Real Madrid players know the counterintuitive truth about Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso

Xabi Alonso did not last long as Real Madrid manager, and even though he was hyped up as the perfect successor to Carlo Ancelotti with experience as a top midfielder for Los Blancos when they won La Decima, his reign, in hindsight, was a nightmare.

While Alonso is clearly an excellent coach and will always be able to boast about going undefeated with Bayer Leverkusen to break up Bayern Munich’s record hegemony in Die Werkself’s first ever Bundesliga title triumph, he was anything but a great fit for Real Madrid.

In addition to alienating star players like Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, and Fede Valverde, Alonso did not exactly show up as the master tactician that he was at Leverkusen, with his ideas both proving ineffective and falling on jaded ears.

Real Madrid players are praising Arbeloa’s acumen

Meanwhile, a new report from MARCA, via The Madrid Zone, reveals that the Real Madrid players don’t just think of Alvaro Arbeloa, Alonso’s successor, as a great person who understands him; they also think of him as a brilliant strategist and tactician.

They believe that Arbeloa has found inventive ways tactically to help the team and get the most out of star players who were not able to perform as well under Alonso.

It’s obvious that Fede Valverde and Vinicius Junior have been way better under Arbeloa. Young Thiago Pitarch has been a revelation, too, with Arbeloa calling him up from Castilla and finding the perfect role for him to help in a midfield that had been sorely missing Toni Kroos and Luka Modric as departures these past two summer transfer windows.

Real Madrid have noticeably improved in the few months that Alvaro Arbeloa has been their manager, taking them from a club that could not beat second rate opposition in the Copa del Rey and was blown out in the first game against Atletico Madrid to a team that just dominated Manchester City in the Champions League and outlasted that same Atleti side even without superstars Kylian Mbappe, Rodrygo Goes, and Jude Bellingham starting.

Even Alonso’s biggest fans have to say that Arbeloa has exceeded expectations at Real Madrid, and though he jokes about winning with the power of friendship as Carlo Ancelotti used to, the reality is that he is a great strategist in his own right, much like Don Carlo was without getting the credit.

If the Real Madrid players respect Arbeloa’s tactical acumen, then that is all that matters. There is an art to coaching a club like Real Madrid, and Arbeloa already understands it.