The magical young coach of the pharmaceutical factory is coming! Can Alonso s tactical style play with the Bernabeu?

According to Romano, Alonso will be determined to coach Real Madrid next season. So, can this former Liverpool and Real Madrid player who has outstanding performance in Leverkusen continue his success at the Bernabeu? Is his tactical style suitable for the current Real Madrid team? TheAthletic authors Mark Carey and Thom Harris talk about this topic.

We once thought that transfers involving Real Madrid were always long and tortuous, with a destiny necessity. After months of speculation, Xavi Alonso finally confirmed that he will resign as head coach of Leverkusen after the end of the season. Real Madrid has also held talks with the former midfielder's representative to discuss his replacement for Ancelotti, who is about to leave the team (and Romano has also confirmed that Alonso will take over Real Madrid next season). As for Ancelotti, his most likely destination in the future is the Brazilian national team.

Spain was impressed by Alonso's influence in Germany. After all, the 43-year-old coach coached Leverkusen's first full season (2023/2024 season), and led the team to win the first Bundesliga championship in team history. Coupled with the achievements made by Alonso in Real Madrid during his time as a player, the Melingers really have enough reason to be excited about it. However, while returning to the Bernabeu Stadium seems to be an inevitable and natural choice—a romantic sentiment arising from a great player’s return to his once popular old club—the transition on the court may not be that smooth. Real Madrid has been struggling for balance all season, and their opponents can always easily tear open the defense line that they rely too much on the frontcourt offense through a skillful offensive organization. Ancelotti praised the freedom and liquidity of offensive position, and he believes that offensive firepower can cover up the team's defensive problems. Alonso, on the other hand, prefers strict organization, rapid anti-grabbing and careful rehearsal advancement mode, aiming to move forward in an accurate and structured way.

Alonso is a proven powerful force that can raise the team's ceiling, but whether Real Madrid is in a state that can allow him to perform his magic again, or whether he is willing to adapt to his stricter requirements, may define a critical moment in the club's modern history.

Alonso's achievements in Leverkusen cannot be underestimated. The team he took over is a team that fell into chaos just a few months after the start of the 2022/2023 season - ranked 17th in the Bundesliga of 18 teams and only won one victory in the first eight league games. However, in just over a year, he led the team to a surprising result: an indestructible domestic season, a cup championship and a European final victory.

Reviewing Leverkusen's rolling average chart of expected goals in the last 10 games may help show the club's development trajectory under the 43-year-old Espanyol.

His arrival immediately improved the team on the defensive end, with the red lines showing a downward trend, showing that in the first few months of coaching, he focused on the team's stability and recovery ability, thus reducing the number of offensive opportunities created by his opponents.

The joining of full-back Alejandro Grimaldo in the summer window allowed Alonso to better implement his full-back system; midfielder Zachar brought high-quality ball control ability, promoting a pass-intensive offensive organization; while forward Bonifas added real offensive firepower to the team with his tireless running, shooting and unrestrained talent.

2021/2022 season, Leverkusen xG rolling average chart

This triggered an outbreak. Leverkusen scored two or more goals in each game in the first 15 games of the 2023/2024 season, making great strides on becoming Germany's undisputed and unbeaten championship.

2024/2025 season, things got even harder – the chart shows that the team's offensive efficiency has declined in the second half of the season – despite being disappointingly eliminated in the local and European Cup matches, Alonso's side lost just two of the 32 Bundesliga games. If they win the last two games, they will earn the second highest points in the club's 120-year history, second only to last season.

This may appear to be a decline from previous performance, but the standards set last year are unreplicable.

Leverkusen's unbeaten season that made history (the only loss in 53 games occurred in the penultimate game - the UEFA Cup final against Atlanta, Italy) has occupied a large number of newspaper pages, but for those who need to review, Alonso's 3-4-2-1 system is based on thoughtful offensive organization and clever midfield advancement, and the full use of the two wings by fullbacks Grimaldo and Flynnon.

Time has passed to today. From the passing network when Leverkusen defeated Heidenheim 1-0 away last month, it can be seen that such a system is still Alonso's favorite.

is based on three defenders, with a higher side and more sideline position; the metronome-like Zaka controls the rhythm of the game at the core of the midfield; two No. 10 players are active in the rib area - although the two No. 10 players in this game are Adrie and Terra, the combination usually includes Wilz, who was absent due to injury at the time - and a forward who led the offense alone. To put it more exaggeratedly, even if it is placed in the Prado Museum, such a lineup can be regarded as a "work of art."

Of course, these tactical strategies that have been tested by strong teams will also encounter problems when facing the opponent's active regional pressing tactics. In the game against Heidenheim, Leverkusen waited until the 91st minute of the game to score the only goal, and in this game, Alonso's team had several panic moments when taking the ball - they were shocked by the home team's high confrontational style of play. In the 18th minute of the game, Grimaldo and central defender Jonatan Ta made continuous mistakes in the offensive organization, and then he was forced to pass the ball in the corner offense, and the ball was seized, and he was forced to fall into a passive position under the home team's adventure-style pressing tactics.

This is also how Leverkusen lost to Atalanta in the Europa League final last May and ended by Leipzig in the Bundesliga record in August. Both teams rely on their physical fitness and confrontation to suppress Leverkusen's fast pass and positional play in a tight press.

