Xabi Alonso continued this Saturday with the messages of shoring up the locker room ecosystem after weeks of more or less deaf turbulence: “I have always felt that the team was very united, that we were all clear about what the objective of this season is. If we wanted to reach May, April, in the important moments, with possibilities for everything, we have to be very connected on a day-to-day basis. The connection is very good. In the good moments we are together. In the not so good ones, too,” he said in his previous appearance to this Sunday’s visit to Montilivi to face Girona (9:00 p.m., Movistar). “Despite everything that sounds and what they want, we are very solid from within.”
The Madrid coach has insisted on the path followed by several of his players after Wednesday’s victory against Olympiacos in Athens (3-4). As soon as the match ended, Camavinga drew the same line that he claims separates what happens in the booth from what transcends: “It’s more the press that talks. I’m inside, I see everything, and I see a very united locker room, more united than ever. We are going to do everything as always to win and to help the coach,” said a brief exchange with Movistar.
Hours later, Federico Valverde, one of the captains, published a message on his Instagram account. In two of his three paragraphs he repeated the idea: “After a week in which many things were said, we are more united than ever,” he said at the beginning. And he closed: “It is not always easy, but the coaching staff and the players are more united than ever.”
Messages in the same direction have occurred in the last few hours after a few weeks in which disagreements between some footballers and the coach over the management style and some football approaches emerged. The main public episode of the tensions was Vinicius’ snub to his coach when he replaced him in the classic at the Bernabéu. Also, the outcome of the scene: the Brazilian apologized publicly days later with a statement in which he avoided mentioning Xabi, as he did with the president, the fans and his teammates. Vinicius was not the only player uncomfortable with the news.
In that environment, three negative results in a row accumulated. and they tied in Vallecas in Elche, a type of trend that always inflames any situation in Madrid. The victory in Greece was a relief. And not only in sports, like: “Since we arrived [a Atenas]They have been very positive and productive hours. They have helped us to continue growing, to not break the dynamic and to know how to live with difficult moments. The things we have talked about, the unity and involvement of the players, are very positive. I stay with that a lot, apart from the three points. “These are very positive things that have happened within,” he said.
With this panorama, the three points against Olympiacos added up in more areas than sports. Although, of course, Xabi also gave value to that this Saturday, to recover “that feeling of winning away from home”, after three consecutive losses. That’s also why he looks with interest at this Sunday’s match against Girona: “We need a great game, a good victory.” For the trip he recovers Rüdiger, Militão and Mastantuono, and will hold out until the morning of the game to find out if he will be able to count on Asencio, who was unable to train this Saturday due to a viral process.
