The two faces of Real Madrid at Xabi Alonso's debut: "It's a process, it takes time."

The schedule has created a Kafkaesque situation, with Xabi Alonso's debut taking place on June 18 in Miami at the Club World Cup. It wasn't Real Madrid's best, with the wear and tear of the entire season and only nine training sessions under the new coach, who has a different methodology than the one Carlo Ancelotti had been applying. The coach emphasized that everything is a "process" and that his team showed two sides against Al Hilal , in an unexpected 1-1 draw.

“In the first half, we lacked a lot of things, we lost a lot of balls, we weren't balanced. But I liked the reaction. We gave the game a different feel, we were more deliberate, we gave it a different rhythm,” the Basque player commented in the post-match press conference. “Whoever thought everything would work perfectly... We know what would work and what wouldn't; everything takes time,” the Real Madrid coach commented in his debut .

The coach emphasized that he didn't feel "frustrated" in the first half, but he did expect "a different intention" from the team, although he knew that "it takes time, you have to persist, and in the second half I saw a reaction. Everything takes repetition." Thibaut Courtois himself, who also spoke in the mixed zone, reiterated this idea: "We played better in the second half. We have to embrace that. We were with Ancelotti for four years, with automatic processes, and now it's different; this doesn't happen in four days. We're working on videos, it will get better."

Read also Real Madrid drew 1-1 with Al Hilal in their Club World Cup opener in the United States. AGENCIES

Xabi Alonso didn't want to personalize his performance, saying, regarding Hujsein and Trent Alexander-Arnold's debuts, "I won't forget this day. I'm happy; they'll be important and have that personality. They'll give us a leap forward in quality." He also praised the performance of Gonzalo, the scorer and scorer of the Real Madrid goal, who also came through the mixed zone and was voted the match's best player. He made it clear, "I'm not thinking about the future, only about the present, about doing the best I can."

Xabi Alonso's final message was regarding Asencio's penalty, who "was on antibiotics, and we had to substitute him at halftime because he was suffering." Courtois called the penalty "foolish," and the former Bayer Leverkusen manager insisted it was "unnecessary." A clear message from a coach who is asking for time even though he's aware that Real Madrid is playing for a title. And he started with an unexpected draw against Al Hilal.