The world needs a saviour. And, for many clubs, in 2025, that saviour was Xabi Alonso. Chelsea’s moved first to bring him to the Premier League. But can the former midfield great’s tactics really help the London club achieve all of its lofty goals?
I have been writing football tactics analysis for over a decade, and I think I have a good view and a strong idea on the matter.
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Career Prior to Managing Chelsea
For nearly three years, between 2022 and 2025, football tactics students were ready to hail Xabi Alonso as the best and most innovative manager on the planet. After all, he’d guided Bayer Leverkusen to Bundesliga success over Bayern Munich while on his first real managerial job.
Xabi Alonso had been one of the most decorated midfielders of the modern era. He was a club legend, essentially, for four different clubs – Sociedad, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern. He’d won the Champions League with two of them. He’d won the Euros (twice) and the World Cup with Spain. This is the stuff dreams are made of.
His quick rise up the ranks of management eventually persuaded him to join Real Madrid, his former stomping grounds and the most famous team in the world. It was a poisoned gift, though, and he was out of a job before the season had ended.
Chelsea quickly came calling. But this is not the Chelsea team of old.
What are Alonso’s tactics? And what will he do with all the resources the London side has, but that are so difficult to manage?
Tactical Philosophy
Ok. I know as well as you do that it wasn’t just Xabi Alonso’s reputation that made everyone so excited about his career as a manager. It was, primarily, the fact that Leverkusen played quick, aggressive, possession-based football. After all, this was the team known to equalise or win in the dying seconds of a game routinely.
Alonso’s possession. It’s meant to overwhelm opponents with short passes. It’s supposed to get the ball directly upfield as quickly as possible.
When the team does defend, the team attempts to compress width. Wing-backs that can power back into defence and form a back five out of possession are also vital.
Formations and Adaptability
In some ways, modern managers, fairly or not, fall into two camps: those who play with three or four players in defence. Of course, there’s more to it than just that.
Xabi Alonso is relatively rare in that he likes to play a 3-4-1-2 system.
Sure, in various phases of the game, this alters to become a 3-4-3, something resembling a 5-4-1. On more rare occasions, even Chelsea has shifted to a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Chelsea in Defence
It was always going to be this way. However, Leverkusen was always going to be a team that could press opponents longer and more aggressively in the Bundesliga than Chelsea does in the Premier League.
This is why Alonso relies on certain pressing triggers. In other words, the team will press with high energy at key moments in the game, without wasting it.
Typically, Chelsea will play in a mid-block, defending with five defenders and biding their time to launch a counterattack.
The Blues, for example, press very aggressively against team building from the back. The team will force the opposition to play the ball wide and, eventually, to have to play a long ball forward that is easier to intercept.
Chelsea’s preferred three defenders are also interesting choices. Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill and Maxence Lacroix, who is a possible breakout star, are Alonso’s main choices. The former two are great ball-playing defenders, while Lacroix brings strength and aerial dominance.
Chelsea’s Build-Up Play
In the Summer of 2026, Chelsea opted to sell Enzo Fernandez to one of its biggest rivals, Manchester City. Why would they sell their most creative midfielder?
Perhaps it is because Alonso’s Chelsea, somewhat counterintuitively, isn’t afraid to play direct balls towards their pacey, strong strikers.
The team’s new personnel is meant to help this approach. Experienced goalie Emiliano Martinez has the skill and bravery to play long balls forward. Main striker, Joao Pedro, has the strength to act as a pivot, winning the ball and shifting it to the highly technical Cole Palmer or moving it toward the flanks.
While I’m at it, let’s talk more about that wing play.
Alonso’s Chelsea in Attack
Part of Chelsea’s measured approach, I think, is to keep Alonso’s wide players from tiring.
The players that Alonso has chosen for these roles also represent an interesting approach. Pedro Neto, who initially played in an attacking role when he first arrived at Chelsea, has essentially become the default right-back.
Pep Chavarria or, more often, Jorrel Hato activate on the left flank. They generally have a more defensive role. Chavarria was brought in at Alonso’s request, while Hato, a former Ajax graduate, is finally getting the playing time he deserves.
Ok. That’s fine. But how does Chelsea score? While the team has shown vulnerabilities in other areas, early signs point toward a team with great attacking potential.
Ideally, the team will attack down the flank (usually the right one) and create numerical overloads there. The two offensive midfielders, Palmer and Morgan Rogers, hover around the same area, while one of the defensive midfielders, perhaps Reece James or Malo Gusto, will make a run, adding further options.
Still, those attacks almost always have a focal point, and that is the marvellously talented and still relatively underrated Joao Pedro. He’s scored three goals and assisted on three others at the time of writing. Pedro has both the strength and the spatial awareness to play in both a supporting and an attacking role.
What’s Next for Alonso and Chelsea?
People love to say great people fail. Xabi Alonso could be a great manager. There’s also a good chance that he has not yet fully proven this.
There are many reasons to be excited by this Chelsea side, but this is a work in progress at a time when there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding the club.
Personally, I think that this is a good match and that, given enough time, Alonso can, at the very least, turn Chelsea, once more, into one of the better teams in the Premier League.
