Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

Dani Ceballos: "Xabi Alonso is teaching us new things. He is a very tactical coach, very positional, and he wants us to win the ball back in the opponent's half. Little by little, we're doing what he asks of us."


LoL even the current players have started calling his method tactical and positional.

We are moving in the right direction.

 

I like it.

This season has "exciting" written all over it. The football will be sublime.

 

Xabi Alonso went over to Arda Guler to give him specific instructions in training. pic.twitter.com/mKhFSbMfXc

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso went over to Arda Guler to give him specific instructions in training.

 

🚨 JUST IN: Xabi Alonso's coaching staff believes that at Real Madrid, the team lacks SPEED.

Xabi is now putting a significant focus on intensity in training sessions, specifically in pressing and in transition drills, in order to solve this issue. @JorgeCPicon pic.twitter.com/HwlpRY9K29

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

JUST IN: Xabi Alonso's coaching staff believes that at Real Madrid, the team lacks SPEED. Xabi is now putting a significant focus on intensity in training sessions, specifically in pressing and in transition drills, in order to solve this issue. @JorgeCPicon

 

I was about to post the same. How is this even news?

 

5 CL's in 10 years and two CL's in the last 4 years are pretty good indicators that the club has been out in the wilderness for quite a while and should no longer be considered a powerhouse.

For whatever reason it appears as if the club fell off a cliff many years ago and never recovered. We may be past the point of no return but as you say the club must act with the utmost urgency to foster a new cultural identity and modernize before it becomes totally obsolete and irrelevant.

A new soundproof stadium will be the key to all of this, if only....

You don't judge Carlo's entire body of work by his "training methods" but you will judge his training methods against another coach's training methods and conclude that these new and different training methods will yield superior results.

But if you compare "the entire body of work" of the two coaches the only real conclusion that can be made is that Carlo's training methods have proven to be superior. This based off of the on field results (i.e. what happened in the games).

Arguably by that formula of: (training methods) = + / - (titles), Carlo's training methods by far have yielded more success than any other coach in the last two decades and probably ever.

 

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "My project? At Real Madrid, the project never changes.

The project is to win." pic.twitter.com/eRcrTucWNK

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "My project? At Real Madrid, the project never changes. The project is to win."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "We know what we are, we know what we want, and we know how we want to play, and that's what we're working on building." pic.twitter.com/RPmV5aZdH5

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "We know what we are, we know what we want, and we know how we want to play, and that's what we're working on building."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "I am 100% certain that the team we'll be at the end of the Club World Cup will be better than the team we'll be at the start of the CWC.

Game after game, we'll adjust things and improve." pic.twitter.com/Sc6nZRnHw5

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "I am 100% certain that the team we'll be at the end of the Club World Cup will be better than the team we'll be at the start of the CWC. Game after game, we'll adjust things and improve."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Managing superstars? I've had experience with players like Cristiano and Benzema.

Players like that are very ambitious, so you need to know how to press the right buttons, and keep that ambition of theirs high." pic.twitter.com/w13epAmrv3

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "Managing superstars? I've had experience with players like Cristiano and Benzema. Players like that are very ambitious, so you need to know how to press the right buttons, and keep that ambition of theirs high."

 

Xabi Alonso: "The most important thing to improve? Distance management. We will be positioned better on the pitch, and everything will work better that way. We insisted on that a lot."

"We're already better on the ball and off the ball."

 

He's been saying all of the right things. Can't wait for the Xabi era to officially start tomorrow.

 

Xabi Alonso: "Arda Guler and Endrick will play more this season."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Arda Guler and Endrick will play more this season." pic.twitter.com/UZAd9ZDKy3

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

 

Might actually see Mbappe and Vini press under Xabi.

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Attackers pressing? We have 11 players on the pitch, and our idea is for all 11 players to work towards the same thing." pic.twitter.com/DVrZCys0t7

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "Attackers pressing? We have 11 players on the pitch, and our idea is for all 11 players to work towards the same thing."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Attackers defending? That's FUNDAMENTAL. The team needs to defend together. There needs to be balance in attack and defense." pic.twitter.com/j413S1UXMb

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "Attackers defending? That's FUNDAMENTAL. The team needs to defend together. There needs to be balance in attack and defense."

