How Xabi Alonso Created His Own Style of Football

When Alonso took over as Head Coach in October 2022, Bayer Leverkusen were in a dire state, sitting 17th in the Bundesliga and looking like an extremely disjointed squad. But just one year later and Alonso completely transformed the identity of the team, instilling some exciting principles based on attacking play and defensive intensity. As a result, Leverkusen finished the season with a spot in the Europa league, and this season, their start has been nothing short of spectacular, currently setting the standard in the Bundesliga.

#bayerleverkusen #xabialonso #alonso #bundesliga #soccer #football #tactics
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Chapters
00:00 What Style is This?
01:29 Pass & Move
06:31 Attacking with Purpose
08:44 Gegenpress Kings
09:16 What's Next for Xabi Alonso?

[noobiamfoolez]

5 MONTHS LATER
Bayer Leverkusen wins the Bundesliga for the first time.
Truly Special.

[aleksamapparat]

"All the time you have to leave a space" seems to be an Alonso thing

[saifuddinahmadable]

Xabi's whole life has been immersed in football. He is a good student of the game having played under three of the best managers of the modern game. Football is literally in his DNA

[cafeplastique]

Florian Wirtz is fantastic. His vision and passing is Özil-esque but without the moping and the going-missing. Oh and his first touch and ball control!

[TheRishijoesanu]

Leverkusen is my favorite team to watch this season. Arguably the best team in Europe currently

[ec]

excellent analysis. i would only add that the principle of diagonality plays a much more fundamental role in alonso´s strategy. the team have been taught to avoid standing in vertical lines as much as possible. this allows for more diagonal passes. the core benefit of these diagonal passes, apart from obvious space gains and forcing the opponent to defend more space as you mentioned, is the fact that the receiving player does not have his back turned to the opponent´s goal as it were the case with vertical passes. these split second advantages are what give leverkusen the edge.

[jorgeherrera]

Xabi Alonso was one of the few Madrid players I always respected as a Barca fan. You could just tell how smart he was by his style of play. It's no surprise he is such a great coach now.

[parthasbarman]

This is what modern football is, flexibility at its best. Days were gone when team used to play with fixed and rigid formation and players used to stick their position only.

[niklasriemenschneider]

The goal against Köln is truely a blueprint of his style. One addition to the pass following 6:00. Everytime I watch this scene, I expect Xhaka to pass diagonally, either to Tabsoba on the left hand side, or to Hofmann on the right hand side. But not vertically. Most managers would be furious if someone deliberately passed to a teammate under heavy pressure like that. Alonso on the other hand actively encourages this, and it makes his style exciting to watch.

[noduj]

Watched every game from them this season, its just beautiful to watch. If you love football, don't miss out on their games.

[nathanael_rzf]

I watched many football tactics on yt,
But your content is just on another level
Especialy the edit🔥

[achimsinn]

One thing I really like when watching Leverkusen is that they are always looking for that linebreak. Like at 6:11 Xhaka could have passed horizontally to the left side and it would have been fine, but decides for the vertical pass that allows to break through the midfield line faster and more directly. Many teams would likely prefer the saver route which often leads to boring games with not many chances being created. I hope that this way of playing will succeed and become the norm for other teams as well as it makes for much more enjoyable games to watch

[Hazz]

I really hope they win the bundesliga this year. Not only do they have some spectacular players like Wirtz but Alonso is a mastermind. I can see him getting a big move in the future. Madrid most likely after Carlo leaves.

[hamzaabbas]

His vision and application are 2nd to none. I have never seen someone apply the principles of football so well in the first season of football at the highest level. All praise to XAVI ALONSO, he has been outstanding and without any doubt, he will win the German league because no one deserves it more than him.

[lebrunjo]

So far in this new season Xabi Alonso is the best coach. Postecoglu is also up there but Alonso still the best for now.

[wnther]

This is the kind of football i love the most to see. Not some boring long ball counter or reliance on wing play. Just beautiful tactical pass play and overwhelming with great positioning

[tfmbatha]

Genius by Xavi Alonso. Finding a new principle based on the correlation between three systems.

[ToomuchTC]

This is amazing, i think this is what a lot of top managers are implementing across euorpe, Pep, Arteta even Ancelotti the set up formation isn't what the structure is and is dependent on transition and creating over loads in attack while setting up with a 4 or 5 in defence, either full backs becoming wingers and then depending on who you have one of your midfielders becoming defenders too. Its actually amazing to watch

[itotallycare]

Xabi always gave me that vibe even as a player, that he knew more than most. I really hope he takes over from Ancelotti at Real Madrid next.

[XStoffe]

Thanks for your ever so interesting analyses. One note though on Alsonso’s « relationism which you mentioned in the lead to the video.
Ball passing between players in close proximity does not constitute relationism. Pep’s Barca did that very well and we’re not relationists. Alonso’s tactic is more resembling that of Real Madrid that that of Diniz’ Fluminense.
For relationism to exist, there need to be a clear emphasis on :
1: diagonal short/médium progression passing.
2- creating massive overload on one side of the pitch and progressing within (or because of) said overload using a variety of short passing tools/tricks.
3- relationism has no interest in moving the opponents lines. Hence no interest in creating space on the other side of the pitch and suddenly switching to that empty side. By definition relationism needs players to pass the ball and thus to operate in areas that are overloaded with both opponents and team mates.
4- in relativism receiving players will move towards a designated area where the ball is expected to be passed by the team mate.
One-twos only at the root of relationism only work if player are constantly on movement towards the ball.
Villarreal is a better example than Alonso’s Leverkussen of that dynamic.

Finally, defensively, players are told to systematically push the opponents towards the sideline and to use the line as an extra set of defenders. Defense line are thus not horizontal in shape but actually rather vertical, running parallel to the side line to some degree.

In conclusion, Xabi Alonso’s team is much more reminiscent of the well established, well oiled and disciplined Real style of play (and to their Bavarian counterpart) than to that of the all out flamboyant fluminense.