Wirtz leaves BayArena on crutches
In a remarkable turn of events, both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen lost at home to low-ranked teams VfL Bochum and Werder Bremen. It means that the gap remained at eight points in the summit with Bayern still in the driving seat.
Both coaches started their respective games with shuffled sides, but the results meant early introductions to the star players. Florian Wirtz was one of those players, but he only lasted ten minutes on the pitch after a strong challenge from Mitchell Weiser.
As per kicker, Wirtz left the stadium after full-time on crutches. With only three days left for the return leg of the Round of 16 Champions League tie, Leverkusen's attempt at a remarkable comeback will have to do without their MVP.
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New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Florian Wirtz will be Liverpool's record signing – but who is it at your Premier League club? And did it work out?
Florian Wirtz is rocking up at Liverpool this summer in what is a club-record deal for the new Premier League champions. The 22-year-old attacker will sign a five-year contract at Anfield and his transfer could be worth up to £116million ($157.7m) to Bayer Leverkusen, the German team he is leaving. Liverpool are paying them an initial £100m, with £16m more potentially due in add-ons. Their previous record buy was Darwin Nunez, who has had a rollercoaster three years on Merseyside and may well be sold in this window. But what about the other 19 Premier League teams? Our reporters run through each club's record buy — who it was, how much he cost, and crucially, how they got on after making those moves. Interestingly, there is not a single defender or goalkeeper on the list… Player: Declan Rice Position: Midfielder Fee: £100m, plus £5m in add-ons Date signed: July 2023 Thankfully, Rice has performed much better than Arsenal's previous record signing, Nicolas Pepe, a winger who cost them £72million in summer 2019. Bought from fellow London-based Premier League side West Ham, the England midfielder has been a standout in both seasons since, helping Arsenal improve as a team and growing individually. Advertisement Rice's two seasons at Arsenal have both seen him record his best numbers for goal involvements in senior football (19 in 2024-25, 16 the year before). He arrived as a dominant force in midfield and has now added layers to his game that make him an even bigger threat than first anticipated. The best example of how he can impact matches came in each leg of Arsenal's Champions League quarter-final win against holders Real Madrid in April. He scored two excellent free-kick goals in the first game at the Emirates, then led them to second-leg victory at the Bernabeu, too. It may be weird to say that a £100million signing has exceeded expectations, but as Arsenal fans like to chant, they feel they got him half-price. Hit or miss? Hit Art de Roché Player: Amadou Onana Position: Midfielder Fee: £50m Date signed: July 2024 Onana, who arrived from Everton last summer, was a player that Unai Emery, the chief and determining decision-maker at Villa, had become a huge fan of — even if he missed out on his first-choice midfield target Conor Gallagher, who moved from Chelsea to Atletico Madrid instead. Quickly and discreetly, a deal was wrapped up for Onana, with Everton needing to sell for PSR (profit and sustainability rules) purposes and Villa striking a close relationship with them for that exact same reason. There had already been two transactions between the teams in that same window — Tim Iroegbunam moving from the Midlands to Merseyside and Lewis Dobbin coming the other way. All three deals helped on the spreadsheets and were mutually beneficial. Onana had a stuttering first season at Villa, largely due to a series of short-term injuries and was unable to break up the first-choice midfield axis of Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara. Hit or miss? Too early to say Jacob Tanswell Player: Evanilson Position: Forward Fee: £31m, plus £8.5m in add-ons Date signed: August 2024 It was just 15 years before signing Evanilson that Bournemouth, bucket and cap in hand, were desperately asking for donations from fans to keep the club alive. The situation was so dire — points deductions in League Two, the fourth tier of English football, and close to dropping to non-League and likely financial oblivion — that their south-coast neighbours, Southampton, helped fundraise. Advertisement Memories of those days made the circumstances surrounding Bournemouth's club-record signing rather remarkable. In Evanilson, a Brazil international striker who pushed to leave Portuguese giants Porto, they had secured their replacement for Dominic Solanke, who moved to Tottenham Hotspur last summer in a £65million deal. The 25-year-old enjoyed a solid first season, scoring 10 league goals, but still has huge room to grow. Hit or miss? Too early to say Jacob Tanswell Player: Igor Thiago Position: Forward Fee: €36.5m, including add-ons Date signed: February 2024 Brentford announced the signing of Igor Thiago from Club Brugge in Belgium shortly after the