Alonso\u2019s reign at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u is just 14 games old, however, and he urged fans to see the defeat as a learning curve for a young team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the attitude; I think it was the pace and tactical aspects that we\u2019ve analyzed,\u201d Alonso reflected. \u201cI don\u2019t just explain everything with attitude; that\u2019s simplistic. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to improve things at the game level. We didn\u2019t compete well enough. That\u2019s part of the adaptation process. We\u2019ve been here for about 58 days. It hurt, but now we\u2019re in Champions League mode.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still taking steps forward. Maybe to take two steps forward, you have to take one step back. We\u2019re still defining what we want to be like, and we\u2019re going to improve on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Alonso wants an immediate reaction. \/ Angel Martinez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s Champions League meeting with Kairat Almaty presents Alonso and Madrid<\/a> with an immediate opportunity to raise morale which, according to The Athletic<\/a>, has been very low since the defeat. The trip to Kazakhstan was compared to a \u201cfuneral\u201d by some who made the journey.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to move on,\u201d Alonso warned. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking about what to do [against Kairat Almaty], about the team that\u2019s going to play. We don\u2019t want to drop points.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cYou have to adapt. We\u2019ve changed the usual roadmap a bit, but in football, the smartest is the one who knows how to adapt best. It\u2019s just another game, and that\u2019s not an impediment or an excuse.<\/p>\n \u201cPlay well, press well, defend well, attack well… With our form, with whoever comes out, it will be a competitive match. Kairat are well organised and has good momentum. We\u2019ll have to take it seriously from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n READ THE LATEST REAL MADRID NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso has insisted the humbling defeat at the hands of rivals Atl\u00e9tico Madrid could…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":276595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-276594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115314732964472314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}