Alonso "We must play as a team"

The midfielder sat down for an interview with Publico and talked about his role as the team's central midfielder.

You were signed to organise a team formed by Cristiano, Kaka, Benzema, Lass, Raul… How will you do it?
One player on his own can’t do it; it’s up to the whole team to organise itself and have a collective awareness. We’re still in the preseason and adapting to the coach’s ideas.

And those ideas are…
Keeping possession, controlling the pace of the game, being dynamic in offense…

How can you tell when it’s time to play quickly or to calm down?
It depends on what the teams needs at each moment of the game. A match sometimes gets out of hand, and you feel you must slow it down and hold possession for longer instead of rushing into the opponent’s goal.

How much time will it take for the team to make the ball flow easily?
It takes time for the players to adapt to each other. There’s no way of knowing how long it will take.

Kaka, Cristiano and Benzema play better with open spaces, don’t they?
Yes, they can take advantage of their powerful pace, but there will be many games where the opponents will wait for us in defence, especially at the Bernabeu. We have to find a way of breaking through the defence without making use of wide open spaces.

What is Pellegrini looking for when he includes Pepe in midfield?
Pepe is a powerful player, good at recovering the ball and strong in one-on-ones. He's not bad as midfielder.
By:Lucas brown