An icon and a promising coach. What will Xabi Alonso bring to Bayer Leverkusen?

Patrik Schick and Adam Hložek can look forward to a new coach. And it won’t be just any name, as Verkself will be led by Real Madrid icon Xabi Alonso. What can the former fantastic midfielder bring to Leverkusen?

In case younger players might not remember who Xabi Alonso actually is, his busy career is awe-inspiring in itself. Five years at Liverpool, five years at Real Madrid and three years at Bayern Munich.

He’s won the Champions League twice, La Liga once, the Bundesliga three times, he’s also won the World Cup and the EURO twice. On the pitch, he was a brilliant defensive midfielder with an amazing reading of the game and breathtaking passes that he supplied his teammates with. It was because of his vision of the game that he was predicted to have a great coaching career.

A great success

He embarked on that very soon after his playing career ended. In May 2017, he hung up his cleats at Bayern, and by August 2018 he was coaching youth at Real Madrid. There he lasted a year and in the summer of 2019 he accepted the offer of Real Sociedad, where he grew up and from where he rose to big football.

At San Sebastian, he was put in charge of the B-team and he fulfilled his task completely beyond expectations. In fact, he pulled Real Sociedad’s youngsters into the second league, something that neither Barcelona’s great academy nor Real Madrid’s B-team led by Raúl managed to do.

All the teams aspired to have their B-team in the second league, so that their young players could develop as much as possible. However, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid or Sevilla failed to do so, so the only B team in the second league last season was that of Xabi Alonso.

From the north of Spain, the praise for Xabi was all over the place. He had a lot of authority with the players, but he also managed to set up a camaraderie that created a good culture in the cabin.

Type of coach

And what is he like as a coach? A great tactician who pays attention to details and is very involved in strategy. He’s very demanding on the players, while also dealing a lot with the psychological side. Does that remind you of anyone? Yes, he looks a lot like Pep Guardiola, who also guided him to the end of his career at Bayern Munich. It was from him that he drew experience for his coaching career.

But Guardiola isn’t the only coach Xabi has worked with, during his career he could glean insights from José Mourinho, Rafa Benítez, Vicente del Bosque, Luis Aragonés or Carlo Ancelotti.

There was speculation that Xabi could take over Real Sociedad’s A-team, but Imanol Alguacil is doing a great job, so there is no need to replace him. In the spring, Alonso was again linked with Borussia Mönchengladbach, but in the end he stayed at San Sebastian.

The 40-year-old coach has a great future as a coach in Spain, and he knows how to work well with young players, which Leverkusen have in abundance. Thus, he could raise not only Hložek (19), but also Frimpong (21), Tapsoba (23), Hincapie (20), Hudson-Odoi (21), Diaby (23), Adli (22) or the later recovered Wirtz (19).

But Leverkusen, who are languishing in second to last place in the Bundesliga, are taking quite a risk. Xabi Alonso may be a promising coach, but he has no experience of coaching in elite competition, having only managed youth teams so far. The challenge of lifting up a struggling team may be beyond his abilities for the time being, but it may also be a long shot.

Source: Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad