Alonso not getting carried away with Madrid start
Xabi Alonso believes that his Real Madrid players "must be realistic" about their form despite making a perfect start to their 2025-2026 campaign.
Madrid is the only team in LaLiga to win all five of its matches and is two points clear at the summit of the standings after its 2-0 weekend victory over Espanyol.
In Europe, Los Blancos kicked off their Champions League by beating Marseille 2-1 at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, but attention now turns to domestic action.
Alonso's side makes the trip to Estadio Ciudad de Valencia to take on Levante, with Julian Calero's men riding high after a 4-0 win over Girona in their last league encounter.
Alonso is looking to become the second Madrid manager to win each of his first six matches in LaLiga history after Vanderlei Luxemburgo, who won his first seven in 2005.
While the former Bayer Leverkusen boss stated that results prove Madrid is heading in the right direction, he acknowledged certain areas for improvement moving forward.
"We must keep going and be realistic," Alonso said. "We're still building, although the results help give us confidence that we're on the right track. There are no secrets.
"The team has to play collectively so that everyone benefits. That's going to be one of the important things this season. We're improving, we're on the right track.
"We're still in the process of building the foundations and pillars. We need to be more consistent in our repetition. The other day we put in a strong, solid performance.
"We can improve, but that tells us we're doing things right. It's only six games, it's nothing. We must have the ambition to want more and be hungry.
"This year we want to collect a lot of points, and to do that we have to win a lot of games. Any away game is difficult.
"Levante are playing well, not only because of their last victory in Girona, but also against Betis, and in the first league game, they caused Barcelona a lot of difficulties."
Another positive for Alonso and Madrid from its triumph over Espanyol was the return of midfield duo Jude Bellingham and Eduardo Camavinga.
Both Bellingham and Camavinga were introduced in the closing stages of that win, replacing Aurelien Tchouameni and Kylian Mbappe, respectively.
"They [Bellingham and Camavinga] could be starters tomorrow," Alonso revealed.
"Anyone who is in the squad could be a starter. They have trained and played more and are in better shape."
