Written by Paul Michael Ezeoha
Xabier Alonso Olano is a Spanish football manager and retired footballer who currently serves as the head coach of Real Madrid C.F. He was born on November 25, 1981, in Tolano, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain, into a footballing family - his father, Periko Alonso and elder brother, Mikel Alonso, were once professional players for Barcelona and Real Sociedad, respectively. Having made his debut for his hometown club, Real Sociedad against Longrones in the Copa Del Rey on December 1st,1999, as an eighteen-year-old teenager, he was sent on loan the following year to fellow Basque country-based club, Eibar. Xabi was later brought back Real Sociedad after his loan spell ended on 30th of December 2000, wherein he would go on to become their captain in the 2003/2004 season when the club ended as La Liga's runner up. On August 9th 2004, he joined Liverpool for a fee worth 10 million British pounds, where he won four trophies during his spell at Anfield, including a UEFA Champions League, FA Cup, FA Community Shield, and UEFA Super Cup. He left Liverpool to return to Spain, joining Real Madrid, on the 20th day of August 2009, for a transfer fee worth over 30 millions Euros, a place he would spend five seasons, wining the La Liga title twice and one UEFA Champions League title, before departing to Germany, to join Bayern Munich, on August 29,2014 for a fee within the region of nine million Euros, where he won two German Bundesligas and two league cups. On the international level, Xabi represented the Spanish national team 104 times, winning the 2008 and 2012 UEFA European Championships and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In 2017, he retired from professional football.
During his playing time, Xabi was hailed for technicality, long-range passing ability, shooting power, and defensive aggressiveness. He featured majorly at the holding midfield role, but, on rare occasions, took on more advanced midfield role.
No sooner had he declared his retirement from playing, than he transitioned to a managerial career. In 2018, while still completing his UEFA Pro coaching license, he was appointed head coach of Real Madrid under 14 team. After the completion of this UEFA license, Xabi was made head coach of Real Sociedad B team in 2019, where he helped them gain promotion to La Liga Segunda during his second year in charge. His first professional job came in 2022, when he was named the head coach of German club, Bayer Leverkusen. In 2024, he made history by winning a double: the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal- the clubs first league title and a first domestic league cup since 1993 - doing so without losing a single match, the first time any team would win the Bundesliga unbeaten. On June 1, 2025, he took charge of Real Madrid as the club's head coach.
COACHING PHILOSOPHY/STYLE OF FOOTBALL
Xabi Alonso's football style strikes good balance between defence and attack. We shall factor out several elements encompassing his style of football.
The 5-5 System.
Xabi is one of the multitudes of football coaches whose playing style is greatly influenced by Pep Guardiola. Just like Pep, Xabi Alonso has strong likening for the 5-5 system, a system he had implemented for most of his tenure in Leverkusen.
This system consists of a 5-man defensive unit(in most case, a three central back and two holding midfielders) who play relevant role during build up and provide the team with defensive cover against counter attacks, and a 5-man forwarders(two attacking midfielders, two wingers, and a striker).
This system offers stability, dominance and structural dynamism during the build up phase.
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Here, we see Leverkusen implementing the 5-5 system: the five-man defensive unit including the three central backs and two holding midfielders, and the five-man attacking unit consisting of the two attacking midfielders, the two wingers and a striker. (Photo Credit: Bundesliga)
Now, we shall see consider this system during the defensive phase.
When in this 5-5 system, Xabi does well to prepare his team against attacking threats from the opponents in moments when they lose possession of the ball. Due to the close proximity the five defensive players, it provides his team with enough defensive cover even if the rest of the team fail to help out with defensive duty.
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Below, we shall observe in two different match scenarios how the presence of five ensured that Bayer Leverkusen had enough players to protect against counter attacks when they loss possession.
