Xabi Alonso's photo with Vinicius and he repeats an Ancelotti phrase: 'We need...'

"It's essential for there to be commitment," Xabi Alonso stated yesterday after the match against Al Hilal, in which the Whites didn't play well. The problems that affected the team last season remained present, especially in the first half of the match, when there was a lack of balance.

There was more defensive commitment from Vinicius and Rodrygo; in fact, the former had to be substituted with cramps in the final stretch of the match. The extreme heat in which the matches are being played is affecting the players' performance, but it's affecting everyone, not just Real Madrid's players.

For Xabi Alonso it's essential for there to be commitment and he emphasized it after yesterday's match against Al Hilal

Xabi Alonso is looking for a team that plays closer together in attack and defense. In the press conference before the match against Al Hilal, he spoke about distances, about how they needed to be shorter; it seemed to be one of his main concerns.

In the first half yesterday, it was clear that this hadn't been corrected. After the break, Madrid moved the ball faster, pressed better up front, conceded less at the back, played as a more compact unit, and pinned the Saudis back in their own box.

There's still a long way to go before the routines Xabi Alonso is trying to implement are reflected on the field

There's still a lot of work to do; routines are missing. The high pressing that the Tolosa native wants to implement needs to be adjusted and trained for a long time to be effective.

The ball speed needs to be much higher, and the team needs to string passes together to find Bellingham between the lines so he can take on the defense and thread passes to the strikers making runs in behind.

All of this will take time. Defensive recoveries need to be collective; the forwards can't be left out of position. That hurt Real Madrid a lot this season, and it needs to be corrected as soon as possible to avoid jeopardizing its chances of success next season.

Xabi Alonso will have time to correct this before the upcoming league begins. What isn't certain is whether he'll have that time during the Club World Cup.