closure of 2024's winter transfer window, so he did not officially join them until the following summer. The 23-year-old Brazilian is viewed as their long-term replacement for Ivan Toney, who was sold last summer for €40million (£34m/$46.3m at current rates), but his first year in west London was a disaster. That May, he suffered a medial ligament injury in his right knee in what proved his final game for Club Brugge, and then he damaged a knee meniscus in Brentford's pre-season game against AFC Wimbledon two months later. Thiago didn't make his official debut until late November and, within a couple of weeks of doing so, picked up a joint infection in his knee. He only made eight appearances, and started once, in all competitions last season and is yet to score for the club. Brentford still have a lot of hope he will be a success but it has not been a great start. Hit or miss? Too early to say Jay Harris Player: Georginio Rutter Position: Forward Fee: £40m Date signed: August 2024 Brighton broke their transfer record by £10million when they bought Rutter from Championship side Leeds United last summer, and the 23-year-old Frenchman has been worth every penny on the evidence so far. A total of 12 goal contributions in 32 appearances (eight goals and four assists) is only a partial indication of Rutter's impressive impact. He has quickly become a fans' favourite at the Amex Stadium in the No 10 role, combining aggression in and out of possession with a high work rate. Advertisement Rutter was a major miss for the rest of Brighton's season after an ankle injury in the FA Cup quarter-finals defeat to Nottingham Forest in late March. Hit or miss? Hit Andy Naylor Player: Zeki Amdouni Position: Forward Fee: £16m, plus £4m in possible add-ons Date signed: July 2023 Burnley have never been a big spending club in the past, but that changed two years ago when their manager at the time, Vincent Kompany, was given substantial funds to upgrade his Championship-winning squad ahead of the club's return to the Premier League. Often, Burnley go no further than 'undisclosed fee' when announcing deals, making this topic slightly murky but versatile attacker Amdouni signed from Swiss side Basel for an initial fee of around £16million. He was one of the exciting young signings Burnley hoped would blossom in the English top flight but despite appearing in 34 league matches that season — starting 27 — he struggled to adapt and produce consistently, scoring five goals and providing one assist. After Burnley were relegated at the end of that campaign, the now 24-year-old joined Benfica in August on a loan deal for the rest of the season which included an option to buy. He featured primarily from the bench for the Lisbon club, making 24 appearances, scoring seven goals and providing two assists. He has returned to Burnley this summer following their latest Premier League promotion. Hit or miss? Miss Andy Jones Player: Moises Caicedo Position: Midfielder Fee: £100m, plus £15m in add-ons Date signed: August 2023 The most expensive of the series of transfer dealings Chelsea have had with Brighton since 2022, but definitely the best bit of business of the lot. After struggling to cope with the weight of expectation on his shoulders because he was also the most expensive Premier League player (he's now been usurped by Wirtz for that title), Caicedo has established himself as one of the elite midfielders in England's top division. Advertisement The biggest compliment you could pay the 23-year-old Ecuador international is that he has the ability to follow in the big footprints left by Claude Makelele and N'Golo Kante, who excelled in the same position he now plays for Chelsea. To truly belong in their company, he needs to help Chelsea become champions, like they did. Given he has six years left on his contract, he has plenty of time to do that. The level of Caicedo's displays does not seem to get as much credit outside of Chelsea. Head coach Enzo Maresca has no doubts over the talent he is working with, though, saying in April how 'he is one of the best, if not the best, defensive midfielder in the world'. Hit or miss? Hit Simon Johnson Player: Christian Benteke Position: Forward Fee: £27m Date signed: August 2016 Benteke's arrival from Liverpool at the start of the 2016-17 season looked to be good value as he scored 15 Premier League goals in his debut year. But the following two seasons saw him struggle, scoring just four more times in 47 league appearances, albeit injury had played a part. He was resurgent in the 2020-21 campaign, played behind closed doors due to ongoing restrictions on crowds gathering related to the Covid-19 pandemic, with 10 league goals, including a late winner at arch-rivals Brighton & Hove Albion in a smash-and-grab performance by Palace, who had just 26 per cent possession in the game and two goal attempts all night. That, alongside his more impressive hold-up play, earned him a new contract, but he scored just four times in 25 appearances before leaving in summer 2022 to join MLS side D.C. United, where he has enjoyed plenty of success. Hit or miss? Miss Matt Woosnam Player: Gylfi Sigurdsson Position: Midfielder Fee: £45m