After five and a half seasons training in the lower categories of Real Madrid a Alvaro Arbeloa The jump to the first team has arrived. And his method has led him to the great challenge: 4-3-3 as the preferred system, great importance to the wings, with long full-backs, and non-negotiable intensity.
Furthermore, Arbeloa has also been characterized by its stinging messages at press conferences. Against refereeing and sending strong phrases to important footballers on his team at Real Madrid Castilla.
After his first game in the Madrid reserve team, he did not take long to make clear his idea that the referees are wrong against Real Madrid. And he hoped for “more justice”, when analyzing the implementation of an alternative VAR system, in which technicians can request reviews. “It can benefit us in the long term because they don’t give Castilla many things for a long season. I hope there is more justice with this tool,” he said.
And, after a Mérida-Castilla match that ended with two players sent off, David Jiménez and Manuel Ángel, in addition to the coach himself, he once again left a message. “It is very easy to play against Castilla, because you can catch them, you can make 314 fouls, and in the end those who end up with yellow are those in white. We have lived it day after day. It is surely more difficult than for anyone and we cannot fight against what we have in front of us right now,” he said.
Statements that have marked his appearances, in which he tries to defend his team above all else… although he has not been shy about publicly highlighting the performance of one of his key players for the season at Castilla, Joan Martínez. The centre-back, who returned to play after a serious knee injury, received a public reprimand from Arbeloa. “He is a boy with many conditions, but he has a very long road ahead. To begin with, he has to train much harder than he does, much more concentrated, with much more intensity. If he wants to be a Real Madrid player, he has to know that the demands in that position are very high. What he does now is not enough for him to be a first-team player and until he is aware of it, he will obviously be a great player at Castilla, but the above is another story. What he is doing right now is not worth it,” he commented.
Non-negotiable intensity on a day-to-day basis, in every training session, for a coach who has had a great relationship with Xabi Alonso, after his time at Liverpool and Real Madrid. What’s more, together they implemented the drones in Valdebebas, prior permission presented by the club, required by the technicians, to analyze the training sessions from different angles. Similar methodology on a day-to-day basis.
Arbeloa, along with his second, Juli Carmonain a very close relationship between the two, collect data at all times. In addition to the drones, they implemented a transmission system on the bench of the Alfredo di Stéfano stadium to upload the data of the footballers to the analysts in real time and analyze them live.
Álvaro Arbeloa’s favorite system is 4-3-3, although he has mutated to 4-4-2 during some games this season. Of course, in both systems, there are maxims that must be fulfilled above. And one of them has been the one that Xabi Alonso has suffered so much for: the high pressure.
In reality, Real Madrid’s great duty in recent seasons. Ancelotti opted for the low block, Xabi Alonso arrived to revolutionize the method and showed the first symptoms in the Club World Cup… but the regression came that ended up costing him his job.
And the club is betting now, in the middle of the season, on an Arbeloa who It has always been highly valued in the officesand who will have the great challenge before him: making Real Madrid work.
And, continuing with what we have seen in these five and a half years in “La Fábrica”, he will do so with a 4-3-3 in which the wings are key, but from attacking and long-range sides, since he usually plays with wingers with changed legs and with a “9” reference; The latter, with the Frenchman Kylian Mbappé, has only occurred in his absence for Gonzalo García to enter.
Furthermore, Arbeloa has in his football idea a key position: the “6”, the defensive pivot.
A clear idea of football with great challenges ahead: getting Real Madrid back on track this season after the premature goodbye of The first, the visit to Albacete in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey.
