Former Spain international Xabi Alonso is set for his first taste of top-flight management after agreeing a deal to take over from Marco Rose as Borussia Monchengladbach manager next season.
It's a bold move from Gladbach. After all, Alonso has had just two coaching jobs since retiring from his playing career and has never worked at a higher level that the Spanish third tier, where his Real Sociedad B team have been turning heads.
However, Gladbach chief Max Eberl has clearly been watching his progress and has seen a lot of positives, so let's take a deep dive into Xabi The Manager.
Formation
"Do I have a trademark? No. What’s important is what my players feel, that’s what I tell them,” Alonso told L'Equipe when asked if he had a clear philosophy. “If I feel something but my players don’t, my ideas are useless, I have to change and be at their service."
Alonso prides himself on his ability to adapt and is prepared to draw on his experiences as a player in England, Spain and Germany for help when needed. He has seen numerous different ways of playing and tries to set up his team with several different approaches to counter specific threats.
However, his bread-and-butter is possession-based, fluid football which is designed to score a lot of goals, and to his credit, that's been working thus far.