Why Xabi Alonso is the proper coach for Actual Madrid

There’s no use beating across the bush: it has been a horrific marketing campaign for Actual Madrid. One season after profitable the UEFA Champions League and LaLiga title, Los Blancos failed to assert any main trophies after shedding out to Barcelona within the title race and the Copa del Rey closing, and struggling a humiliating defeat to Arsenal within the Champions League quarter-finals. Nevertheless, membership president Florentino Perez and the remainder of the entrance workplace have been arduous at work to make sure that historical past doesn’t repeat itself in 2025/26. They’ve added two of the highest-rated defenders within the Premier League to their squad in Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen, while they’ve additionally been linked with a transfer for Benfica left-back Alvaro Carreras. Nevertheless, Actual’s finest signing to this point hasn’t been a participant, however a supervisor: Xabi Alonso.

In the present day, we’re having a look at three explanation why Alonso is the proper teaching rent for Actual Madrid.

1. Bettering Actual’s attacking steadiness

When Actual Madrid signed Kylian Mbappe on a free switch simply two days after securing their fifteenth UEFA Champions League title, it appeared that nothing was stopping them from happening a tear and racking up much more silverware beneath Carlo Ancelotti. The French attacker had already established himself as the most effective gamers on the planet by profitable the 2018 World Cup, claiming the Ligue 1 golden boot in six consecutive seasons, and rising as PSG’s all-time main scorer with 256 objectives in 308 appearances. Absolutely, Actual had been going to be too sizzling to deal with?

Not so quick. Los Blancos ended up scoring 9 fewer league objectives – 24 fewer than Barcelona – and while Mbappe loved one other scintillating marketing campaign and claimed the LaLiga golden boot with 31 objectives, Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior took a step again of their attacking manufacturing. Ancelotti struggled to deal with the truth that all of his forwards most well-liked to hug the left flank and did not get essentially the most out of his star-studded attacking arsenal, and it ended up costing him his job. Nevertheless, if there’s anybody who is aware of the right way to maximise his choices within the closing third, it’s Alonso.

After teaching Actual Sociedad B for 3 years, Alonso’s first-ever managerial job on the high degree would are available October 2022, with Leverkusen discovering themselves saddled in an early relegation battle. He managed to show issues round and make them a powerful sixth-place end with 57 objectives scored, in addition to a visit to the Europa League semis, earlier than engineering a 2023/24 season for the ages. Leverkusen secured their first-ever Bundesliga title in addition to their first trophy in three many years, going unbeaten in each the league and the DFB-Pokal and reaching the Europa League closing, earlier than ending second within the 2024/25 marketing campaign and going from 89 to 72 objectives scored.

Throughout his tenure in Germany, Alonso confirmed foresight in balancing his attacking choices and getting optimum output from not simply Leverkusen’s centre-forwards in Victor Boniface and Patrik Schick, however their different gamers as properly. With wing-backs Jeremie Frimpong bombing up the correct flank and Alex Grimaldo carving out sensational crosses from deep, midfield pivot Granit Xhaka and Exequiel Palacios chipping in with incisive runs into the field, and Florian Wirtz working the present because the staff’s inventive talisman, it’s simple that this Leverkusen facet was a staff mission. Alonso understands that no participant is greater than the staff, and that’s one key precept that he’ll be trying to inculcate in his new gamers this summer season.

2. Main the dressing room

Whether or not it’s the 15 European Cups that loom within the trophy cupboard or the dazzling assortment of big-name superstars, the Actual Madrid managerial function is a place like no different in world soccer. You don’t simply must win trophies, you don’t simply must go far within the Champions League and win in El Clasico, you don’t simply must take care of the fixed stress from the media, however you additionally must handle a dressing room that’s full of excessive earners and heavy egos. You should pacify any rising tensions, that you must discover a approach to ensure you’re taking everybody’s voices into consideration, and above all, that you must be sure that everybody’s on the identical web page.

Alonso’s calm and picked up fashion of management might show very important as he seems to be to achieve the respect of his gamers and get everybody beating beneath the identical drum. At Leverkusen, there have been by no means any indicators of locker-room discontent or training-ground bust-ups – the gamers had been devoted in direction of fulfilling his tactical technique and placing in a shift each on and off the ball. As one of many biggest midfielders of the twenty first century, Alonso can have undoubtedly made an impression already on his gamers, who watched him win a Champions League and league title with Actual Madrid, in addition to a World Cup with Spain. If a participant is struggling to play the correct cross or isn’t fairly having the cleanest of touches, Alonso can step apart and supply him with very important data to assist him rework his sport.