Date signed: August 2017 The arrival of Sigurdsson from Swansea City was meant to herald the start of a bold new era at Everton under owner Farhad Moshiri. Yet the Iceland international midfielder quickly came to be seen as a symbol of the regime's financial excess and muddled thinking. Advertisement Everton oddly signed three No 10s that summer, with Wayne Rooney and Davy Klaassen also moving at Goodison Park. Unsurprisingly, this strategy did not work. Ronald Koeman began the season as manager and was sacked in the October, and while Sigurdsson played a role under the Dutchman's successors, Sam Allardyce and Marco Silva, he never fully justified his price tag. Sigurdsson was absent from the Everton squad for the year before his contract expired in 2022, something that has never been publicly explained. Hit or miss? Miss Patrick Boyland Player: Emile Smith Rowe Position: Midfielder Fee: £27m, plus £7m in add-ons Date signed: August 2024 He was described as a 'statement signing' for Fulham, but Smith Rowe's impact did not turn out to be quite as emphatic during his debut campaign. Head coach Marco Silva was thrilled when the 24-year-old called time on boyhood club Arsenal and moved across the capital to west London. Almost 12 months, six goals, three assists and 40 appearances later, Silva remained cautiously optimistic that the landmark deal would bear fruit, even if season one had its ups and downs. Five of those six goals came by the middle of February, after which Smith-Rowe's form waned and Silva concluded: 'I would love to see him more consistent.. Next season has to be much better from him.' Hit or miss? Too early to say Greg O'Keeffe Player: Georginio Rutter Position: Forward Fee: £25m-£30m initial fee, rising to £35.5m with possible add-ons Date signed: January 2023 Rutter arrived at Leeds four months before they were relegated from the Premier League. A dogfight at the foot of the table was not the ideal environment for a lightweight, inexperienced, flair player like him. The French forward barely had a kick of the ball before the drop was confirmed. Advertisement He stuck around in the Championship and slowly found his feet under new manager Daniel Farke as a No 10. His finishing always left a lot to be desired, but his creativity, dribbling and vision were virtually unmatched in the second tier. There were hopes he would blossom further into the second tier's best player last season, but Brighton triggered his £40million release clause less than two weeks before the summer window's deadline day. Hit or miss? Miss Beren Cross Player: Darwin Nunez Position: Forward Fee: £64m, plus £21m in potential add-ons Date signed: June 2022 Liverpool agreeing a new club-record fee for Wirtz signalled the imminent end of Nunez's time at the top of the list of their most expensive signings, just as his own time at the club looks to be nearing its conclusion. The hope was that Nunez would be their next star No 9 when he arrived from Benfica in a deal worth up to £85million for the Portuguese side. But his chaotic and inconsistent form means he will surely not hit all of the add-ons agreed even if he stays. In his three years, the Uruguayan international has scored 40 goals and provided 23 assists in 143 appearances. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions but whenever Nunez, who turns 26 next week, looks to be turning a corner, it ends in more frustration. He has all the attributes to be a top striker, but frequently failed to put it all together and was wasteful in front of goal. For his flaws, he was capable of a big moment and his two late goals in the 2-0 away victory against Brentford in January are seen as a key milestone in Liverpool's Premier League-winning season. Hit or miss? Miss Andy Jones Player: Jack Grealish Position: Forward Fee: £100m Date signed: August 2021 Grealish was the star man at his boyhood club Aston Villa before City broke the record for the fee paid on an English player to bring him to the Etihad Stadium almost four years ago. Success is relative. Grealish has made over 150 appearances and helped City win five major trophies but he has not been that dazzling dribbler of his Villa days, who was allowed to roam freely and lifted people out of their seats every time he got the ball. Advertisement Instead, Pep Guardiola moulded him into a different player — a left winger who retains possession and links up in small spaces. It is not as eye-catching but in his best City season, 2022-23, he was an important member of the team that won a continental treble. However, he made only 16 starts in 2024-25, just seven of those in the Premier League, and has been left out of Guardiola's 27-man squad for the ongoing Club World Cup, with his future looking like it lies elsewhere. Hit or miss? A mixed bag Jordan Campbell Player: Paul Pogba Position: Midfielder Fee: £89.3m Date signed: August 2016 Pogba was re-signed (four years after leaving United for a small fee to join Juventus) in a then-world record transfer and unveiled with a glitzy announcement video featuring Stormzy. This was a deal that should have worked. But it didn't. Pogba spent the next six seasons at United, spending pronounced