Football’s next tactical innovation is ‘just not having a manager’

Xabi Alonso was supposed to spend Wednesday night in a Castile–La Mancha dugout, watching his Real Madrid team sweep aside Albacete with relative ease. Instead, he spent it on probably one of the plushest armchairs your feeble imagination can conceive, quietly chuckling through a mouthful of leftover Xmas chocolates.

That’s because Los Blancos were suffering a generational cup exit at the hands of a second-division team, thanks to a 94th-minute winner that ensured Jefte Betancor will never need to pay for his own pint in the city again… two days after they sacked Alonso from his position as manager.

There’s already a narrative. He is a modern coach with strong, proven, and effective principles of play, and he was unable to make them stick on a squad of players who perceive themselves as being above all the really hard work. Now, I am not an ‘Inside Man’ – I have spectacular gossip about, maybe, three players you’ve ever heard of, and none of them are relevant here – but it’s an open secret that the writing had been on the wall for him since October.

In what is possibly the most perfect testament to what a circus Madrid can be at times, Alonso appears to have ultimately lost this job over a Clasico game he actually went and won. The 2–1 La Liga victory over Barcelona should have been a landmark moment of his time in charge but, instead, it showed everyone watching a litany of reasons why it would never work.

We’ll start with the basics. Alonso opted to frustrate Barcelona in this game and then hit them quickly going the other way – and it worked. Their opponents had nearly 70 per cent of possession, but Madrid had twice as many efforts on goal and a staggering 3.6 xG to Barcelona’s 1. Were it not for Mbappe’s missed penalty, this could have been a rout, but heading into the last half hour, it was still in the balance.

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Barcelona play through this man-to-man press like a rack of empty tracksuits (ACFC)

In a rare instance of Madrid squeezing them high up, Barcelona play through this man-to-man press like a rack of empty tracksuits, then break down the right-hand side and end up with a 3-v-2 on the edge of the box.

You should be scoring from this approximately 1,000 times out of 1,000, but Fermin Lopez decides he’s never actually rated Rashford or Yamal and just hammers it at the goalkeeper instead.

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You should be scoring from this approximately 1,000 times out of 1,000 (ACFC)

This was not the first time Barcelona had slipped Madrid’s shackles down that side of the pitch, and Alonso wanted to shore it up. To be clear, if you go back to the start of that move, it is not Vinicius Jr ’s fault that they get played through, but it’s plainly obvious that if you’re worried about getting done like this, you do not need two players this high up the pitch.

Rodrygo was duly summoned from his nap on the bench, and, to be gentle with my wording here, Vinicius went absolutely fucking spare . The two traded words on the touchline – incidentally, that’s gloriously captured by the Spanish producers; that depth of field is gorgeous. Imagine that at Turf Moor or something –before he stormed down the tunnel.

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Heatmaps show the more conservative position Rodrygo was instructed to take (ACFC)

But the thing is, it worked.

Even just a quick comparison of the two’s respective heatmaps from the game shows the more conservative position Rodrygo was instructed to take, and from the 72nd minute, when the change was made, Barca manufactured just two efforts on goal – one of which was from a full 50 yards.

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Heatmaps show the more conservative position Rodrygo was instructed to take (ACFC)

Later that night, Vinicius Jr issued a public apology for the outburst

Specifically, he wished to apologise to all the fans… and his teammates… and his club… and the president. The footballing equivalent of that bit in The Simpsons where Mr. Burns sends that nice thank-you card for all the chocolates, and Lisa has to drop the: “Dad, your name isn’t on this.”

A quick check of the till would reveal the following equation: manager makes the correct managerial decision, that wins them an absolutely massive game, and the player involved reacts with an It’s Him Or Me ultimatum. At any normal club, Vinicius Jr would currently be on loan at Chelsea.

There’s been a wider point that Alonso’s footballing philosophy just isn’t compatible with a club like this – but have you watched Madrid this season???

He has, in stunningly quick time, turned them into a monstrous side out of possession, topping the league for total pressing sequences, tackles won in the final third, high turnovers, and shots on goal that come directly from them.

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The stats don’t lie (ACFC)

There are a lot of examples like the one above where they don’t get back in good numbers when said press is played through, but they still have the best defensive record in the league regardless, are only four points off the top, and should cruise directly into the knockouts of the Champions League. For a first season in charge, when such glaring structural and tactical issues were part of his brief coming in, that’s a really, really good start.

So good, in fact, that Alonso will have his pick of the top jobs in Europe whensoever he decides to get off the recliner and get back into it. As for Real Madrid , it leaves them looking for someone who can compete at the very cutting edge of modern football coaching… and also run a creche.

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