Xabi Alonso brilliantly breaks down how hard it is to stop Lionel Messi

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·24 November 2023

Xabi Alonso brilliantly breaks down how hard it is to stop Lionel Messi

Highlights

Xabi Alonso, former Real Madrid midfielder, reveals the strategy he used to try and stop Lionel Messi from exploiting the false nine position.
Alonso, along with José Mourinho and Sergio Ramos, discovered that controlling Messi and nullifying his impact on the game allowed them to compete better with Barcelona.
Despite their efforts, Messi still proved to be a true menace, scoring 672 goals and providing 303 assists during his 778-game Barcelona career.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try and stop Lionel Messi, the inevitable pint-sized Argentine, from pulling out some magic from his never-ending bag of tricks? Well, no need to fret, as the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich midfielder Xabi Alonso – one of the Premier League’s best-ever passers - has you covered.

The former Galactico, now 41 and in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, enjoyed a trophy-filled five-year stint in the Spanish capital between 2009-2014 and had the (dis)pleasure of facing Messi on ten different occasions. With six El Clásico wins under Messi’s belt during Alonso’s time in Spain, it’s not unfair to say that Alonso struggled to contain the magician's brilliance more often than not. José Mourinho’s side, on the other hand, picked up just two victories.

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In a tell-all interview with The Coaches Voice back in 2017, which has now re-surfaced online, the former 114-cap Spain international gave a guide on how to stop – or at least how to try – Messi from doing what he does best: ruining opposition when he played in the false nine role.

Xabi Alonso explains how to stop Messi

Alonso was known as a smooth orchestrator during his heyday, able to pick a pass out of nowhere. An instrumental – and often underrated - part of his sides’ success. His presence in the Los Blancos midfield cannot go unnoticed – but how did he go about stopping Messi? Read on to find out.

“Me, [Jose] Mourinho, and Sergio Ramos talked about him a lot. We only started to control [Lionel] Messi when I was marking him, but once we controlled Messi, the matches were even. “He used to be in this, like, false nine - you know, it’s been told so much about the false nine. But Xavi used to come here to get the ball and when I used to go to press him – this space – Messi came from the number nine position to this position behind me. “And they used to do two against one against me and [Sergio] Ramos came to press Messi where this big space used to be created and when Messi got [the ball] he used to play for [David] Villa or for Pedro in that position."

According to the veteran engine room operator, Madrid would eventually get to grips with Barcelona’s blueprint under the enigmatic Pep Guardiola and, as such, eventually found out the best way to nullify the former Blaugrana ace's exploits.

“And that’s when we starting controlling better this, I think that Ramos used to say, ‘Xabi, Messi’s coming.’ And I didn’t go to press Xavi, where I would stay with Messi. They used to have more control, but they were not that dangerous. When we controlled a little better that situation, I think that we were closer to compete with them.”

Sounds easy that, doesn’t it? The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, whose World Cup shirts are set to sell for millions, is now enjoying his twilight years in the MLS for Inter Miami but, set European football alight, notably in his 778-game Barça career, scoring 672 goals and providing a further 303 assists in that sequence. A true menace, but it seems as if Alonso – with the help of Mourinho and Sergio Ramos - had cracked the code, albeit only when he was operating in the false nine position.