Passing Mastermind to Tactical Maestro – The Xabi Alonso Era Begins

This is all so unsubstantiated and clearly designed to sell papers, as its always the case with Madrid.

Xabi was brought to improve things from Carlo. If we wanted a revolution we would have went in a different direction.

All your (and media) conclusions are made from two matches, as opposed to the other 15 or 16 (not sure how many we played this season). This is as artificial as crisis as I have ever seen, its like people just speaking about negativity and the coach being under fire is the only thing that creates negativity and puts the coach under fire. Nobody knows what else is causing it. Just some kind of pluralistic ignorance imo

This is a resolved issue. We knew all of this from before. It was a conscious decision that we knew will create problems along the way. We still went with it because we measured the pros and cons and the pros weighed heavier.

Returning to this every time once in a blue moon god forbid we don't win a match is exhausting. And this is coming from the person that was widely laughed at for saying they would swap Vinicius and Rodrygo with Osimhen and Doku and earn money along the way too.

 

I'm a 100% on Xabi's side in this situation.

Some players are basically sabotaging him, the first one being Vini.
He's back to his "he's playing against us" days, and now it's even worse because he thinks he's the best player in the world.

Looking back, those who said Xabi had been too soft on him for the disrespect were 100% right.
We still have diva energy on this team and until we get rid of it, we won't win anything.

It's time for Xabi to go to war....he's been very diplomatic so far but it doesn't work. We need a team.

Bench and isolate those not with the program and let's improve. Let's invest in the players ready to fight for this jersey.

I'd rather watch tactically switched on and coachable players like Rodrygo, Franco, Gonzalo and Endrick than this Vini.

And no, I'm not saying Mbappe had a good game....but the attitude is better..and yes he's 10x the player this Vini is overall (not only looking at the Rayo game).

 

I’m not totally sure what Xabi actually wants to do with this team right now though, once everyone is healthy, which is pretty much the case now in midfield and attack. But it does take a bit of time to find that balance as well.

Which one of Jude and Arda is supposed to be the more deep lying player because there’s moments when they’re both doing the same thing?

Why is Camavinga being played as a right midfielder? Against Rayo he spent around 10/15 mins as a right winger after Ceballos came on. What’s the thought process there?

Why is Vini playing like a left midfielder, all the way out wide with minimal movement inside, even when we’re not playing a right winger, which is often the case?

Why was Fede being asked to play through pain yesterday as a right back, when Trent was ready to come on?

Where has Fran Garcia gone, who was being reviewed positively in the CWC, despite Carreras looking progressively worse for weeks now (maybe he needs a game off)?

Why have Gonzalo and Endrick combined shared 30 minutes on the field after one quarter of a season? Whilst Mastantuono receives a lot of minutes as a right winger, despite no ability to get past players out wide with pace.

I’m sure there’s sound logic behind all these from Xabi but I don’t understand it …

 

Certain players that you’re thinking of are Mbappe, Vini, Jude, Fede, Tchouameni. These are all players that indeed should play.

Let’s work to find a balance here as a team.

Our guys need coaching. Xabi’s assignment isn’t the same as Zidane’s or Carlo’s who had legendary, high IQ players who knew exactly what to do and where.

Barcelona are running a midfield with Pedri, De Jong, Fermin and make it work on and off the ball better than we do. Our talent pool overall is better I think.

 

I'm not against the grain on everything, that is a myth that has been proven wrong dozens of times and you know it. Its your flair for the dramatic that as usual exaggerates all these situations. "Humiliated" lol, what is this, Andrew Tate University? Maybe we should dump every coach who had a player express discontent for being subbed off? According to your logic Ancelotti's career should have ended in this very moment:



Side note: look at how Xabi Alonso reacts. He understands superstar divas better than anyone. He knows this comes with the territory and its just temporary flashes of temper that they have in order to be what they are. Means literally nothing in the big picture, because this is not a dick measuring contest.

Boy I'm glad hes in charge and not some egomaniacal disciplinarian that would actually make things bad by looking to prove how tough he is. Hope it stays that way and people in charge stay rational when the fanbase is not capable of it and the media desperately wants it like that.

Prime example. Completely out of touch. Vinicius level awareness. Its a race to the bottom honestly

 

Xabi was always a more serious and more diligent Ancelotti. Thats why we picked him. His pragmatism at Leverkusen was well known. Why is the fact that he is actually *managing* with caution and not scorched earth suddenly a surprise?

The undermining youre talking about is nothing except your fetish for punishing Vinicius to look like the tough guy. Other than that there has been literally nothing to suggest any kind of undermining.

And yes that one or Vinicius or Xabi will not be here in two years is not much of a hot take. I'd be fine with either since that would mean everything has been exhausted at that point. Vinicius is a hothead and has been speculated to leave before Xabi as well. Two years is a lot of time, we're talking about now. Now is the shitstorm people are artificially creating.

 

Ok Mr tough guy with the personal insults.

My overall point is that this type of behaviour does not lead to winning which is the only thing I'm thinking about.
To win, you need a team playing together. Vini is the opposite of that and has been for a season and change.
Bad attitude...doesn't play for his teammates and his performances are not up to standard. Getting the ball and repeatedly running past two players with no end product is not playing well.

Xabi wants to build a well oiled machine, how can you with this attitude? Bench him.

 

Overall

we haven’t been that much better than last season despite the upgrades to needed positions

but we were trending upwards before this past week so I guess we will see how we return from the break

 

Read we were 6 points behind Barca this time last season and had lost to Lille, Milan and Liverpool in CL. Start to this season is much better and yes we had Militao, Huijsen and Carreras healthy in defense.

 

barcelona is much worse this year no?

 

I agree with 4x4s we do not look like a unit at all.

I'm sure most players respect Xabi as he was an amazing player.

Hustle, discipline and sacrifice should be qualities that every player should have if they don't they should be free to leave.

Sergio and Pepe would eat this squad alive for how casual and lazy some of them are.

 

4x4s that is some disingenuous BS, you can't throw something like that out there and then when someone sincerely asks you what you're referring to because they haven't seen that, respond with "do your own research." You sound like an anti-vaxxer.

 

Part of the job when managing Madrid. He has to find a way to integrate these influential players into a system that works.

I think it’s fair to say without Mbappe being in extremely good form this season, we would be a few points behind Barcelona so far. Of course he’s our star player and it makes sense for him to win us points, but outside of him, Jude (recently) and Arda, no one else inspires any consistent creative action right now.

 

I think they’re pretty much the same tbh.

And, La Liga teams haven’t really been able to punish them as much as they should be doing imo.

 

Well it takes time; did Luis Enrique make PSG into a solid team in his first season? No, he identified key areas, sold off those he believed were holding the team back, etc.

 

which is why Vinny needs to go.

 

Vini carries a a chip on his shoulder


The whole ballon dor also messed him up and he knows he may never have another chance like that again

I don’t think he needs punishment per se , but needs reset of his focus .. play to win and to get results , forget about accolades , when u perform ppl will love you and you will win individual awards