Alaba returns to her role

David Alaba has lived a season to be exultant. The defender, who arrived last summer with the freedom letter, has not needed a period of adaptation to Real Madrid. The transition from the Varane-Ramos couple to the Militao-Alaba duo was an instant process. Y the Austrian, who turns 30 on June 24, has finished his first season as a madridista in the best possible way: with the Champions League and the League (in addition to the Spanish Super Cup) and become an icon thanks to his chair to heaven celebration at the end of the comeback in the round of 16 against PSG. Next season will present you with a new challenge. The signing of the German Antonio Rüdiger, pending the official announcement, will make him relocate to the left back, the position in which he burst in and grew up at Bayern.

With Alaba, Madrid not only signed a player with guarantees and proven experience (the one in Paris was his third Champions League, after the two he won with the Bavarian team), he also signed versatility. The Viennese had played throughout his career as a center back, but mainly as a left back. And also in more advanced positions in the center of the field, either as a pivot, midfielder or inside. Pep Guardiola, in the last of his three seasons in Munich, was the first to bet on him regularly at the center of defense. Ancelotti returned him to the side (although he did not give up resorting to him as a central defender when he saw it appropriate) until Hansi Flick placed him back on the axis of the rear. In the last matches with the Austrian national team, he has played as a left back, although in this international break Das Team has a new coach: Ralph Rangnick.

Carletto he started the season with Alaba on the side forced by the circumstances. Mendy and Marcelo started the course injured and the Italian coach experimented with different variants with David himself, Nacho and Miguel Gutiérrez. The formula that convinced him was the pair of central Militao-Alaba. The Austrian played alongside in the first league defeat of the season, against Espanyol. Since then, with Mendy and Marcelo recovered and with the versatile Nacho as a resource in the absence of either of them, Alaba only returned to play as a side in the Cup match against Athletic in San Mamés, with the Brazilian sanctioned and the French injured. The arrival of Rüdiger will give him the opportunity to regain the position in which he has built most of his successful career..