Xabi Alonso: The Charismatic Midfielder for the Spanish Team
Xabi Alonso is the one who completes the midfield of the Spanish Team into the World Cup. His charisma is the one that has led him to many glories during his career. He started his club career with Real Sociedad, in Spain, and helped his local club to a 3rd place finish and a Champions League qualification. In 2004 he joined Liverpool and immediately rose to glory in the English Premier League. He won the Champions League with the team in 2005, in the memorable final against AC Milan, when the team had to recover from a three goal deficit from the first half to win it on penalties. Alonso also scored from the penalty spot to equalize the match in the second half. He also won the FA with his club in the next season.
The real Alonso came on the forefront during the stay at Liverpool. In England he improved his game and was regarded as one of the most skilful midfielders in the world. He was very much known for his good passing and the precise long balls. He is also famous for scoring a goal from a volley at the distance of 70 yards from the goal, against Newcastle. This is still a record in the EPL history.
Despite the success and the fame he was getting in the Liverpool shirt, Alonso had a tussle with the manager and was thus keen on leaving the club and ultimately he move to Real Madrid. He played the whole season with the new club and came up with good plays, although Madrid won nothing during the season. In the Spanish National Side, he made his debut in 2003 but was never the first choice of the manager. He was also included in the Euro 2008 winning squad but was only substituted in second half of the final. However, Senna, the first choice defensive midfielder in the squad during the Euro 2008, has been dropped from the team because of poor form, thus, Alonso has an opportunity to rise and shine for his National team. The manager has shown faith in him by including him in the starting line-up in Confederations Cup and the World Cup Qualifiers.
Senna and Alonso are two completely different players, but now Alonso has to fill in his shoes. It must be remembered that Senna played a major role in the Euro 2008 and it is a heavy burden that has been passed to Alonso. But, Alonso has the ability to do it for his Nation. He is strong and resilient. He is a good attacking player as well as a good holding midfielder. His major quality is that he can always pass the ball in the midfield to retain possession and can feed good long balls to the wingers to initiate attacks. Like the other Spanish midfielder, like Cesc, Xavi and Iniesta, he is also a visionary midfielder. But, his role would be different for his National side, as he has to be good defensively as well.
The real problem with Alonso is that he does not score a lot of goals. There are occasional exceptional long shots, as he has twice scored goals from behind the half-line for Liverpool, and apart from that he is rarely found on the score-sheet. Alonso also lacks pace and will have to play deep in the game, as the defensive role would be the major priority of the manager. Also, there is a very good chance that when the Spanish would take the lead in the game Alonso would be substituted either by Martinez or Busquests, as both are better defensively.
Whatever the case is, I believe that this position is the real weakness of the Spanish side, despite a player like Alonso in this position. The real problem would be faced against tougher oppositions like England and Germany who have a much stronger midfield and can outplay Spanish midfield physically. So, in the World Cup, attacking would be the only good option for Vicente Del Bosque, and less focus would be on the defence. Xavi Alonso would have to come up with extra-ordinary performance for his team as well.
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