sections of his spell hinting that Real Madrid were his true dream destination. He helped win the League Cup and Europa League and reach two other finals but there were frustrations over his defensive contributions and other inconsistencies. United midfielder and captain turned TV pundit Roy Keane thought Pogba had a mentality issue. Fellow France midfielder Patrick Vieira believed United's wider tactical issues made it hard for him to replicate his international form. Pogba eventually left, on a free, when his contract expired at the end of the 2021-22 campaign, and returned to Juventus. Hit or miss? Miss Carl Anka Player: Alexander Isak Position: Forward Fee: £63m Date signed: August 2022 Isak was a calculated gamble, which is funny to think of now. With Callum Wilson succumbing to injury – not for the first or last time – Newcastle needed a striker going into the 2022-23 season, and they pushed the button on a player all the big clubs knew but were not quite convinced by. Advertisement The Sweden international was doing well at Real Sociedad in Spain but his reputation was one of huge talent balanced by flightiness and inconsistency. Almost three years on, Isak has just become the first Newcastle player to score 20 or more Premier League goals in consecutive seasons. He is someone all the big clubs now lust over. That gamble paid off handsomely. Isak has 'magic in his boots, a striker who glides rather than runs, and a man whose status as a Tyneside icon is now cast in granite.' So wrote Alan Shearer, a man who knows a bit about goals, in The Athletic not too long ago. Hit or miss? Hit George Caulkin Player: Elliot Anderson Position: Midfielder Fee: £35m Date signed: July 2024 At various points in their history, there have been stories to tell and jokes to be made about the player who was Forest's record signing at the time, from Ian Wallace in the 1980s to Joao Carvalho, a £13million purchase from Jorge Mend… sorry, Benfica reserves in 2018. But today that title belongs to Anderson, who, since arriving from Newcastle last summer billed as competition on the wing or at No 10, has established himself as one of the best No 8s in the Premier League. At the time, the transfer felt like an uncomfortable PSR workaround, with third-choice goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos going the other way for £20million. That may well still be at least partly true, but if all balance-sheet juggling acts turn out this well, then Forest fans will gladly welcome more of them. Hit or miss? Hit Nick Miller Player: Didier Ndong Position: Midfielder Fee: £13.8m Date signed: August 2016 The first thing to say is that Sunderland do have a new record signing in the shape of Enzo Le Fee, whose loan move from Roma last season became a permanent £19million deal earlier this month, but in the absence of a story to tell about the French midfielder, we must go back nine years. Advertisement That was the point where Sunderland began to fall off the Premier League cliff-edge, and Ndong was a deadweight to hasten their demise. Just under £14million was spent on the midfielder but within two years, he had been sacked by the club after failing to report for training. League One, the third tier that Sunderland had tumbled to via back-to-back relegations, was seemingly beneath Ndong. Record signings come no worse. Hit or miss? Miss Phil Buckingham Player: Dominic Solanke Position: Forward Fee: £65m Date signed: August 2024 If you only judged Solanke solely on his goalscoring output, you could argue that he underperformed during his first year with Spurs. And the England international did score 'only' 16 times in 45 appearances following last summer's move from Bournemouth, but his influence ran much deeper than that. Solanke had a habit of scoring in big games, including in the second legs of both the quarter-final and semi-final in the Europa League, while he assisted Lucas Bergvall's winner in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final win over Liverpool. He worked tirelessly in every game, even though he was barely afforded any rest due to backup striker Richarlison's persistent injury problems. Solanke joined Spurs to win trophies, which is exactly what he achieved when they beat Manchester United in the Europa League final. The 27-year-old is a fan favourite who should keep improving under new head coach Thomas Frank. Hit or miss? Hit Jay Harris Player: Lucas Paqueta Position: Midfielder Fee: £36.5m, with £14.5m in potential add-ons Date signed: August 2022 When West Ham trumpeted Paqueta's arrival from French side Lyon, they declared the £51million deal as a 'statement of intent'. In his three seasons in east London, the Brazilian midfielder has 14 goals and 18 assists. 