Almost a year on from their Champions League defeat here last season, Real Madrid lost again at Anfield.

November 2024 saw a side led by Carlo Ancelotti beaten 2-0 by Arne Slot’s Liverpool in the league phase. On Tuesday it was Xabi Alonso’s turn to suffer on his return to a ground he knows well from his time as a player.

Madrid’s new head coach had been on a positive run, with three wins from three in the Champions League and 10 wins from 11 in La Liga — including the 2-1 victory over Barcelona in El Clasico 10 days ago.

However, two painful defeats, 4-0 against Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup in July and 5-2 against Atletico Madrid in La Liga in September, had also stirred doubts over whether they could truly compete with challenging opponents.

Alonso himself distanced last night’s 1-0 loss at Liverpool from what you might call the Atletico effect.

“There are ways to lose, and today is very different from the way we lost at the Estadio Metropolitano,” he told Spanish broadcasters Movistar Plus. “Today the team competed and gave it their all.”

That might well be true, but there are still key lessons to learn from another disappointing display.

The stars failed to shine

Real Madrid only managed two shots on target last night, one from Federico Valverde and another from Jude Bellingham.

In last season’s trip here they mustered three. But there was the same trend in both games: neither Kylian Mbappe nor Vinicius Junior created enough danger.

Mbappe received the Golden Boot award on Friday, given to the best goalscorer in European league football. He is already joint leader for this season’s charts too, alongside Erling Haaland.

Before kick-off, he was on 18 goals from 14 matches in all competitions so far this term, but he just could not get the better of Ibrahima Konate or Virgil van Dijk. Every time he received the ball he was too far from the Liverpool penalty area, and when he did get a chance inside it, the centre-backs beat him in the air, which is not one of the Frenchman’s strengths.

Mbappe did not have his best night (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

For his part, Vinicius Jr was, like last year, unable to get past Conor Bradley. As usual, the Brazilian accounted for having Madrid having the majority of their play on the left wing, but he, too, was ineffective.

The Brazilian did not register a single shot on goal, did not make a single good cross and failed five out of his six dribbles. Bradley, who was praised by Ancelotti’s coaching staff after last season’s meeting, even with Trent Alexander-Arnold eventually making his move from Liverpool, put in a good display again.

“We struggled to get to the final line,” said Alonso in his post-match press conference. “They were sitting deep and we found it very difficult to cause them any damage in that area.”

Madrid lacked experience

Anfield was hostile territory for Madrid and especially for Alexander-Arnold. There was a lot of booing throughout the match and Alonso’s team had to cope with that pressure.

Madrid made 50 ball recoveries (two more than Liverpool) and all the players looked more committed than last season under Ancelotti. The most striking contrast was Vinicius Jr, who received a yellow card after stopping a Liverpool counter-attack with a foul in his own half.

If the attackers were not keeping up their press, both Alonso and his assistant Sebas Parrilla would remind them to do so. After the match, Alonso insisted, in replies to multiple questions on the subject, that intensity was not a problem. He might be right, but intensity alone was not enough.

Real Madrid in a pre-match huddle (Pedro Castillo/Real Madrid via Getty Images)

In recent years, veterans with a lot of weight in the team, such as Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Nacho, Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez, have left Madrid.

At the same time, a transition has begun within the dressing room, giving way to younger players such as Alvaro Carreras (22), Dean Huijsen (20) and Franco Mastantuono (18) — three of the club’s four summer transfers, adding to the signing of Alexander-Arnold.

Just like in the derby with Atletico, there was a lack of experience and leadership from the Madrid players at Anfield. This is something that the coaching staff sees as vital to mentally combating key moments, and after the game, Alonso gave an example of where it was lacking.

“We have to learn not to concede and not to give away untimely fouls,” he said. That message was repeated by Thibaut Courtois and Valverde — both now considered veterans of the team.

Alonso’s ineffective changes

Alonso kept the same asymmetric 4-4-2 formation that worked well in El Clasico. The plan was to play Eduardo Camavinga almost as a right winger, but this time it didn’t work out and it was visible from the start.

Changes, when they did come, did not have the desired effect. Liverpool scored their goal in the 61st minute, and Alonso waited until the 68th to substitute Camavinga, bringing on Rodrygo in his place.

The Brazilian has lost a lot of prominence this season and is the 17th most-used player in terms of minutes played (348). Apart from that, he has not scored a goal for his club in eight months. At Anfield, he didn’t create a single chance and lost nine balls.

Rodrygo was Xabi Alonso’s first change (Justin Setterfield – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

It is difficult to understand why he was the first solution that came to Alonso’s mind. Despite being behind on the scoreboard, the manager did not give his two promising strikers, Gonzalo Garcia and Endrick, any playing time at all.

The head coach waited until the 81st minute for his next substitution, when he brought on Alexander-Arnold for Arda Guler. The right-back was not only lacking in rhythm but also seemed inhibited by the crowd’s hostile reception, so he did not improve things either.

In the 89th minute, Brahim Diaz came on for Valverde, who appeared to be in some discomfort. All in all, the substitutions from Alonso did not come quickly and did not bet on the youngsters. Ancelotti was criticised for the same reason last season.

Courtois can’t win you games alone

“Courtois was exceptional, he started to give me the feeling of Paris 2022,” Van Dijk told TNT Brasil after the game, referring to Madrid’s Champions League final victory of that year.

The Belgian was key in that match, with nine memorable saves that helped Madrid hang on to win a 14th European Cup. But your goalkeeper being the best player on the team is not always good news.

On Tuesday, Courtois prevented what looked to be four certain goals — making three prodigious saves to deny Dominik Szoboszlai alone.

Liverpool recorded an expected goals total of 2.58 through nine shots on target (to Madrid’s 0.45), and their siege finally yielded Alexis Mac Allister’s winner.

Among the big teams they have faced, Madrid have only managed to keep a clean sheet in the 1-0 victory against Juventus this season — and even then it was a struggle.

When asked if Courtois had prevented a rout, Alonso replied: “For me, the worrying thing is that we have to learn.”