Xabi Alonso is proving his ability to adapt as the game progresses. His initial approach was very similar to the one he adopted in the match against Salzburg, but it wasn’t working, so he turned the team around without changing a single player, and that was enough to start dominating a match that only ended 1-0 thanks to a superb performance by the Juventus goalkeeper.
Xabi Alonso, searching for his blueprint
Xabi Alonso is adding new elements to Real Madrid, searching for the system that best suits him, or rather, the systems that best suit him. The Tolosa-born coach has already shown that he is capable of changing the positioning of his players on the pitch depending on what the opposition does, as if it were a game of chess. Since his arrival, he has played with a 4-3-3, a 5-3-2 that could easily be a 3-5-2, and a 4-4-2.
The first half hour against Salzburg, with three center backs and two long-range wingbacks, was Real Madrid’s best in a long time, pressing, winning duels, running like planes, controlling the ball from side to side and with great speed. It was the first glimpse of what Real Madrid could be next season, the first foundations of a construction that promises to be enormous, or so we hope. But against Juventus, with the same formation, the first half was poor. They barely created any danger and the Italians, every time they managed to break through the midfield, created danger, and a lot of it, but they weren’t accurate.
Xabi Alonso’s tactical change
Xabi Alonso turned things around in the second half, without changing any of his players, just changing the tactical formation. Seeing that Juventus had opted for a less usual tactic, dropping the team back and leaving only one man up front, he decided to move Tchouaméni forward into midfield and play a double pivot with Arda Güler, giving more weight in the middle of the park to block the Italians’ build-up play, which had caused so much damage in the first half. This freed up Valverde, who flew in the second half: he was everywhere, both in attack and defense, an impressive display that unsettled a Juventus side that was subdued in the second half. Real Madrid took control of the game, creating more chances in the first five minutes than in the entire first half, and were rewarded with the goal that sent them through to the quarter-finals. There could have been more, but Di Gregorio was unbeatable in goal, keeping his team alive until the end.
Xabi Alonso and his vision as a coach
He has only been with the team for a short time, there is a lot of work to be done, many things to change, but Xabi Alonso is already beginning to show what he wants to do, his ability to adapt to every moment of the game, his ability to turn adverse situations around. The initial plan was not what was expected, and perhaps he preferred not to change it during the first half due to the lack of automatisms with his current squad. He preferred to wait until halftime, until the calm of the dressing room, to convey the new idea to his players, who executed it perfectly.
This is just a small sample of what we can expect to see next year: resources, tactical variations, solutions, but everything seems to have a common denominator: a desire to control games, take the initiative, and leave nothing to chance. Xabi Alonso is starting to convince, he is already among the top eight, just three games away from being crowned world champion.