Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

Its like saying if Mbappe wasn't a world cup winner and the fastest player in the world with a goal per game stats we would have never bought him. Completely pointless.

 

I dont know what you mean by "the look" but Xabi being a former Madrid player and his stature in the game are objective criteria for what he can produce too. Since we know that getting someone with no connection to Madrid and no "name" is going to create a lot of difficulties as a Madrid manager. We were actually lucky that he is a also tactical coach.

 

Xavi was allowed to finish the season and he won the league, and also Xabi's stature doesn't come only from playing for Madrid but also for a bunch of big clubs in different leagues and learning from the best managers in history

 

4x4 explain why is it we looked so poor last season under Carlo, and now under Xabi?

I wonder what the common denominator is?

Has to be thier profiles since they are so similar as coaches no?

 

I'm watching the Aston Villa vs. West Ham (which hopefully Villa win), and the commentator made an interesting comment about the intensity and authoritarianism that Emery has injected into the club. Apparently, all of the players are forced to watch hours of video footage as part of training and preparation, and listen to him for extending periods about how he wants them to structurally set-up.

As things stand at Real Madrid, all of that would miserably fail within a few weeks.

 

The team reminds me of the last years of the galacticos who would have episodes of brilliance but no longer put in the work for 90 minutes.

The problem is that these players are not near retirement, so there is no excuse for this lack of intensity.

 

I’d say Xabi tried that already and hence the rebellion from Vinny, Jude, Fede….. cause “we’ve won the CL” we don’t need to prep.

 

That and the president keeps catering to the players instead of the coach. Seems his fetish for superstars hasn't waned.

 

So your thought process in keeping Xabi is that he is doing just as bad as the previous coach last season? What?! The last manager had to leave (basically fired) but let's keep this one 'cause it's "club legend Xabi"

Only difference is that Carlo actually won the league and the champions league before that bad season and that bought him a little time and respect. Xabi doesn't have that. Also in my opinion Xabi is performing worse than Carlo.

1. Carlo never went only 2 wins in 8 matches.

2. Xabi has a better Squad. New players: Carreras, Mastantuono, Huijsen, Trent, Gonzalo

3. Carlo never lost the authority and respect in the dressing room.

4. Both have injuries that's true but I remember us having to play Carvajal as CB and our central midfielder Aurelien was our main CB for most of the season. You remember Lucas too?

My point is not that we should get Carlo back but that you cannot defend Xabi by explaining that he is doing it equally as bad as the previous coach. He has literally been signed to improve on that. That's the whole point he is here. He has been signed to do all the magical things we were told about.

 

Fetish for superstars?

Only Mbappe was a superstar signing (and we wanted him when he was super young at monaco)

Mastantuono 17 yrs old
Huijsen 20 yrs old

Jude was not a superstar when we signed him. He was 19 years old
Rodrygo was signed at 17 years old.
Vinicius was signed at 16 years old.

These players are madridistas from a young age. Supposedly they should bleed the shirt.

it's not perfect but this is nothing like the galactico era.

 

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He has a sysrem that did not work.

 

Did not work; it was working fine until the whole El Clasico incident. I'm sure not getting back from the higher-ups or being told to make Vini a starter didn't really help.

Ideally, we should have a more flexible formation. Like 4-3-3 against easier opponents and then the 5-3-2 against the top-tier European competition. And what's beautiful about that is the 4-3-3 can easily become the 5-3-2 in-game by telling Aurélien to drop into defense.

 

The players are unwilling to "play" that system in the small games. The team looked fine for the bigger games such as the one against Barcelona and actually, Manchester City. The feud between Xabi Alonso and VJ is probably fake news, but a lot of players are not motivated.

 

If that is so, then it must be that there is a fundamental lack of faith in Xabi's abilities.

 

Only a string of wins will prolong Xabi's stay this season. Else they gonna get some interim soon and have a washout season because Klopp, Zidane etc has no interest in the job. Pointless revolving door pattern like 2003-06 era.

 

The only way Xabi stays and gets past all this talk is if he wins the Super Cup. I don't think he'll survive another loss to Atletico.

 

Those who were screaming for a “controller” type player in the summer have been proven 100% right imo. I don’t think we can do without one or even two. Our guys can’t keep the ball in any meaningful way and that is problem offensively and defensively. Even “small” teams are somehow always still in the game even when we lead.

Of course when Dean and Trent are playing, it’s a bit better….but still not enough.

We don’t typically sign in January so it might be worth testing out a couple of Castilla players with that profile. The solution might be in-house.

 

Xabi is lacking some key tools…keep him and keep fixing this unbalanced squad.

 

Trying to spin all those rejections by calling Arbeloa the chosen one is hilarious when the reality is he's the only one.