{"id":893,"date":"2025-08-25T17:05:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T09:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=893"},"modified":"2025-08-25T17:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T09:05:26","slug":"xabi-alonso-asks-us-to-do-a-lot-of-pressing-and-drop-back-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/xabi-alonso-asks-us-to-do-a-lot-of-pressing-and-drop-back-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Xabi Alonso asks us to do a lot of pressing and drop back quickly&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-37.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-894\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-37.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-37-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/image-37-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thibaut Courtois explained to reporters after the 0-3 victory over Real Oviedo what Real Madrid&#8217;s new coach Xabi Alonso asks of the players, emphasizing pressure and commitment to helping the defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thibaut Courtois praised his teammates&#8217; defensive attitude after the win, but acknowledged that they could have killed off the game earlier and gave Real Oviedo hope at times. &#8220;We created a lot of danger, but their goalkeeper did a great job. We could have secured the win earlier because, at 0-1, they hit the post, but we all defended very seriously. That&#8217;s going to bring us a lot of victories because we had ten shots on goal and scored three goals, which is important,&#8221; he said on Real Madrid TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Courtois revealed Xabi Alonso&#8217;s requests to his players. \u201cHe asks us to start well from the beginning, to press up front, to be vigilant\u2026 If you press high up the pitch, they have no way out, they only have the long ball. It&#8217;s very difficult for the opponent to get out of the pressure. They can counterattack us, but all the players drop back and that&#8217;s the line we have to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a personal level, Courtois acknowledged that he feels good after his first saves, having had little to do against Mallorca on the first day. \u201cI feel good. Against Osasuna, I didn&#8217;t have much work to do, and today a little more. The coach asks me to play further forward, I&#8217;m running a lot. In the end, I have to stay focused to make the save I made and keep a clean sheet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the Belgian goalkeeper expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome they received on their return to Oviedo. \u201cIt was a wonderful reception. We hadn&#8217;t played here for a long time, and it means a lot to them. They are great fans and it&#8217;s a great stadium to play in La Liga. In Oviedo, there are a lot of people who support Real Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thibaut Courtois explained to reporters after the 0-3 victory over Real Oviedo what Real Madrid&#8217;s new coach Xabi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}