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
Lure and Shock
Another key element of Alonso's style of football is what is termed 'lure and shock'. This is visible during the build-up phase. By lure, it means that Alonso's team aim to drag their opponents out of position in order to create space to advance play. So, to achieve this, they tend to build play with many players surrounding the ball. With this, their opponents would be tempted to move away from their positions- because they wouldn't want to allow Leverkusen much freedom to build up play, as they would better orchestrate their attacks - in order to press them. And when they press, they usually end up leaving gap in their structure. So, when this space is created, Xabi's men would swiftly exploit this gap to then advance play - hence, they would 'shock' their opponents who wouldn't be well prepared to deal with such ploy.
This strategy is usually geared towards creating space to advance play through the middle of the pitch, as it's the area nearer to the opponent's goal.
It is one perfect tactics used to unlock low blocks.
In the scenarios below, we shall see this strategy playing out
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| Bayern Leverkusen build up play in their own half with five players surrounding the ball. This tempts their opponent strikers to try to press these players, therefore drawing them out of their compact defensive structure, which would create space in the midfield. One of Leverkusen's holding midfielders spots this space and avails himself there. (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| He receives the ball, and this also draws the attention of the opponent midfielders, thereby allowing Florian Wirtz to receive the ball with freedom in large area of space. (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| Florian receives and immediately locates his teammate, Adli behind the defence line. (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| Adli gets to the ball, (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| goes round the goalkeeper to then score. (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
This same strategy is seen in another match scenario
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| Leverkusen build up play with many players surround the ball, this tempts their opponent four midfielders to engage in the press, thereby creating space for Florian Wirtz to receive the ball unmarked in-between the lines. |
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| He receives and immediately plays a diagonal pass behind the opponent's defence for Victor Boniface. |
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| Boniface reached the ball |
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| and finishes well. |
Exploiting the Wide Players
Xabi Alonso's style of play emphasises the idea of creating free space for the wide players to take advantage. In order to free up space for these wide players, his team would first initiate play in one side the wider areas so as to shift the attention of the opponents to this side of the pitch, which would then leave the wide player at the opposite flank unmarked. Once it is noticeable that the winger at the other flank is now free, they would immediately switch the ball to him, and then he could attempt to cause danger for the opponent.
In the scenario below, Leverkusen build attack from the left flank, so it forces the opponents to shift across to that side of the pitch. This therefore leaves the right winger unmarked. And so, the ball is immediately switched to this free winger who then finishes.
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
Same strategy was in play in another scenario below.
An attacking play in the left side of the pitch forces the opponents to shift across to that area, thereby leaving the right winger, Frimpong in this case, unmarked. As soon as this free winger is spotted, the ball is immediately played to him, which he converts to a goal.
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
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| (Photo Credit: Bundesliga) |
Having played under ball-obsessed tactician as Pep Guardiola, there is no surprise seeing Xabi's desire for his sides to always dominate the ball.
During his spell at Leverkusen, he transformed the German side into one of the best ball-playing football team in Europe. In the 2023/2024 season, Bayer Leverkusen ranked first place for the team with the highest percentage of ball possession per game in the Bundesliga, with over 60 percent per game.
His team had much joy playing short passes, as the short distance between the players allowed them to implement this type of passing sequence a lot. Patient is one prominent factor evident when his team has the ball, as Xabi would encourage his players to maintain possession, while proceeding to attack only when opportunity to advance play presents itself. So, his team looked somewhat like an orchestra during the build-up phase, as everyone has to take part in play.
In the scenario below, we shall see how Leverkusen builds up play patiently, circulating play from one side of the pitch to another, thus 'moving the opponents' as Johan Cruyff would say, to then find right opportunity to score the goal.
(Photo Credit: Bundesliga)
Just to conclude, Xabi Alonso is without doubt a bright young coach who has shown potentials for greatness in his past clubs. This fact notwithstanding, the bone of contention here is whether he can keep up with the highly placed expectations of European giants as Real Madrid.
This we shall come to know as the season unfolds.
So, will this season be a successful one for Xabi at Real or not? Let us know what you have to say in the comment section.
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