Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

Again use your brain. If Dean wasn't at the club Xabi doesn't have th option. If Dean and Trent weren't at the club the play and results of yesterday weren't happening with these player's current levels.

If you're going to do brain optional again, I will leave you to discuss with yourself

 

Yes because if Carlo or Zidane were still around, they would deploy a back 3 with ten men all because Dean was playing. Optional brain beats roid rager every single time tho.

 

Way harsh. The guy is an academy product with less than a season of top flight football eperience, not some high paid foreign merecenary. Maybe a little humility, grace and understanding from the manager could be helpful in such a situation.


Sadly it looked like Xabi was making some progress in accepting he will need to do things the Carlo way until he has all his players and time for them to learn. He used Vini excellently to keep the defense on it's toes and having Jude and Fed, not as organizers, but as pure box to box midfielders running to open space and connect the lines. Good stuff, dialed it back to 23/24 season.

It even sounded like he had come full circle with the team needs to "suffer" comments. But now this. Ughh. WHY?

Anyway two different people as managers will sometimes get you two different results. This is going to be a point where he is different from Zidane and Ancelotti.

Zidane would have said there's no problem with the player and then proceeded to make him completely disapear from the lineup and bench. Carlo would have said there's no problem with the player, maybe it's "others" who need to make adjustments - and then proceed to play the exact same lineup anc tactics in the next match just to make sure the fans, media and everyone else know \who the boss is and who is calling the shots.

Should be interesting to see how Xabi's man management skills compare to some of the clubs legendary managers.

 

About a 3rd of city is a new team as well.... They aren't this oiled machine they were about a year and a half ago....

 

Yeah, Ancelotti doing 3 man back line with 10 men that too with a lead to protect. May be in some alternatives universe.

Man, Xabi is similar to Ancelotti crowd is now clutching at straws. That bogus theory now looking absolutely stupid they have started the excuses.

If only Dean was available Carlo would play like Xabi did XD

 

Strawman king strikes again.

Point to where anyone said this. Go ahead.

What was said was Xabi was allowed to be adventurous here because we added two key pieces we didn't have that significantly increased the quality to allow for that kind of variable.

No one said Carlo would do exactly what Xabi did. However Carlo damn well last I checked has adapted teams to win multiple CLs so pretending like he is some moron who couldn't win a match against Pachucha when he did 3 months ago just shows how foolish you are.

 

I know the opponent sucked but I really enjoyed those goals we scored. Just really awesome team football.

 

Don't forget the way we used ball possession as a defensive tool in the 2nd half.

 

Right now? We will have to use our usual, counter attacking style. We will probably be forced to use it even if the plan was different. What do you expect to see exactly?!

 

The first one was due to a competent RB combining with an unselfish striker.

The second again was more hustle and team play. It's easier to play as a unit at the moment.

 

Yup. That was never gonna happen with Carlo. Happens with Pep tho. The inverted wingback too.

Our resident roid rager's pretty mad about that. All he has at this point is the adaptability argument which is true. But one or two similarities doesn't make him right.

 

Xabi Alonso asks Vinicius to follow instructions and go deep.

He asked him once, twice, and three times. But Vinicius doesn't follow instructions.

Xabi, after giving up on Vinicius, asked him to play on the right!

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🎥

تشابي ألونسو يطلب من فينيسيوس الإلتزام بالتعليمات والدخول للعمق ..

طلب منه مرة واثنين وثلاثة .. لكن فيني لا يلتزم بالتعليمات.

تشابي بعدما يئس من فيني .. طلب منه اللعب عاليمين !

😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

pic.twitter.com/o0tU0Q2S6e

— محمود مجيد (@MMajeedX) June 23, 2025

 

The time for that hasn’t come yet. What purpose does it serve to try to force it and get humiliated? I doubt we would be able to do it at this stage anyway, even if we tried. This needs to be fully absorbed to a point where it becomes second nature. We will be able to control games against most sides, but we will need to be flexible against a handful of teams in Europe, for now.

 

Not happy with how Xabi is handling the Rodrygo situation. He should have been more ruthless. But he saw the little automaton in training with his crisp touch and good decisions on the small pitch and got fooled. Now the player has more leverage and others will see and take note that Xabi seeks to appease first.

 

My translation was very different.

"Xabi Alonso gave Vini complex instructions which the player carried out magificently three consecutive times.

The manager was so impressed that he asked the player to attempt the same thing but on the opposite side of the field."

Maybe Xabi is just not "that" guy. I know we keep hearing from his fans that he's super professional and that he'll stick to his philosophy of it's better to lose the game than lose the ball and it's better to win possession than win the game.

But maybe after all the emotional hoopla of getting his big move to the club he realized he's going to have to be more practical and flexible, and diversify his approach. Maybe he won't just stick to doing things "his" way and instead will be open to changing his entire approach if it's what the team needs based on the players abvailable.

Xabi doing things the Carlo way might not be a bad idea.

 

Dreading the day that Xabi will ask Huijsen to play in central midfield and act as a more advanced distributor LOL

 

Rodrygo is still here and sending signals he intends to stay because "he talked to the new coach". You dont need to have the eye of an eagle to see this

 

Xabi has been here for a month though. IMO he needed to assert himself more from the get go, announce a clear out, make the players who are not in his plans train separately etc. By being flexible it will be harder for him to implement his ideas.