Confirmed: Xabi Alonso won't repeat Ancelotti's mistake and has already chosen his favorite

The experience in the Club World Cup and the 25/26 preseason are helping Xabi Alonso rebuild the locker room at Santiago Bernabéu. In addition to rethinking the starting line-ups and introducing changes in rotation dynamics, he has also carefully selected all the roles his players will fill.

Besides the playing time they should expect for the upcoming campaign, the Tolosa coach is also working with his staff on a key aspect. Set pieces have always been one of the strengths of the Madrid side, a hallmark that the coaching staff wants to recover.

This is why Xabi Alonso wants to avoid making the same mistake Carlo Ancelotti made at the start of the 24/25 season. The Italian strategist gave total freedom to the best white players to share penalty kicks, without a specific order. That dynamic negatively affected the results from the penalty spot.

It was to such an extent that it forced the transalpine coach himself to intervene mid-season, revealing that new penalty order at a press conference: Mbappé, Vinícius, Bellingham. Xabi Alonso is already on alert and has decided to avoid that bitter experience during his first matches as coach of the white club in our country.

The randomness is over

According to what we have confirmed at Defensa Central, the coaches of the white side are increasingly in favor of appointing Kylian Mbappé as the number one penalty taker. In addition to placing the Bondy striker at the top of the priority order, Xabi Alonso is also working to define a fixed and very specific order.

Because the alternation applied at Real Madrid originally appealed to the Tolosa coach. In fact, the Spanish coach himself applied it at Bayer Leverkusen during his two and a half years in charge of the werkself squad... with excellent statistical results.

But the goal is, according to the newspaper As, "to unify leadership". Thus, the new "10" of Real Madrid is designated as the first penalty taker for the leadership earned during last season. In fact, Kylian Mbappé was Golden Boot of European soccer with 44 goals across all competitions played.

The idea the coaching staff has is "for the spot to be fatal again, but for the opponents". Xabi Alonso and his collaborators know that the only way for Real Madrid to regain its threat from the penalty spot is to assign that task exclusively to Kylian Mbappé... establishing a fixed succession if the Bondy striker is not on the field.