'He's playing football like he's dancing on the Copacabana,' then West Ham team-mate Vladimir Coufal told The Athletic in 2023. Advertisement The Brazil international is unplayable on his day but also prone to theatrics. He has struggled with inconsistency in the past 18 months, with an ongoing investigation over alleged betting-rules breaches cited as a factor. But he remains highly thought of by West Ham supporters, largely due to his assist for Jarrod Bowen in the UEFA Conference League victory against Fiorentina. In June 2023, weeks after that match, a picture went viral of a West Ham fan's banner that repurposed the lyrics to the 'Just sold my car, to We Buy Any Car' jingle from the UK auto dealer's TV commercial. Regardless of the verdict over those allegations, Paqueta can take solace knowing his extended family in claret and blue were there for him at his lowest point. Hit or miss? Hit Roshane Thomas Player: Matheus Cunha Position: Forward Fee: £44m Date signed: July 2023 Matheus Cunha took between six and 12 months to find his feet in the Premier League after arriving on an initial loan from Atletico Madrid in January 2023, but once he did, he proved himself to be a match-winner. When he completed his transfer to Manchester United last week, he did so on the back of 29 goals and 13 assists from 82 Premier League appearances, including 15 and six respectively in 33 games in what proved his farewell season. His move to Old Trafford also brought Wolves a transfer profit of £18.5million, meaning that even allowing for his difficult final few months at the club, which included losses of discipline and two suspensions, his signing has to be seen as a success. Hit or miss? Hit Steve Madeley (Top photos of Paul Pogba, left, and Declan Rice: Getty Images)
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
‘Find me players who can dribble': Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Reijnders and Guardiola's desire for ball-carriers
Shortly after the arrival of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City's 100-plus battalion of global scouts assembled in the same room to discover the special ingredients he looks for in a player. It was his first address to the recruitment staff but rather than a list of tactical intricacies, his message was surprisingly unvarnished. Advertisement 'It's simple, guys, find me players who can dribble. I will do the rest,' was the gist of it, before he entered into the more layered details. That was in 2016. He had recently worked with two direct wingers in Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery at Bayern Munich, having nurtured Lionel Messi into the best player in the world by placing his dribbling ability front and centre of his Barcelona team in the false-nine position. Guardiola as a constrainer of creativity was not a mainstream theory then, but Manchester City's dominance over the past nine years has greased those wheels. It is regularly claimed that his football is incompatible with individualism and sidelines the art of dribbling, and that he has spread this illness in the game. Jack Grealish, who has been left out of City's squad for the Club World Cup, has become the poster boy of this accusation since he joined from Aston Villa in 2021 for £100million ($141m) and transformed from a roving maverick to a wide possession retainer. To some, he represents the robotic nature of Guardiola's positional play. To many of those who have worked with him, they see it as a myth that has been perpetuated without understanding the nuance of what makes his genius. His message to the scouts was to find dribblers because he primarily views his role as a coach to be responsible for strategising how his team work the ball into the final third, as Thierry Henry outlined on Monday Night Football, citing his experience of playing on the left wing under Guardiola at Barcelona. 'The first time he took the team, he said to us, 'My job is to bring you up to the last third, your job is to finish it',' Henry said. Guardiola laughed at the idea he is against dribbling in an interview last season. 'If your quality is there, dribble,' he said. 'I will tell you when (it) is better to do it and try to provide Jeremy Doku, through our game, chances to use his dribble as much as possible. This is my job. You get the ball in the better conditions with more space to control and dribble your opponent.' Advertisement This requires elite one-v-one dribblers but, having moved away from that model in the treble-winning season of 2022-23 when he deployed a mix of Grealish, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden in wide areas, Guardiola is recruiting more and more dribblers into his team. Rayan Ait-Nouri's biggest strength is his ability to receive under pressure and skip past a player in either direction, so much so that only 10 players attempted more take-ons than the left-back did for Wolves last season in the Premier League. Rayan Cherki is like a street footballer in how expressive he is and how many tricks he throws in, which is why no player in Europe's top five leagues last season created higher-value opportunities for their team-mates last season per 90 minutes. Tijjani Reijnders is so adept at driving through the middle of the middle of the pitch that only Lazio's Matteo Guendouzi made more forward carries of 10 metres or more last season in Serie A. Add to that Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, not the most efficient but arguably the most jinky and explosive dribbler in the game right now, and Matheus Nunes, whose ball carrying was the standout trait that won him a move from Wolves, and there appears to be a tilt towards ball-carriers. The graph below shows how City have recruited some of Europe's most direct dribblers of the last few years. Doku is in a world of his own in terms of how many take-ons he attempts each game, averaging over 10, and how many times he enters the box with the ball, averaging over six. Savinho and Cherki are in the cluster of players below him but what does it tell us about how Guardiola views the tactical changes he is facing in the Premier League and what does that tell us about the next edition of Manchester City we are about to see? 