What can we learn from Arbeloa's time at Real Madrid?

By the time Alvaro Arbeloa was promoted from Real Madrid Castilla - sitting fourth in their Primera RFEF group at the time - he had created a football identity of teams with personality and wanting to dominate.

Yet at the first team, he says he couldn't simply be himself.

So his time as first-team manager at Real Madrid may be no real reference for Fulham .

At Castilla, his side was built around what he calls offensive joy - possession and pressing without the ball were the two pillars.

Arbeloa was always willing to go more direct when a match demanded it.

On paper, it was a 4-3-3; in practice, one midfielder pushed on almost as a number 10, shifting the shape into a 4-2-3-1 with a clear reference point up front, and wide areas mattered enormously.

Something was non-negotiable: intensity. Arbeloa's defensive model is built on relentless pressing - this was not a team that wanted to sit back and defend its own box, whatever else changes around it.

Much of that thinking has roots in the dressing rooms he played in.