Given that Leverkusen has changed from hunter to prey, Alonso needs to increase the diversity of tactics, he uses the four-back system more frequently this season. The

3-4-2-1 tactical system was his main configuration when he started the game during his time in Germany, but it would be a big mistake if we think he insisted on this system rigidly - especially this season, with the occasional hindered Leverkusen's offensive fluency - which suggests that Alonso should not be simply classified as a coach who firmly uses three defenders.

A brief overview of tactical strategies used by Alonso in Leverkusen in the 2024/2025 season

When coaching Real Sociedad Team B, Alonso often used 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 systems, based on the principles demonstrated by his current team - focusing on ball-dominated, advancing through the midfield area, and counter-robbing with strong intensity after conceding the ball.

The best coaches always have a pragmatic spirit of adjusting according to the advantages of the existing team. It is obvious that Alonso has established a Leverkusen victory team to maximize the characteristics of the players. And the wealth he is about to inherit at Real Madrid will be the biggest challenge he faces. The center back, the central defender and the left back are the three most needed positions, and Arnold's joining is also expected to provide more options on the right.

It looks like Alonso probably had all the right notes before the end of the summer transfer window, but his job would be to put them in the right order to compose Real Madrid's next football symphony.

This season, defensive issues have been the core of Real Madrid's instability.

At the end of the last round of the national derby, Real Madrid's defensive record of 1.1 expected goals conceded (xG) per 90 minutes ranked fifth in La Liga. Although they can usually rely on the personal magic of key offensive players to overwhelm their opponents, the average concealment of more than 1 goal per game is really worrying.

Real Madrid's lack of defensive strength allows opponents to advance to the frontcourt at times without fear, knowing that Real Madrid's forwards will not provide protection for teammates through pressing.

In the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal last month, Mbappe and Vinicius were just watching Skelly catch the ball in their own half-time - Real Madrid's passive 4-4-2 formation hardly disrupted the Gunners' offensive organization.

Skelly was able to push forward and then find Odegaux in the right rib area, who quickly launched an attack on Real Madrid's defense. Arsenal achieved progress from midfield to frontcourt with two easy passes. There is another shocking example of the severity in the home defeat to Barcelona in October. Mark Cassado was able to retreat from the midfield and easily crossed two Real Madrid forwards, then gave Lewandowski a precise pass, who scored.

Alonso's tactical style is different.

Leverkusen's strong positioning principles and clever defensive rest mean they are usually able to squeeze the court well and regain the ball in the offensive third zone through an aggressive counter-attack.

They won 5.2 balls every 90 minutes in offensive zone three, the highest average in the 2024/2025 Bundesliga season – as they did last season.

This defensive metric is also an offensive strategy, and Alonso aims to score goals by maximizing the conversion moments—or at least maintaining territorial superiority. In the 2024/2025 season, Leverkusen's position distribution of ball rights in the frontcourt has been

, in comparison, Real Madrid only regained ball rights every 90 minutes at a high position - ranking 8th in La Liga this season.

Comparing some of the pressing efforts of Vinicius and Mbappe with the strength of Leverkusen, it is obvious that if Alonso wanted to transplant his Leverkusen philosophy into a different type of team, he would have a lot of work to do.

In the January match against Dortmund, Terra's goal occurred just 24 seconds after the kickoff, and Leverkusen adopted a man-to-man tactic against the home team's deep offensive organization.

This method in off-ball requires every player to be tightly connected, compressed space, and force the opponent to make mistakes - when the plan goes smoothly, the reward is generous. Alonso may not have dealt with a star-studded locker room like Real Madrid in the early days of his coaching career, but he has been in such an environment as a player.

As a player, he won domestic and intercontinental trophys with Liverpool, Bayern and Real Madrid in England, Germany and Spain, which undoubtedly won respect in the team, and his unbeaten record as the head coach of Leverkusen has undoubtedly caused a sensation throughout Europe.

Now, the question that may arise is whether Real Madrid has the ability to adapt to a tactical intelligent, principle-based system. Looking back on the most successful appointments at the Bernabeu in recent years, the coaches who won the most trophysical management.

Ancelotti is a typical representative who can inspire players to perform at their best, be good at human nature and not require too much tactical guidance. Last year, Bellingham commented on Ancelotti: "Our biggest advantage is that Ancelotti has found a way to allow many young men to play freely. He also makes us feel calm and confident.. ”

Zidane won two La Liga titles and three Champions League titles a few years ago, but his advantage lies in managing the self-awareness of talented players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale, rather than relying too much on a established tactical style. Mourinho's success at Real Madrid is also based on his pragmatism in tactical strategies. In contrast, those more "system-oriented" coaches - including Benitez, Lopetegui and Pellegrini - enjoy less success at Real Madrid and were quickly swept out without winning the trophy.

So, if Alonso succeeds Ann Cerotti, he will represent a management style that is different from the Italians. Yes, he is a well-proven young coach, but he may demand higher for a team that is desperate to improve the tactical structure. Will such a requirement be warmly welcomed by everyone in the locker room?

Alonso's philosophy has been well implemented in his three seasons at Leverkusen. If he is appointed as Real Madrid coach and can have the same impact at the Bernabeu Stadium, Real Madrid president Florentino will be confident in future success.

(Armour)