'Pep said to me, 'When you have the ball, you are free',' Cherki said after signing. Advertisement He has shown the ability to re-imagine his teams both tactically and physically, shape-shifting several times. When Guardiola arrived, inviting the press to play through the opposition was new to English football. Two wingers providing the width for the team had always been a key principle of his teams and the opposition taking the bait meant that when they found Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, they could take advantage of the space left in behind given their pace and dribbling ability. Teams adapted and low blocks began to be the main tactic used against City. It created the necessity for more small-space players who could play their way through this mass of bodies. Riyad Mahrez could straddle both genres but two of Grealish, Foden and Silva were often used to provide a more surgical approach. To buttress that desire for control, the profile of full-back Guardiola employed changed. Gone was Joao Cancelo, in favour of four centre-backs to help guard against counterattacks with John Stones playing a hybrid role in the treble-winning season in which he would move into holding midfield when City had possession. Last season, though, that approach became stale and too many teams were comfortable defending their box before launching counterattacks. 'Today, without players who can dribble, nothing can be done,' said Guardiola in 2023. 'Attacking a team that is stuck in its own goal, without players who dribble, who do not get you superiority with moves into spaces, is impossible.' With more and more teams pressing in a man-to-man style, players must be able to dominate their direct opponent in bigger spaces. In that context, Guardiola's signing of players who excel in one-v-one situations could see a more direct possession style than we have been used to, particularly with the influence of former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders as his new right-hand man. Advertisement After Josko Gvardiol's late forward dashes against Club Brugge in January and Nico O'Reilly's eye-catching performance against Bournemouth in the FA Cup where he repeatedly drove forward from deep, Guardiola seemed to appreciate what double width could bring to his team. Nunes and Marmoush combined effectively on the right flank in the final game of the season at Craven Cottage, a game in which City looked most dangerous when presented with space to run into. It is in those situations that Erling Haaland thrives. If Guardiola is building a support cast that suits those conditions, then City could pose a whole new type of threat.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Xabi Alonso drops Al Hilal line up hint in brutal training session
The Xabi Alonso era at Real Madrid kicks off on June 18 in Miami as Los Blancos get their FIFA World Cup campaign underway. On the back of a frustrating regular season, the club made the call to dispense with Carlo Ancelotti, as Alonso landed as his immediate replacement. Advertisement A three-year contract shows the faith the club have in the former Bayer Leverkusen coach as he looks to put his stamp on the squad. The June international break meant a limited window of time to work with his new players and Alonso has set up a training boot camp in Florida ahead of facing Al Hilal. Xabi Alonso's brutal training message to Real Madrid stars The Basque tactician is known for his ruthless physical training and a desire to mirror some aspects of his Leverkusen XI will require players to be in peak shape. Running and pressing is a non-negotiable for Alonso as observed by on-the-ground journalist Javier Herraez. Image via Real Madrid Confidencial Advertisement 'Whoever doesn't run and make an effort will not play, it's as simple as that with Alonso,' as per SER, via Mundo Deportivo. '[For the attackers] they're going to have to put pressure on the opposition centre backs all the time to stay in his team.' Real Madrid vs. Al Hilal team news Alonso is keeping his cards close to his chest over his starting line up plans against the Saudi Pro League side. However, as per Herraez, two calls have already been confirmed with new singings Dean Huijsen and Trent Alexander-Arnold both in line for debut starts. Trent will line up at right-back in a four-man defensive unit, with Huijsen centrally alongside Antonio Rudiger, and Fran Garcia at left-back. Ferland Mendy has remained in Madrid to continue treatment on a long-standing injury issue with Los Blancos still in the hunt for Alvaro Carreras their new left-back.