While Ancelotti will depart Chamartin as essentially the most profitable supervisor in membership historical past, there’s little doubt that his tactical setup went stale over the ultimate season of his second spell in Madrid. Many of those gamers will want to have a youthful coach – 22 years youthful to be precise – who can maybe relate higher to their points and converse their language, so to talk. What’s extra, a lot of them will possible want having to adapt to stricter tactical calls for versus Ancelotti’s fashion of relationism, which permits for a extra intuitive fashion of play and relies upon gamers forming natural relationships between one another and flowing into the sport.

When Alonso was beginning his teaching journey in 2018, he loved a quick spell in control of Actual Madrid’s U-14 facet. His expertise with La Fabrica might see him give extra alternatives to academy skills like Gonzalo Garcia and Jacobo Ramon, versus Ancelotti who sometimes turned a blind eye to gamers within the youth ranks. As seen with Barcelona’s success this season beneath Hansi Flick, having these younger, hungry academy merchandise who reside and breathe the membership is crucial each on and off the pitch, and there’s motive to consider that Alonso will make an effort to include them into the staff.

3. Defensive stability

Assault could win video games, however defence wins championships. What’s extra, a worsened defence can lose you championships. That was definitely the case for Actual Madrid this season, who conceded 16 objectives of their 4 conferences with Barcelona (all defeats), and who additionally let in 2+ objectives to Arsenal (twice), Actual Sociedad, Celta de Vigo, Valencia and Leganes over the ultimate two months of the marketing campaign. Regardless of scoring 24 objectives fewer than their Catalan rivals, Actual may need had an opportunity at retaining their home crown had they been in a position to batten down the hatches in defence and keep away from expensive slip-ups like a 1-1 draw at Osasuna in February or a 2-1 defeat at Actual Betis on March 1st.

As a substitute, they completed second after conceding 38 league objectives – 12 greater than final season – though a part of that’s all the way down to an damage disaster that laid siege to numerous key gamers like Antonio Rudiger and Dani Carvajal. It stays to be seen whether or not or not we are going to see Alonso proceed together with his three-man backline that introduced him nice acclaim in Leverkusen, which might possible take a very long time to soak up, or go along with the four-man defence that has been the customary system in Madrid. Nevertheless, Alonso’s teaching historical past demonstrates that he’s greater than able to organising the defensive setup in a means that Actual can commit our bodies ahead with out leaking pointless probabilities.

Specializing in a high-pressing, mid-block defensive setup, Alonso prioritises a 5-2-2-1 formation out of possession to congest the center of the pitch and pressure opponents out huge, the place his wing-backs can step up, win the ball again and break on the counter. Actual struggled in massive video games because of their lack of software out of possession, particularly because of poor work charge from Mbappe and Vinicius, however Alonso might be trying to counteract this and impress his ways upon his gamers. Alonso’s groups are centred round urgent the opposition and forcing errors earlier than recovering the ball instantly and hitting in transition, while they’re additionally able to remaining compact out of possession in an clever relaxation defence, squeezing the opponent, and remaining cool beneath stress.

All in all, Alonso is the proper teaching rent for Actual Madrid. However don’t simply take my phrase for it – take the opinion of Derek Rae, who has spent the previous three years masking Alonso’s Leverkusen because the lead Bundesliga commentator for ESPN.

“I’ve all the time had that sixth sense that Actual Madrid and Xabi Alonso had been meant to be collectively once more in some unspecified time in the future. Final yr, when it appeared the entire footballing world was obsessive about him going to Liverpool, it didn’t make sense for Alonso to go there as he was nonetheless constructing one thing with Bayer Leverkusen. I stored believing that in the event you had been in his place, the last word job he’d need is Actual Madrid. For a retired Spanish footballer, that’s a job that you’d really need. He’s served his apprenticeship in Leverkusen, the place he was in a position to develop as a supervisor and be taught by doing in a comparatively small place and a lower-pressure atmosphere. He’s prepared for the following step, an almighty step, however I’ve all the time had it behind my thoughts that the logical subsequent transfer for him was Actual Madrid.”