Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

🚨 NEW: Sources at Valdebebas: "During Xabi Alonso's first traing sessions at Real Madrid, we saw some new tools and gadgets being used for training that we have NEVER SEEN in our lives before." @Rodra10_97 via @inakiangulo pic.twitter.com/vJvV4vyxzh

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 14, 2025

NEW: Sources at Valdebebas: "During Xabi Alonso's first traing sessions at Real Madrid, we saw some new tools and gadgets being used for training that we have NEVER SEEN in our lives before."@Rodra10_97 via @inakiangulo

 

We could however argue Rafa's Valencia league champs = Xabi's Leverkusen league champs.

 

❗️Tomorrow's training session will be live for the first 15 minutes.

Real Madrid train at 16:30 CEST. pic.twitter.com/tXjLCiKIYo

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) June 14, 2025

 

Nah, that's not how it works.

 

Oh yes we can. When did Leverkusen last win the Bundesliga before Xabi came along? And right after saving them from relegation I might add whilst being undefeated.

Real Madrid nor Barcelona wherent even 2nd that year Rafa won the league

And stop being dumb and bringin in each manager's entire resume. I specifically stated the league titles.

 

What a load of baloney. Has Union Berlin ever won the league or the UCL? I already warned you that we are comparing league titles, yet you insist on this braindead argument because that is all you have.

 

Benitez is a Madridista and he was genuinely happy that he finally got his dream job. But it was always going to be a disaster. One of the first things he did, if I remember correctly, was making Bale kind of the main guy. That was when he signed his death sentence, as he immediately lost the dressing room. But even if he hadn't done that, it was a mismatch from the start, just not the type of manager that could have worked with us and particularly that squad.

Having said that, his Valencia and Liverpool stints were a major success. Particularly his Valencia team. I remember watching them back in the day, they were a very impressive team. He led them to their first league title in 30+ years I believe. Let's not rewrite history here, he was a fantastic manager back then, a manager that just...couldn't make the transition to the 'modern era' if you will. It was exceptionally strange that we signed him in the mid-2010s.

I'm very excited for Xabi, can't wait for the season to start. He's had a fantastic start to his managerial career at Leverkusen, and I hope he gets the time and backing to continue his meteoric rise as a manager!

 

Rafa also made the fatal error of trying to teach peak CR7 how to take free kicks.

His Valencia team was pretty impressive with their team press. It was suffocating.

 

LOL

 

Ok guys, help me out here, I have never dealt with a Rafa Benitez fanboy before. What do we do?

 

No, Benitez being crap has nothing to do with Xabi Alonso lol.

 

This is a manager debate thread and imma enjoy it from the sidelines.

 

I remember when Benitez started to play Casemiro and some people were upset about it.
He's a likeable individual, I think he didn't "enjoy" respect from some players because he'd never broken into professional football himself and made it big as a player.
It was a mismatch since the beginning.
Regarding his Napoli stint, I'd say he was a little bit "unlucky."
Many of the players he was working with were in their 30s and his team failed to make it out of CL group stages despite having 4 victories.

 

He also tried to individually coach Modric not to use the outside of his right foot.

That is all you need to know about Benitiez and his style and how effective it was here.

He was the Klopp of his era. Takes the”underdog” club with a decent war chest and imposes his style and will on everyone to punch above their weight.

It’s funny if you listen to the documentaries about the 3-0 CL comeback that Rafa got the starting 11 wrong, and said litteraly nothing at halftime to motivate or change tactics all that much. Gerrard basically took the game on his shoulders.

He also messed up the CL final that they lost in 2007 with the wrong 11.

Then began the descent into a ton of bad transfers in and running a bunch of the good players out.

Xabi’s biggest challenge will be the man management. He’s got some really big egos to control and get buy in for the collective. My hunch is Xabi wont last longer than 3 seasons, which is expected at any top club these days.

 

He was "positional" in the sense that his teams generally were very structured and disciplined in and out of possession, but they didn't prioritize keeping the ball or controlling games through ball possession.

 

The reason I brought Benítez up was to highlight that being tactical isn’t the master passkey to everything. Historically, managing the squad and handling big egos has been a key attribute of any successful manager we’ve had for a long long time. If a manager thinks he’s the ultimate boss and that the players just need to follow orders, he will fail — even if he’s the greatest tactical genius of his generation.

I think this is one of Xabi’s biggest challenges as a young coach. This isn’t Leverkusen — here, he’ll have to deal with much bigger personalities with moon size ego and more complex dressing room dynamics. Let’s see how he handles that.

 

Well Xabi has all the elements to succeed and gain respect of the players:

• Part of historical Spain team that won 3 international trophies
• Won the UCL multiple times
• Played in the 3/5 big leagues and has won at every team
• Coached by multiple worldclass managers
• Proved himself at Leverkusen with a mediocre team

 

I am not saying he cannot. I am just saying we are yet to see if he can. All the achievements as a player are great, but a head coach needs to deal with much more delicate matters in man management than simply being a leader on the pitch.