Alaba changes the chip

Alaba has fallen on his feet in Madrid. that’s undeniable. He arrived as a free agent and with the enormous responsibility of acting as operations captain as Varane and Ramos previously exercised. He has won over audiences with a great performance and iconic visuals. Surely, his gesture with the chair after eliminating Paris Saint Germain will be part of the book of the season and probably of the decade. But it was inevitable to navigate at some point in rough waters. After a bad Clásico on the individual and collective level, they have now suffered a painful elimination in the Repechage against Gareth Bale’s Wales, letting go of the dream of taking his country to the World Cup in Qatar. At 29 years old, he knew that it was one of his last opportunities to compete in the World Cup and he had put a lot of effort and enthusiasm into it. A blow that can not decenter of a final stretch in which he will continue to be a strong weight under the orders of Carlo Ancelotti.

Austria is aware of its leader’s responsibility and has therefore allowed him to return to the capital. Despite his enormous commitment to his team, Alaba needs a few days of respite, both physically and psychologically. So that, will not play the friendly against Scotland next Tuesday. He has already returned and will get ready in Valdebebas to take on the marathon that is to come: five games in 15 days, including the Champions League quarter-final first-leg matches. This is how the Austrian Federation confirmed his withdrawal: “For reasons of workload control and regeneration.” They are not without reason, to which must be included the enormous feeling of pressure that a World Cup implies in 90 minutes and the disappointment produced by coming out of such a duel badly.

A multipurpose leader

Although in Madrid he is used to being a central defender alongside Eder Militao, in Austria he has spent years of positional swing. He began more than a decade ago as a winger, but later made the leap to midfield to be inside on the left, on the right, pivot, midfielder and even playmaker. Today, as he has played in recent games, he is the undisputed left back and team captain. However, throughout 2021 he also played as a midfielder, interior or central. Interestingly, his most recurrent position at the Bernabéu is the one he has tried the least with his national team.

As a winger, he had a good performance against Wales and left an aesthetic pass with the outside to Arnautovic, who failed to convert. Everything indicates that he will return to the center of the defense in the demanding departure from Real Madrid to Balaídos. He will face Iago Aspas and Santi Mina, two miuras. He will not be worth it, then, to have in mind anything beyond the conquest of LaLiga. Something not too simple for a footballer who showed his worst face in the Clásico, one of the games indicated on the calendar, and who has just said goodbye to one of the greatest ambitions of his sports career against his teammate Gareth Bale. Despite the harshness of the moment, he merged into a hug with the Welshman, in an image that went around the planet.

A bad day does not blur

Even Alaba himself knows that he appeared in the photos of the carnage against Barcelona. He had always shown an anomalous connection with Eder Militao, plugged into the cause from day 1. But Aubameyang appeared, ready to attack his spaces. He succeeded. In the already famous couple, chaos reigned, they did not know how to close and received a harsh correction. Ancelotti relocated him to the left side, taking advantage of his physical potential and his hunger to make up the biggest blur of the entire season. Thus, he was seen as a better version, with continuous arrivals from the side. It was of little use and was even an unnecessary risk: the game was broken and his insistence on the band could cost Madrid some displeasure on the counterattack.

The public abandoned their seats en masse, although the few who remained saw in him the figure of a born leader. As soon as the match was over, he usually turned triumphantly around the Bernabéu lawn and openly apologized to all sectors. A gesture that the respectable knows how to appreciate, since most of his teammates left disappointed by the locker room tunnel. He lost twelve balls, he was less participatory than ever in the ball exit, he did not control his internships despite his incidence in attack… A bad day doesn’t blur. Because Alaba, plethoric in his year I, turns the page. Goodbye to the Clásico, goodbye to the World Cup, but welcome to the battle for two titles. The Austrian changes the chip.