The new Madrid technician: “Kylian is a leader, we don’t fear hot and injuries, we have now set ourselves. The bianconeri are strong and have clear ideas”
Xabi Alonso began to train Real Madrid less than a month ago and now he is already in front of the first crossroads: beat Juventus to fly to the quarter -finals and continue chasing his first trophy as a galactic technician. The former midfielder, however, does not trust the bianconeri: “Juventus is a strong team with clear ideas – he said -, on an individual level he has good players, but we are ready to face it. We are in the round of 16 and we know that we have to play against the strongest teams in the world. It will be a very important and difficult game, they too have passed the groups like us”.
Mbappè leader
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The great doubt concerns the use of Mbappé, who has returned to group after gastroenteritis: “Kylian is better, tomorrow we will see whether to play it or not, but there are good possibilities that goes on the pitch. He is a leader, it has always been but ours must be a collective mission. We cannot be motivated only when he is there or playing well only when we have the ball”.
Collective and stress
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Xabi took the place of Ancelotti that his son Davide called the best in the world, putting Alonso in second place: “I really have a good relationship with Davide and Carlo has had a fantastic career, I am very grateful to him. Now I have a fantastic team”. The technician insisted a lot on the team concept, even if there are many prominent individualities in his team: “I was immediately clear with my players, I told them that it is important to play as a team and know how to manage stress levels. For attitude they are doing the right things”.
Help from drones
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In daily work he and his staff help themselves with the drones: “We try to record all the sessions and then see them at best from all angles. I think many clubs do it. So far the world championship has been a great challenge, we knew that the competition would have been intense but we are ready. Now the time has come to prove it on the field”.
friend Ramos
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If the turn passes, Real could find Sergio Ramos as an opponent, now at Monterrey: “I have made many games with him, he binds us a great friendship. He is 40 years old and he is still a fantastic player. I hope to get to the quarterfinals and be able to face him”. The heat does not worry it and not even the injuries: “We will try to be more hydrated, we have been here for several days so a little we have become used to it. This is the third week since we started. Here everything is very accelerated, the workload is distributed in a different way, but I am not afraid of the injuries, we are not thinking about the possible effects on the long term. We are ready for everything.
Understanding that grows
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Xabi has been to Real as a player and he has now returned to another guise: “Many things have changed compared to when I was a footballer and I am very happy to be here. In these two weeks in America I had the opportunity to get to know the players better. After three seasons at Bayer we understood us on the fly, here it will take more time to create a united group, things will become more and more fluid and easier. As for Alexander-Arnold, who arrived in June and immediately thrown on the pitch, Alonso explained: “I am happy with how things are going. Alexander can play with the defense at three or four. In the first game we had not yet entered the mood of the competition, but he is settling and will be able to do better and better”.
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