Xabi Alonso lifts Leverkusen! Since his arrival, Bayer are the fourth best team in the Bundesliga

Xabi Alonso took over Bayer Leverkusen at a time when results were not going well. Although it took some time, the form of Hložek and Schick has picked up and the last three wins have meant that Bayer are the fourth best team in the Bundesliga since the arrival of the new coach.

Bayer Leverkusen fell to Porto in early October and the club’s management decided to sack coach Gerard Seoane. The club thanked him for his quality work, but something needed to change.

“Gerardo did a good job, but recently we have gone off the path to success. Especially the league position is far below expectations, so the dismissal was inevitable,” Bayer sporting director Simon Rolfes told the club website.

At the time, Leverkusen were second to last in the Bundesliga and things were not looking positive in the Champions League either. In his place, the not-so-experienced Xabi Alonso took the coaching job.

His team beat Schalke 04 4:0 at home, but fell again in the next game, 0:3 at home to Porto in the Champions League.

This was followed by a 1:5 loss to Frankfurt and a 2:2 draw with Wolfsburg. The fans were worried that the team would take a long time to recover from the bad form.

Hope came in the Champions League, the German side drew 2-2 at Atlético Madrid and still nurtured hopes of progressing from the group to at least the Europa League.

In the league, they fell again to Leipzig, but the subsequent draw with Brugge meant third place, which can be considered at least a small success in this form.

Since then, things have been going well. Union Berlin beat Leverkusen 5-0 at home, Adam Hložek also scored, followed by wins over Cologne (2-1) and Stuttgart (2-0). This means one thing, Bayer has risen to 12th place in the Bundesliga ahead of the World Cup!

Moreover, if we look at the form under Alonso, we find that during his tenure Leverkusen were the fourth best team in the entire league. So it can definitely be acknowledged that the club is slowly getting on the right track.

Source: Bayer Leverkusen