Steve McManaman believes his former club Real Madrid will be 'much more competitive' this year under Xabi Alonso.
Real failed to reach the top eight of last season's UEFA Champions League league phase and were ultimately knocked out in the knockout round play-off by Manchester City.
Carlo Ancelotti's side also finished second in La Liga to Barcelona prompting a change in the dugout with Alonso stepping in, and McManaman believes the side will be much harder to beat for the change.
"Carlo was incredibly successful, a wonderful man and a great man manager," said McManaman. "I just think the way Real Madrid were last year... I mean they had a huge amount of injury problems in defence which didn't help at all, but Xabi is also a great man manager, they brought in new players, they've got the injured players back so their squad is really heavy now with talent and experience.
"I expect them to be more organised and difficult to beat and to be far more competitive this year than they were last year. They were easy to beat last year because they had so many defensive problems but that's been addressed.
"I know they played lesser opposition but the fact they've not conceded yet in La Liga is no surprise. Of course they need to be entertaining, but I think they'll have a steeliness in their spine."
Ancelotti was criticised at times for how he set Real up last season, with suggestions that the Italian had the man management to guide Real through difficult knockout games, but perhaps not the nous to be consistently successful. McManaman, however, insists that you can't achieve success in Europe without also being tactically astute.
"It depends who you're managing but if you're managing teams like Real Madrid you need a bit of both [tactical acumen and management]," said McManaman.
"If you're Real Madrid, you need to be entertaining and you can't tell the players necessarily how to play. You put them on the pitch but in the end it's down to them but you need to be a bit tactically astute.
"You look at Barcelona last year who were incredible to watch but they should never have lost to Inter Milan. They were 3-2 up with a couple of minutes to go and they should have seen that game out but they were gambling and gambling and that's where you need to be tactically astute.
"But sometimes there's nothing you can do when you've Raphinha or Lamine Yamal on the pitch, they want to go 4-2, 5-2 up, they're not thinking about keeping the door closed at the other end and they should've been. It won't happen again to Barcelona; they conceded that equaliser late on, that shouldn't happen again and you have to learn from that."
While their domestic obligations remain important, the UEFA Champions League is the priority for Real Madrid, who've become synonymous with the competition. Their route to victory in 2022 was marked by a number of miraculous escapes from unlikely positions, and McManaman believes the club's previous successes in the competition often gives them the upper hand.
"I think it really helps," said McManaman. "I know it's an easy word to throw in, experience, but the amount of times you see Real Madrid 1-0, 2-0 down on big occasions and it doesn't bother them at all.
"They just grind through the game, grind through the hard part, knowing that eventually they'll come out on top.
"To have people like that who've won it on multiple occasions and to have experienced the atmosphere and the big occasions I think it really really helps. When you look at players and they've been there and won it and had criticism but have enjoyed good times, to lean on them, it really helps the players.
It's an experience McManaman was able to draw on himself in 2000. McManaman made the controversial move to leave Liverpool on a Bosman to join Real Madrid in the summer of 1999, and while Real got off to a nightmare start under John Toshack, new manager Vicente del Bosque took them to the UEFA Champions League final.
In less than 12 months, McManaman had left his boyhood club and was readying himself for the biggest game in club football, but said the experience of his team mates made things easier.
"My emotions were fine, I was incredibly excited of course," said McManaman. To reach the UEFA Champions League final nine months after I joined was brilliant.
"Looking in the dressing room a lot of my team mates won it in 1998 so they were incredibly calm. I remember the night before the game, people having a massage at 12am, 1am, which I found very strange coming from an English team, but they were so relaxed and that instilled a calmness in me.
"We won the game, the game was very comfortable actually, we won it really, really easily. The game went incredibly well; after 75 minutes we were 3-0 up so I could enjoy the last 15 minutes and take it all in.
"My mother passed away 36 hours after my last Liverpool game, but my father and sister and brother were there so that was very emotional afterwards, but really just overjoyed at the whole occasion to be honest.
