Carlo Ancelotti was the embodiment of a coach who had no time for tactical identity. His teams
were always run on talent, reached the peaks of football when they were stacked with gifted
stars, and adopted game plans that accommodated big names, rather than building a squad to
accommodate the coach.
Xabi Alonso arrived as the anti-Carlo: A man with a (tactical) plan.
Many fans have been waiting for this, but, ironically it might be exactly the wrong thing to wish for.
Tactical setup matters, and Alonso’s
tactical genius is a blessing. But the shortcomings of the last season, and the Atletico match, point to a different problem than tactics, and Alonso’s success at Bayer Leverkusen should give us hope that he is the right guy for the team’s problems.
Since Real Madrid won the Champions League for the 15th time—there are too many haters
eager to pounce on the club’s recent failures, and you should absolutely feel free to remind them of
how many European Cups Real have won, which is 15 — more than twice than second-place Milan, who have 7.
Now, PSG aside, Alonso finds his team having conceded five in his first big test. It is reminiscent
of a previous epoch.
Last season was not the end of the Ancelotti cycle; it was the end of the Jose Mourinho cycle.
When Mourinho arrived at Real Madrid in 2010, he was taking over a serial-losing team,
stuck in the round of 16 of the Champions League for years, never the favorite to win the league,
and having not won the Copa del Rey for almost two decades. That team had lost four Clásicos
in a row, including 2–6 at home. The only “good” thing about that 2–6 loss is that it eclipsed the
4–0 loss to Liverpool in the Champions League.
It was not that Real Madrid lost. What really hurt was how the players would so quickly stop fighting. The
great Ray Hudson once said commentating a Madrid game, “These are gladiators.” Gladiators,
they were not. In fact, Mourinho went on to call the great Karim Benzema a cat once.
That was the team Mourinho found. And that is what Real Madrid looks like today. In every big
game, the fans give up hope within mere minutes because they are used to seeing no fight in the
players. Every loose ball goes to the opponent. Opposition players know how to get under the
players’ skins, and gone are the days of Sergio Ramos and Pepe letting opponents know that they
cannot get away with it.
Sergio Ramos and Pepe were not born knowing how to protect their teammates. Benzema, whom
Mourinho had insulted, would go on to win the Ballon d’Or, in no small part thanks to the most
amazing remontada hat-trick against Paris Saint-Germain. Madridistas never stopped fighting.
Even when they lost, they would still give the other team a bloody nose. Beating that version of Real Madrid was
never easy. Sure, Mourinho’s team had a clear tactical identity, but the Portuguese’s legacy for a
decade and a half was a team that never went out without a fight.
The warrior gene in Real Madrid did not begin with 92:48. That moment was a result of the
psychology of the players instilled in them by their ex-coach, and rebuilding it is Alonso’s
biggest task. With it, every tactical challenge will become easy. Without it, even the most
spectacular tactic will be useless.
And if I were a betting man, I would bet on Alonso to be the man for the job. For one, Alonso
was on the team when Mourinho was turning men into monsters, and he himself was one of the
strongest players mentally. Secondly, I watched Leverkusen.
Alonso’s legendary undefeated season was not just mere tactical genius. Focusing on Alonso’s
game plans diminishes the mentality his team had. Leverkusen came back from behind to win as
often as it dominated games. Across the world, fans would tune in late in the game just to watch
the relentlessness of a team losing a game, knowing that it was written in the stars that they were
going to score.
This is not a mentality you can build overnight. It took a whole season for Mourinho to do it. His first
big test, mind you, did not go too well, ending in a 5–0 defeat at Camp Nou, when the team
forwent the match before the halftime whistle, and a Sergio Ramos red card came out after the future captain
lost his head. Nobody could have held his head high after that game, including one Xabi Alonso.
Mourinho’s team that let Barcelona put five past them in November ended its Copa draught in April, beating
Barcelona in the final. It was the first Clásico win in seven games, the first formidable opponent
to beat in many years. It was the turning of the page to a new era, when Real Madrid would
become the team to beat again.
It is fitting. Luka Modric was Mourinho’s last remaining student. The end of the Mourinho cycle
demanded something fresh. There is nobody left who knows how to rile up his players, rush to
protect them, and retaliate when opponents try to get under our skin. But above all, not giving
up is something this team needs to relearn.
Having that kind of mentality doesn’t always come naturally — it is an acquired skill. Leaders do not simply emerge. People are educated to become leaders. This extraordinarily talented squad—the most talented in the
whole world—needs an education in tactics, but it is desperate for a lesson in leadership, in being
gladiators.
No player has had as many great coaches as Alonso, and he has a bit of each of them in him.
Right now, more than anyone, he needs to channel his inner Mourinho. After fifteen years, that
light has gone out. The red-bearded man was present at creation, and he should know how to turn
it back on—as he once did at Leverkusen. The derby was not the first test, and the Clásico will
not be, either. The test will come in the spring, when Xabi should be done with turning innocent
boys into men with scars. If he succeeds, the next 15 years could be fun.
