England international has shown both positives and negatives in his appearances for Los Blancos so far
Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso has urged fans to be patient as new signing Trent Alexander-Arnold continues to find his feet at the club.
The player impressed in the 1-0 win over Juventus on Tuesday by delivering a cross for Gonzalo Garcia to score the only goal of the game, but he was also shaky at the back and did not move the ball forward with enough conviction.
“The cross to Gonzalo is his trademark, he’s made 500 of those in his career,” said Alonso. “He placed it very carefully, in the right place.
“Although on the right we need an extra foot, because dribbling isn’t his thing, but rather link-up play. But we’re working on it. This is a challenge for him: Real Madrid, with almost no general training. Straight to the game. Everything takes time.”
In Madrid’s first game at the Club World Cup, and Alexander-Arnold’s first for the club, the England international had a subdued performance. His next outings against Pachuca and RB Salzburg showed more improvement. Against Salzburg, Alonso switched to a three-man defence, which he also maintained against Juventus.
A three-man defence setup requires Alexander-Arnold to play as a wing-back, which generally suggests that he would need to defend more but also cover a lot more space going forward.
Alonso said: “We were caught out by Yildiz’s position in the middle. Everything takes time, but I have faith in him.
“He’s a reliable full-back and so is [Dani] Carvajal. We will improve from the collective side to the individual and not the other way around.”
