Xabi Alonso has one tactical mess to clean up immediately at Real Madrid

Real Madrid may have finished last season with big names and big moments — but let’s not sugar-coat it: they fell short when it truly mattered. No La Liga, no Champions League, no Copa del Rey. For a club of this magnitude, that’s failure. And when you look past the headlines and dig into the tactical nuts and bolts, there’s one glaring issue that kept cropping up all year: set-piece defending. Corners, in particular, were a disaster.

We’re not talking about conceding to world-class routines or inch-perfect deliveries. No — the goals Real Madrid gave away were avoidable. And the root of it? Simple, baffling marking assignments.

Mismatches that cost points

Let’s rewind to opening day at Son Moix. Vedat Muriqi — Mallorca’s target man, standing tall and physical — somehow got matched up with… Kylian Mbappe. Yes, Mbappe. Electrifying up top, sure, but you wouldn’t trust him to win a header defending a corner against a 6’2″ striker built like a tree trunk.

The result? Muriqi peeled off him with ease and nodded it home. One-all. Two points dropped.

Then came that Champions League night at Anfield. Real Madrid, already wobbling, conceded again — this time to Cody Gakpo. The Dutchman soared above Luka Modric, who, at 38 and 5’8″, was never going to win that duel. The match-up made no sense. It didn’t just look bad — it looked like Real Madrid hadn’t prepared at all.

Fast forward to the Villamarín. Another corner. Another goal. This time, Johnny Cardoso was left totally unchallenged in the six-yard box. And once again, Modric was the designated marker. He didn’t even jump. Betis equalised, took control, and eventually won the game 2-1.

How many more warning signs did this team need?

This wasn’t a blip. It was a pattern.

Corners hurt Real Madrid all year. Valencia? Scored from one. Villarreal? Same story. Real Sociedad scored from a set-piece header in the Copa del Rey — yet another example of the same weakness — though it wasn’t the goal that knocked Real Madrid out.. Even Courtois, cool and composed as ever, admitted publicly that defending corners was a known weak point. That’s not a leak. That’s a full-blown tactical wound and has been for a while. Remeber Rudiger’s header against Real Madrid in the champions league quater final in 2022? It was Rudiger against Modric and it seem like lack of plan everytime.

In a title race where margins are razor thin, those moments matter. A sloppy marker here, a lost aerial duel there — that’s the difference between lifting trophies and watching your rivals celebrate.

By the end of the 2024/25 campaign, Real Madrid had conceded more goals from corners than in any season since 2017/18. Let that sink in.

Xabi Alonso has no choice — this has to be fixed first

As Xabi Alonso steps into the pressure cooker of the Bernabéu hot seat, he’ll have plenty on his plate — squad management, attacking structure, press resistance. But nothing will be more urgent, more fixable, than sorting out the chaos on defensive corners.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s basics. Sensible match-ups. Clear roles. Accountability. Real Madrid can’t have midfielders marking the opposition’s tallest strikers. They can’t afford to zone out on set-pieces and hope Courtois bails them out every time.

Alonso, a tactically sharp mind who built one of Europe’s most balanced teams at Leverkusen, understands structure. He values order. He will see this — and it’s on him to correct it.

Because if Real Madrid want to win the big prizes again — the treble dreams, the Champions League nights, the La Liga dominance — they need to defend like a team built for that stage.

And that starts by making sure the next header in the box isn’t going in.