Xabi Alonso has become the man of fashion in Germany. The Tolosa coach has taken Bayer Leverkusen to the top of the Bundesliga and challenged the country’s giants such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Leverkusen has not lost a single game so far this season, it is advancing steadily in the German Cup and the Europa League and in the German league it is looking at the rest of the teams in the rearview mirror. There is no one to stop a group of footballers who have no roof and a coach who is already raffling off half of Europe.
«We have started the season well. “We want the players to maintain concentration and, to do so, I must be the first and set an example,” Xabi Alonso responded in September when asked about a hypothetical move to Real Madrid. That day he cleared balls out for the first time in the season and prepared for what was coming his way. And since the season began his name has appeared in all the pools to win some of the most sought-after benches on the Old Continent.
It is not for less. His Bayer Leverkusen has earned being considered the great revelation of European football. Since the course began he has played 21 games in all competitions and has not lost a single one. He has achieved 19 wins and two draws, two invaluable draws in the Bundesliga against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena (2-2) and against Borussia Dortmund (1-1) at the BayArena. They are the only ‘punctures’ for a team that commands German football with three points ahead of Thomas Tüchel’s Bayern, beaten this Saturday by Eintracht (5-1).
Leverkusen has made this great start while also being a fully recognizable team. Xabi Alonso wants to be the protagonist with the ball and with that idea he has built a team that he proposes at all times and that permanently seeks the rival goal. The technician from Tolosa has also managed to find all the suitable parts for this gear to work like a Swiss watch. His modern 3-4-2-1, which becomes a 4-4-2 or even a 3-5-2 in some phases of the match, works perfectly and has managed to bring out the best version of talented footballers, such as Grimaldo, Xhaka, Hofmann, Boniface or the increasingly sought-after Florian Wirtz.
And that is precisely another of Xabi Alonso’s keys at Bayer Leverkusen. He has let the talent flow and has given prominence to a squad in which more supporting actors appear day after day willing to take on important roles. Boniface has eight goals, Grimaldo seven, Hofmann five, Frimpong four and Wirtz three. The great variety with which the aspirin team hits game after game makes the threat to the tyranny of Bayern Munich, which has 11 consecutive Bundesliga titles, increasingly evident, a real headache for Tüchel’s pupils.
2023-12-09 18:16:38
#Xabi #Alonsos #invincible #Leverkusen
