The wind is blowing through the open window and Steve McManaman is glad about the merciful drop in recent 35ºC temperatures in Madrid as he looks down on the city he called home at the turn of the century. Almost one hundred games played for Real Madrid for the Liverpool lad, he’s always a welcome face in the Spanish capital.
And with the breeze in his hair, with a typical chuckle, he admits he can feel the Champions League fever. Real Madrid are not he favourites to win it, despite their shirt sleeve boasting more than double the number of the nearest team to them in the rankings, and El Macca believes “they have a great chance” of increasing that to 16 this time around, with last year’s problems long gone.
“They’ve got a great chance. I think everybody knows their failings of last year, with so many injury problems—Carvajal, Militão, Alaba, the list goes on. You could see why they struggled defensively to a certain extent last year and why they were so open at the back. They have addressed that this year, all the experienced players are back, and they’ve added depth which is great to see; they’ve brought in Trent, Huijsen, and Carreras: they should be very strong again."
“You don’t go from being excellent one season to having all these injury problems and struggling again. They’re back, the squad’s deep, they’re experienced. I’ve seen them a couple of times already this year — they look sharp.”
“People think Madrid are ruthless from the outside, but inside it’s very familiar”
One player McManaman can empathise with on the Madrid squad is Trent Alexander-Arnold, who moved to Real Madrid from Liverpool this summer, like the curly-haired midfielder did all those years ago. The change, however, isn’t something to baulk at: “I think the change between the clubs isn’t that big. Liverpool are a huge club with a massive history, and Real Madrid are the same. Both are very family-oriented clubs when you’re inside. If I go back tomorrow, some of the staff working there are the same staff when I was playing here 25 years ago. People think Madrid are ruthless from the outside, but inside it’s very familiar. The real change for Trent will be the city, the culture, the language, and the lifestyle. But he adores it. At the end of the day, he’ll be judged on how he plays, and Trent is a fantastic footballer, so I don’t think he’ll have any problems.
As for advice to Trent, Macca says he hasn’t given him any, but even so, the odds of succeeding in a foreign country are always stacked against you: I’m skeptical of foreign players coming into the Premier League; even though you may speak the language, you need time to integrate, and you don’t know their family life, whether they’ve got kids that need putting into school, etc. The only thing I’d say is settle quickly: find somewhere to live, the last thing you want to do is stay in hotels for months living out of suitcases.
“You need a proper home, a base, somewhere to sleep well and focus on training. The last thing you want to be doing is staying in a hotel for months on end with endless suitcases all over the place. So settle down, integrate as soon as possible. He’s got friends with Jude from the England camp, and Alonso has a history at Liverpool, so he knows he can talk to him. There’s a number of players who can speak English, so it should be a lot easier for Trent to settle.”
“In Spain, you either win or you’re a failure”
The Spanish media is “hard” to deal with at times, especially for those who play in a white shirt.
“We know that in England we have a number of newspapers, but we don’t have sports newspapers,” Steve says with a knowing smile. “Whereas in particular, the first 10 pages in the sports papers will be about breakfasts, whether you’ve got a new car, whether you’ve got a new haircut; they will go into the nth degree of how you play, how you train, and what goes on beforehand, because they need to fill the newspapers every single day, even if there’s not a game. So it’s very intense, but that’s just the way it is.
“Social media now is crazy, isn’t it? Everybody’s got an opinion on everything. So the most important thing is to be successful. Last year, Madrid finished second. They lost a couple of finals, but the vitriol against them and the criticism against them was heavy, and that’s just the nature of the beast. In Spain, you either win or you’re a failure, and it’s one team or two teams or the other. So that’s why the pressure is on every single year, and that comes with the territory.
“It happened to Gareth [Bale] — it’s not going to be all winning every single game. Of course, you expect a little bit of criticism, but as long as you’re trying and as long as you’re working hard, that is the most important thing.”
“I think you’re not a proper footballer unless you have fear”
“I think it’s natural that you should feel it,” Steve responded when asked about the pre-game nerves before a big game, even at Real Madrid. “They went to Liverpool last year, and Liverpool beat them convincingly. They have to do exactly the same this year. So there’s bound to be fear, trepidation, butterflies in your stomach, excitement. That’s what it’s about. Liverpool have to go to Galatasaray; Real Madrid have to go to Almaty, which is six, seven hours on a plane.
“When you look around your dressing room, it should give you some sort of calmness. You look at Dani Carvajal, and he’s won six European Cups. You look at other players around you who have won multiple Champions Leagues, and I think that’s why. And you look at other players like, you know, Kylian Mbappé, who hasn’t won it yet, but wants to win it, and these are super players, and I think that’s what instills some calmness into you.
“If you’re an underdog and you’re a lesser side, you will be fearful. You will think to yourselves, are we going to lose again today? But when you wear the Real Madrid jersey, you are literally going to look around and I think that’s the most important thing. But I think you’re not a proper footballer unless you have fear and butterflies, nerves in your tummy. That’s what it’s all about. That’s the great thing about it all.
" Can you play Mbappé and Vinicius and Rodrygo on the same side?"
Barcelona won the league as Madrid struggled to fit in the myriad of attackers with the addition of Mbappé. “That’s the big question,” he says, “finding that balance; can you fit all the forwards onto the pitch? Will they work hard enough? Can you play Mbappé and Vinicius and Rodrygo on the same side? If not, how do you keep them happy? They’ve certainly got enough players back there, but finding that balance is tough. In the last Clásico, Barcelona effectively won the league, and that game could have been six, seven, or eight: you can’t play like that every single game.
“Even Barcelona, who were outstanding, can’t play like that every game and expect to win the Champions League. You need a little bit of stability in there, and I hope both teams get it, because it’s amazing to watch. But that game was so chaotic that you’re thinking to yourself, ‘wow, they can’t carry on like this’.
“It was so good and so mad. I think both teams are trying to find the balance of being really entertaining, of course, and scoring goals and being exciting. But also they are trying to keep the ball out the other goal, because you can’t win by 2, 3, or 4 goals, every single game. It just doesn’t make any sense. You’ll come across the team in the end that will negate that and go and beat you. And that’s what Xabi Alonso is here, to find that balance."