The defense is a mess. But the way people talk about it, you would think fixing it is just about signing a few new center-backs. The real issue is way deeper. This is a whole season worth of cracks showing up on the big stage. You look at the numbers: Madrid actual goals conceded (38) was way below their expected (xGA 45.48), mostly because Courtois played out of his mind and opponents missed sitters

But here is what nobody wants to say: building around big-name attackers like Mbappe has made the team tactically unbalanced. The board has been on a 10-year binge of buying stars for attack and midfield, while the defense got leftovers. Only now, after being embarrassed in front of 77,000 people, do they suddenly throw €50m at a new left-back. Classic Madrid, right? If Alonso cannot get these superstars to run and press (not just walk and sulk), he will be the next coach on the chopping block. The problems are baked into the culture. Until that changes, I do not see a serious turnaround

There's still plenty of time for Xabi Alonso to improve, and I think it's too early to judge him.
Real Madrid's performance in the Club World Cup wasn't impressive, but Xabi Alonso should still be supported to lead La Liga next season. I'm still very optimistic that Xabi Alonso can make Real Madrid even better next season.

I'm curious about how Xabi Alonso will improve Real Madrid. He's been adamant about developing a game plan with young players, but the results haven't been visible. In fact, Real Madrid's defense looks weak. Xabi Alonso hasn't found the right strategy so far, and he still has a chance to correct his mistakes before the season starts.

Let alone Xabi Alonso, even Carlo Ancelotti has a bit of a headache managing a club with too many attacking players, which ultimately makes their defense slack. So, we can't judge Ancelotti for being incapable of managing Madrid when they have so many star players. In fact, even when changing coaches, Madrid has experienced the same thing.

In my opinion, Real Madrid's defense is very weak at the moment and if a team's defense is so weak, then the overall performance of that team is sure to be bad. When the defense is in good condition, the opponent's attacks can be easily repelled. Real Madrid's defense performed so badly in the last match that the strikers and midfielders did not get any chance to bring the team back into the match. I think the Real Madrid manager should definitely think carefully about their defense. If their defense line-up does not change much in the new season, then they will again be a failed team in all kinds of tournaments only because of their defense. Before Real Madrid's defeat by PSG in the Club World Cup semi-finals, Real Madrid had a bad experience against Barcelona in La Liga and that bad experience was in all the El Clasico matches last season, but Real Madrid was defeated. They must work on these weaknesses and return to good performance.

Enrique is right to understand Xabi's situation with Madrid. Most observers will know that during the semi-final, they didn't have a pure center-back. Rudiger didn't have a defensive partner, and he even made an error that led to a goal. I think Xabi kept racking his brains to get the ideal composition for that semi-final. In the end all plans failed and indeed PSG were much better. Now Xabi must think ahead. The condition of the team seems to be not ideal as long as many players are injured. Xabi may be able to add more players to the defense to face next season with a busy schedule.