Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

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He's won't dare pick that fight with Mbappe who is the President's Pet. They will have some weird signal like Mbappe rubbing his nose or pulling his ear, this will count as defending.

It's guys like Fed and Jude that are going to be looking over their shoulder all season long, and I bet they are tired of having to do the running for guys like Mbappe, Modric, etc.

Nice little caveat here that he can use as a get out of jail free card for Mbappe.

Easy to see coming that someone like Fed, Jude, Cama, etc., will be running 11 of 12 kilometers a game and Xabi won't be impressed with their effort but Mbappe will be racking up 7 or 8 kilometers and Xabi will be "surprised" by his commtiment and stamina.

 

🚨 JUST IN: Xabi Alonso had a meeting with his entire staff immediately before his very first training session as Real Madrid coach, in order to decide what specific aspect of the game they should focus on the most.

The decision was clear: pressing.

Xabi's biggest focus right… pic.twitter.com/eIaEEJZay7

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 16, 2025

JUST IN: Xabi Alonso had a meeting with his entire staff immediately before his very first training session as Real Madrid coach, in order to decide what specific aspect of the game they should focus on the most. The decision was clear: pressing. Xabi's biggest focus right now is making the team win the ball back as soon as they lose it. He has been working on it in every single training session so far.
@diarioas

🚨 Xabi Alonso does NOT want Real Madrid to sit back in a deep block when they don't have the ball, like in recent years.

He wants the team to press "reasonably" high, and be VERY agressive in trying to win the ball back.

His plan is also to make the team more compact when they… pic.twitter.com/6ZC1n0Rh8p

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 16, 2025

Xabi Alonso does NOT want Real Madrid to sit back in a deep block when they don't have the ball, like in recent years. He wants the team to press "reasonably" high, and be VERY agressive in trying to win the ball back. His plan is also to make the team more compact when they press, not each player pressing on his own. That has been a major point in his first training sessions with the whole squad.
@diarioas

 

I'd say Mourinho had an upper hand over the players.

 

I like Xabi Alonso's plan a lot. It is very suitable for a big club. Aggressive, compact and generally vey active.

That said, actually realizing his plan with players like Mbappe and Vini is gonna be hard. I wonder if he will be able to get through to them.

Alonso may have to find the right balance with them, instead of forcing them to play his way for the full 100%. I'm reminded of what Salah recently said about Klopp and Slot. He said that he is allowed to make less defensive runs under Slot and that it pleases him a lot. He said he is able to use that energy to attack even better.

 

Mourinho came in a month after winning the CL, and had 2 CL's to his name. That was enough earned credit to buy alot of time, but eventually time ran out and he hadn't won a CL.

Mourihno at the time was consedered the best manager in the world by the time he left he had made Pep the best manager in the world.

1 la liga and 1 copa del rey in three seasons was an abject failure when considering the expectations when he arrived and what resulted.

This is fairly common type of "delegation" of responsibilities and it's been that way in the sport for ages. Carlo did it with Kaka at AC Milan.

Gonna be a real challenge for Xabi to convince the team, President and fans that the club will be better off scoring fewer goals and conserving that energy so it can run more on defense.

 

We brought Xabi so that this changes. The culture, the identity, everything. The club is not supposed to make Xabi conform to its ways and turn him into a yes man. Xabi is supposed to make the club get with the times.

 

All sounds great, exactly what people want to hear, the proof will be in the pudding, i'm waiting till the actual football starts

 

It'll take a lot of time, as the players will have to unlearn their habits first. Regardless of what the expectations are from the club's side, this CWC is a good opportunity to already get some of that work done prior to the start of the league.

 

Agreed as is always the case, it will take effort from both the coach and the players to make things work

 

I don’t think Vini will have a problem with this system, he’s done it before. I still think Mbappe’s poor attitude to off the ball work, and Carlo’s inability to fix that issue, led to Vini doing the same, and then subsequently Jude losing morale as well.

When Vini played with Benz this was never really a problem, I mean we were never a high press team of course but individually there was no issue with off the ball effort. It wasn’t an issue the season before last either with Vini and Rodrygo up front.

 

This isn't true. The club's culture has always been dictated by the President and board.

It's specifically why manager's who don't know how to manage players and personalities fail miserably when they come to the club.

 

Managers who dont know how to manage players and personalities fail when they come to any club. But managing is not pampering. Creating a new culture and managing players are not exclusive things. Mourinho was close to doing it but his defensive mindset and antagonistic public personality cut that attempt short.

Xabi has a chance to do it right. If the coach suffers because some primadonna doesn't want to put in the effort Im on the side of the coach and so should be everyone including the president.

 

Now you're being disingenuous because Rafa Benitez is a person who is considered to not manage players and personalities and he win a CL, two league titles and two Europa leagues.

In the end as I have said the culture of the club is controlled by the President and the board. It's why you said said "including the president" because the tone of any organization is set by the leader; not by middle management.

 

Benitez lacked charisma which Xabi has in excess. If players buy in, Xabi should have both longevity like Carlo due to relationship and short term success like Benitez due to tactics.

For me the manager fosters the sporting culture. A president who is a businessman cannot define what a club's identity on the pitch is. And if we are really going to be formal about hierarchy, the players are under the coach, so that is that.

 

You can have all the charisma you want. If you aren't backed by your boss you're looking for a new job with 6 months.

It's why non-man managers never work at Madrid. It's also why Xabi is so hands on because he obviously knows that better than anyone here as he knows the club and president inside and outside.

 

Xabi will use his charisma to rein in the players and his knowledge of the club (with a bit of that charisma as well) to get the president to support him if there are any dissenters. Thats exactly what made him edge out Klopp as the best choice, despite Klopp being even more charismatic and tactically astute. He has the history and familiarity with the club, and he isn't exactly Arbeloa in terms of name either.

What we are hearing from the training ground is exactly what we wanted to hear. Hard work, seriousness, innovations, this is just what we needed.

 

Again I have never questioned Xabi's charisma. I also would not questioned his experience and intelligence... so the idea he would be this mean disruptor disciplinarion terrorizing the players isn't based in reality.

He comes off just like Zidane did. Very demanding but very close to players with personal relationships.

 

Maybe it's a new thing that the team has never done or experienced before, they are probably more accustomed to having fun at training, just running around aimlessly, doing nothing particular, kinda worked for a few years there

 

I agree. But he also has the benefit of the Spanish school of coaching which should make him even more sophisticated as a tactician.

Literally every video I have seen of the team training under Ancelotti is either playing 7 a side, shooting drills or piggy in the middle. Keep being bitter though, maybe that will bring him back.

 

I don't judge Ancelotti's body of work by the way he does his training sessions, thats your own inference. The bigger issue with your argument is that I have seen plenty of videos of other teams training and they were not all kickabouts. So the whole "they deliberately show us only that part" doesn't apply here.

So yes, so far the reports from Xabi's sessions are indicating a different approach from Carlo's. People can make sarcastic comments all they want to argue that Carlo's training methods were amazing in order to put down Xabi, but we have seen Carlo's team on the pitch, we know his history, then theres the videos, so yeah I'd say that Xabi is different in training.