As: For the second game, Alonso s plan is to be more patient with the ball and organize

June 22, the Ass recently talked about Real Madrid's second game against Pachuca. They said that Alonso's plan for this game is to require players to control the ball more patiently and to be more organized and ambitious when stealing.

Real Madrid was in a surprise trouble in the Club World Cup group stage. The game at this stage should have become a warm-up match for new coach Alonso, debugging the team through three games with weaker opponents, preparing for the next more important knockout round, especially the possible 8th-finals against Manchester City or Juventus.

However, the first draw with Riyadh Crescent made Real Madrid feel a sense of urgency, which was not what they expected in advance. Alonso must act immediately to ensure the team can advance to the knockout stage. The remaining two opponents Pachuca and Red Bull Salzburg do not seem to pose much threat to advancement, but to be on the safe side, an emergency plan is still necessary.

Alonso's evaluation of the game against Riyadh Crescent was not specific, but he clearly pointed out the huge difference in performance in the first and second half: "We performed better in the second half, suppressing the opponent when we were in possession. I like this part more, and we will base it on it. We improved in possession, but I was not satisfied with the performance in the first half, but it helped us improve."

He also specifically mentioned the importance of possession, and Alonso hoped to change the style of Ancelotti's low-level defense and quick counterattack in favor of becoming a team that controls the game and presses at high positions. Although quick conversions are a natural tendency for Real Madrid, Alonso avoids this style of play: "I hope we don't be too impatient, the first half is too fast. We don't have enough passes after losing the ball, which makes the game open."

Therefore, Alonso's plan is first to let the team understand that there is no need to rush to attack every opportunity. This does not mean giving up this strategy altogether, especially when having attackers like Mbappe and Vinicius.

But he hopes that the team can learn how to deal with opponents who choose to shrink defense, because this is the most common type of opponent in the league. What needs to be improved is not only the ball-handling ability, but also the performance in the absence of the ball: "Our passes are not smooth enough, the position is too far outside, and it has not adjusted well after conceding the ball. We must improve this. After losing the ball, we need to react faster."

Alonso hopes that his Real Madrid will put high pressure on the frontcourt like he did when he coached at Leverkusen, so that the opponent will have the opportunity to reorganize. This is an anti-traditional approach for current Real Madrid, as Ancelotti repeatedly said he does not think the team is ready to put pressure on high positions for a long time.

Their organization seemed chaotic when Real Madrid tried to put pressure on the opponent's half. Riyadh Crescent handled it easily with the outstanding performances of midfielders such as Milinkovic and Ruben Neves, and had more possession time and more threatening attacks in the first half than Real Madrid. Only Marcos Leonardo's mistakes prevented the wider score gap.

Therefore, for the upcoming second Club World Cup, Alonso's plan is to control the ball more patiently and be more organized and ambitious when stealing. These are relatively general concepts and lack depth. The real reason is that what Alonso needs is time - and he hasn't, in the past, and it doesn't seem to be there for some time in the future. As he himself said: "Everything takes time, we only trained three times..."