This summer, Liverpool has to find a replacement for Jurgen Klopp, and Xabi Alonso, the manager of Bayer Leverkusen, meets all the requirements to take over at Anfield.
When it comes to Anfield, Xabi Alonso is taking Jurgen Klopp’s route.
With Borussia Dortmund, Klopp established his reputation in Germany by defying the odds and preventing Bayern Munich from winning the Bundesliga. Before making it to the Champions League Final in 2013, he guided Dortmund to consecutive wins in 2011 and 2012, winning the Double in 2012.
Alonso is using the same strategy with Bayer Leverkusen eleven years later. Since Klopp won the Bundesliga with Dortmund, no other team has won the league; nevertheless, Alonso and Leverkusen have a large body of water separating them from Bayern as they attempt to convert their five-point advantage into their first championship.
Impressive numbers aside, Leverkusen is the only team in all of Europe’s 54 divisions to have never lost in the Bundesliga. Alonso would tick every box on Liverpool’s checklist of requirements for their future manager.
In addition to being an excellent coach, he is a skilled tactician. At Leverkusen, he like to play a 3-4-3 configuration, which enables him to switch between five attackers and five defenders while the ball is in possession.
His team has an impressive 89.8% pass completion percentage and plays the ball really well throughout the park. They boast the second-best offensive and the top defensive in the Bundesliga.
The incredibly knowledgeable Basque, who got his start as a coach at Real Sociedad B and Real Madrid junior, is cerebral and has a solid understanding of football in Germany, England, and Spain.
Crucially, for Liverpool, who play against ultra-wealthy teams like two that are owned by Middle Eastern nations, he has succeeded by using his transfer market acumen.
Summertime acquisitions Nathan Tella, Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonas Hoffman, Victor Boniface, and Granit Xhaka have all achieved success by adding the ideal balance of performance level and experience.
With Harry Kane leading their attack, Bayern was predicted to win the Bundesliga 12 times in a row, but Alonso is showing that great acquisitions are not necessary for success.
Additionally, Alonso has a deeper understanding of Liverpool than most international players do of the city and the team. He became fully involved in the club’s ethos and realised that in order to upset the wealthier clubs in Europe, they had to play above their weight.
Under Rafa Benitez, he accomplished this, leading Liverpool to win the FA Cup the following season and possibly their greatest victory yet—the Champions League in 2005.
In 2009, Benitez sold him to raise money, and when he moved to Real Madrid for a reported £30 million, no Liverpool supporter voiced any complaints. Even if Alonso isn’t as flamboyant on the sidelines as Klopp, his former Liverpool teammate Stephen Warnock is confident he would fit in well at Anfield.
“You need to bring in someone who has achieved success, knows how to win, or who immediately makes you realise during training that this is something special,” remarked Warnock.
“If he is hired, it will be interesting to observe the difference in dynamic between the highly emotional Jurgen Klopp that we are accustomed to seeing on the touchline and possibly a more composed figure in Xabi Alonso.”
Although Alonso isn’t as charismatic as Klopp, who can match it? Even though Bob Paisley and Benitez were considerably more composed off the pitch, the Kop continues to honour them today. Even now, Alonso is still well-liked in Merseyside, and his comeback would be the most anticipated since manager Kenny Dalglish’s in 2011.
In the end, those eighteen months were a failure for Liverpool, and Dalglish’s glory days as a manager were over in football. Alonso, at 42, still has plenty of good coaching years ahead of him, but the same cannot be said of him. The supporters of Liverpool hope they’ll be there.
