Hilal's captain then carries the ball into space with Lodi in an advanced position…
… before putting the latter through on goal, but the Brazilian's opener is ruled out for offside — if Al-Dawsari plays the pass a second earlier, it would surely have been 1-0 to Al Hilal.
Later in the game, Al Hilal are overloading the left wing and as Milinkovic-Savic is playing the ball to Mohamed Kanno, Lodi dashes forward from behind Diaz.
Kanno then finds the underlapping left-back, with Tchouameni unable to commit due to Al-Dawsari's position between the lines.
Tchouameni's decision to protect his zone and maintain his position proves to be the correct one as he blocks Lodi's cross and changes its path.
Madrid's out-of-possession problems were not going to disappear after three training sessions — improving the team's structure without the ball will take time and commitment.
The reaction in the second half, especially with the introduction of Arda Guler and the improvements on the ball, is a miniature example of the essence of patience and time.
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'Every game we need to take positives and learn from what we can improve,' Alonso told DAZN after the match. 'Every game will give us lessons to get improving.'
Madrid will need to be patient as Alonso hones the team's structure in and out of possession.
'We are demanding the result because we are in a competition,' said Alonso. 'But what we want to learn and what we want to be also takes time.'
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