4️⃣ tactical takeaways from Xabi Alonso against Marseille | OneFootball

Real Madrid kicked off their 2025/26 Champions League with a hard-fought victory over OM and more positive than negative news on the balance sheet.

Here we review some tactical keys left by Xabi Alonso in his European debut with the white team.

Great white pressure...but without Vini

📸 Mateo Villalba Sanchez - 2025 Getty Images

The first is the most evident and the one that will generate the most doubts for Xabi Alonso in terms of squad management. Because using one of the best footballers in the world as a substitute in a Champions League match will never be anecdotal, much less at Real Madrid.

The explanation lies in the pressure. Alonso senses that he will not be able to teach Vini how to press and in a context where Madrid needed just that, to jump strong against a team determined to build from the bottom with players ill-equipped for it, he did without the Brazilian.

Will he repeat it in the future at the cost of straining the atmosphere?

Güler is the biggest creative tool, the only one?

📸 OSCAR DEL POZO - AFP or licensors

The concept sounds hackneyed, but Real Madrid still misses the sense to start plays of Modric and Kroos. Xabi Alonso knows that his team suffers when it has to elaborate and that's why he is giving Arda Güler the status of untouchable and placing him at the base of the play.

But the problems come for the team, paradoxically, when the Turk is asked to play in his supposed natural position away from the base. Tchoaumeni is not a builder and one who has been helping him in that task, Huijsen, was perfectly marked by the Marseilles pressure yesterday.

The best areas of Europe

📸 Mateo Villalba Sanchez - 2025 Getty Images

With all, Xabi Alonso is going to win precious time to assemble his idea because he has the best goalkeeper and the best attacker in the world on his side. Courtois continues at a legendary level, again yesterday, and Mbappé is already the total forward that solves any problem with a stroke of football.

The right back to debate, again

📸 OSCAR DEL POZO - AFP or licensors

Football is so capricious that it again left one of the best covered positions of Real Madrid: the right back. Trent's injury coupled with Carvajal's expulsion forced the participation of the relegated Asencio, a player who barely counts for Xabi Alonso at the start due to his lower level.

It is clear that it is a punctual problem but it generates a good debate on how Xabi will take advantage of the resources offered by the quarry in the face of these difficulties. Will Fortea enter, for example? What about the expected minutes for Gonzalo?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

📸 THOMAS COEX - AFP or licensors