Real Madrid suffered a big blow last night, falling 4-0 to Paris Saint-Germain. The optimism regarding the new era under Xabi Alonso and the good results (one draw and four victories) were vanished in ten minutes, with two goals right at the start of the match after individual mistakes by Asencio and Rudiger, followed by 80 more minutes completely overpowered by Luis Enrique's squad.
The absences of Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold are no excuse, and the new manager will have to make big changes if he wants to improve the team he inherited from Carlo Ancelotti, balancing the big egos (Mbappé, Vini, Bellingham) and the still untapped potential of young players like Arda Guller, Endrick, Gonzalo García, or the new signing, Franco Mastantuono.
Alonso takes the few positives: the "certainties" that he has now and that he will work to improve. "I'm leaving with a perspective for next year, when we will recover players and there will be changes. Next season will be different, but I'll leave with clear certainties. I take all the information that this tournament has given me."
Perhaps anticipating that most of the criticism today verse around the lack of pressing from the attacking players, like Mbappé and Vini, Alonso added that he wants to "build a team that plays as a unit and where everyone is involved". And while he didn't talk specifically about reinforcements, he said that "we are always looking to improve and there's room for improvement".
According to rumours, the signing of a third new defender (after Alexander-Arnold and Huijsen), Álvaro Carreras, is all but certain, and now Alonso will request a new midfielder. There's a little over a month before Madrid plays their first LaLiga game (on August 19), and the holidays will be short: there's work to do.