🚨 Xabi Alonso: "Jude Bellingham has the soul of a midfielder. He likes to work in build-up and also has the quality of crashing the box, but he's a midfielder at heart." pic.twitter.com/q3WMtgAnA6

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 17, 2025

Xabi Alonso: "Jude Bellingham has the soul of a midfielder. He likes to work in build-up and also has the quality of crashing the box, but he's a midfielder at heart."

 

Sounds like 3 attackers and Jude playing more as a CM.

 

No matter what happens, no one can deny that Mr. Cool looks suave as hell in that polo.

X. gonna give it to ya.

 

Man , again a quote about positional play importance by Xabi after Ceballos confirming the positional play importance in his tactics.

Apparently bunch of Ancelotti fans wanted to claim this guy as similar to Ancelotti, it was the funniest short lived theory I have seen here.

 

We'll see in due time how successful he is at getting the players to buy-in to his philosophies. All the tactics talk is useless if it doesn't translate on the field. I've been looking forward to Xabi being hired for a very long time now and I'm very optimistic it'll translate, but I will just say I seem to recall one of the problems with Benitez (I know, a hire we never should've made to begin with) being described as basically "we don't need a manager to teach us how to play football"...different squad back then, although the ethos of this club in the last 10-15 years have seemed to broadly overlap, for better (great European success) and for worse (second-best compared to Barcelona in domestic comps).

 

I prefer Jude in the midfield. Even this last year in the start of the season when supposedly Jude was not very good because he was not scoring I loved watching him play in the midfield and control the tempo more. We have other players to score the goals I want Jude to be more like a Modric.

 

As i said before , not too bothered about the talking and the transfers, waiting for the football, also here's a random wild unhinged thought, what if Xabi uses Rodry in the Florian role............nah, won't happen

 

I see nothing in common at all with Wirtz and Rodrygo, but I dunno, just because Rodrygo hasn't come doesn't mean he can't.

 

I'm optimistic. This is Real Madrid, and given the success we've had I'm allowed to be optimistic.

 

I don’t either, I certainly don’t see him as a number 10, but I do know that disciplined players like Rodrygo might be more amenable to playing under a more structured and less spontaneous system than players like Vini who just want the ball at their feet before deciding where to take it.

 

I don't know, seems like alot of people want to find out if and how Xabi is going to make Mbappe play defense but all of these comments can just as easily be translated into he doesn't expect is forwards to contribute heabily on defense.

"attackers pressing? Our idea is for all 11 players to work towards the same thing"

=

everyone will be working towards scoring goals and winning.

Jude has the "soul" of a midfielder. He really is the new philosopher.


It just seems like Xabi places too much importance on "the feels". Seems like practically very press conference he's talking about vibes and how everyone has to get to know each other.


He's supposed to be this system guy whose calculated all the possilities of playing out his game of X's and O's, but there scant details and evidence that he's instilling any of this and instead everything is in these measured, ambiguous statements where there's always some caveat which opens the door for things not to happen the way he is explaining.

 

🚨 Thibaut Courtois: “We still have Ancelotti’s automatisms and that can NOT be changed in four days.” @ellarguero pic.twitter.com/OzZ3Ml0qYx

— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) June 18, 2025

Thibaut Courtois: “We still have Ancelotti’s automatisms and that can NOT be changed in four days.”@ellarguero

🚨🗣️ Thibaut Courtois: "After 4 years with Ancelotti, we learned some habits that are difficult to change in 4 days.

Xabi wants different ways to defend and attack.

We are watching videos and talking a lot. We will learn from this game."

— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) June 18, 2025

Thibaut Courtois: "After 4 years with Ancelotti, we learned some habits that are difficult to change in 4 days. Xabi wants different ways to defend and attack. We are watching videos and talking a lot. We will learn from this game."