Is Xabi Alonso a perfect match for Chelsea in FPL?

Deep dive into Alonso's game plan and what to expect in FPL

Chelsea have recently experienced several turbulent managerial spells.

There was a brief affair with Enzo Maresca that ended in a messy break-up, driven by his unrelenting desire to become a new Manchester City manager. He later did, and we can look forward to more spice in the upcoming Premier League clashes between those two teams.

Liam Rosenior’s story is largely forgettable, not only because it lasted 106 days.

Now there’s hope for better times ahead.

Xabi Alonso is coming in, and you can’t deny there’s a different vibe this time.

Many of you are familiar with his illustrious playing career at Liverpool, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich, which saw him win 17 titles, including the 2010 World Cup, and work under Rafa Benítez, Carlo Ancelotti, José Mourinho, or Pep Guardiola.

His managerial one is much shorter, but far from dull.

So it begins…

Although his coaching journey began long before that, he truly put himself on the map in the 2023/24 season, when he took over Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a German Bundesliga club that had been struggling and was 17th after eight league games.

He ultimately guided them to 6th place.

I did my fair share of research for this article, which gave me good insight into how different that season was from the legendary title-winning one that followed. And the full picture is pretty revealing.

🎯 The main goal after his arrival was obvious: stabilise the defence at all costs and then build up the rest when the time is right.

In the 26 league games under his charge, Bayer recorded the 3rd-best xGC, conceding about 0.95 xG per game, a solid result.

To achieve that, he played a passive mid-block, focusing on compactness and a solid defensive structure, which allowed him to pick up second balls deep and look for opportunities to counter.

And it worked.

They defended magnificently in the low block (the best, really), and the rest defence was good enough not to concede too many big chances from fast transitions (4th-best xGA from counters).

*Rest defence is basically the shape a team maintains while attacking, so that if they lose the ball, it’s already set up to stop a counter. Think of it as the safety net behind the attack.

For most of the season, he wasn’t trying to implement his trademark counter-press.

That team literally gave up on it: there was very little re-pressing, and the press was generally one of the least intense in the Bundesliga.

Their overall xG was bang average, and they relied heavily on counters:

1️⃣ 3rd most counter-attacks
2️⃣ the 3rd highest xG from counters
3️⃣ … and the most goals scored from them

After reviewing the data and some clips, I genuinely applauded the board’s decision to let Alonso do his thing, even though it wasn’t the most pleasing football to watch.

It’s perhaps a guide to other teams not to fire their coaches in their first season, and to give them proper time to adapt and for the tactical model to click.

Unless it’s Liam Rosenior.

You can probably put a stop-loss on Liam Rosenior.

Anyway, Alonso was stabilising a broken team, and the tactical model just needed time to come together.

And it sure did in Leverkusen’s second season, which was… well, simply remarkable:

51 games.

361 days.

Bundesliga title (well deserved, as you’ll see in a bit).

Xabi Alonso and how to win the Bundesliga

In his second season, Alonso already had his defensive foundations in place and could build on them.

They recorded the lowest xG conceded, tied with Bayern, and there are several mind-blowing stats to document how dominant that season was.

This is my favourite: