Is Xabi Alonso football's next great manager?
Vložit
- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen have been the talk of European football this season. The club have equalled the best ever start to a Bundesliga season, set by none other than Pep Guardiola with Bayern Munich.
Alonso himself played under some of the best managers in world football including Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez. The Leverkusen manager is one of the fastest rising names in football management, so just how has he arrived at this stage?
Ayo Akinwolere is joined by Raphael Honigstein and Thom Harris to discuss the Spaniard's incredible stint in Germany which has seen him take Bayer Leverkusen from relegation candidates, to top of the Bundesliga.
Check out the rest of this episode and The Athletic Football Podcast five times a week this season...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/69AAB4o...
Subscribe to The Athletic UK channel 👉 bit.ly/athleticuk | 🔔Make sure to enable all push notifications!🔔
The Athletic is currently offering a special price subscription of £2/$2 a month for the first 12 months. To redeem that limited-time-only offer go to 👉 theathletic.com/footballpod
Follow The Athletic FC:
Website 👉 theathletic.com
Twitter 👉 / theathleticfc
Instagram 👉 / theathleticfc
Facebook 👉 / theathleticfc
Follow Tifo Football:
Website 👉 tifofootball.com
Twitter 👉 / tifofootball_
Facebook 👉 / tifofootball
Instagram 👉 / tifofootball_
Subscribe to Tifo Football 👉 bit.ly/TifoFootball
Thumbnail: Christof Koepsel / Stringer / Getty Images Sport via Getty Images
#bundesliga #championsleague #liverpool - Sport
The point about Spanish players playing in one system holds true for Pep, but Xabi Alonso played under Mourinho, Ancelotti and Benitez all with their own different styles, and Lampard also played under all 3
Lampard to Real
@@00dude3Still want to see big Sam at Real Betis
Xabi played under Pep too
Playing with three championship winning managers and keeping their spot is impressive.
Although Lampard played under all 3 for the same team - Xabi played under Benitez in the PL and against Mourinho, in La Liga he played under Mourinho and against Pep and then @ Bayern under Pep and against Klopp & Tuchel... and Ancelotti twice as a reaction to Mourinho and Pep... I think Alonso learns as much from his opponents as from his own coaches so i suspect he has also taken bits from Wenger and Fergie as regular opponents.
But he needs to stick with Leverkusen for at least another couple of seasons - as a head coach you should always leave your first good club with a couple of trophies because that marks you out as a winner early on in your career...
Xabi is a smart man and was an inteligent player. Plus he played under Benitez, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Pep…
Mourinho himself said that Xabi will be a brilliant coach
So far the one thing that's been untested with Xabi is his ability to motivate his team to bounce back after a defeat. As impressive as it was last season how he took Leverkusen from relegation to Europa League it could have been even better. They were actually sitting in Champions League spots at one point in the second half of the season but then suffered a couple defeats and never really recovered, eventually limping towards a 6th place finish.
This season, they look better with all their new signings and they've impressively managed all sort of victories, from coming from behind to blowouts to grinding out results but they are going to eventually taste defeat and that will be the true test of their mentality.
Do you think it's a British culture aspect? The UK has abandoned community as an important ideal for 45 years, we've promoted individualism as an ideal. Perhaps the Europeans, especially the spanish, have a more collaborative and supportive culture, that profits good management and gives more players the tools to manage teams.
UK has no culture anymore it’s such a mishmash due to such high immigration and people being so ashamed of their history etc etc
The guy on the left is driving me crazy with his rotation. He needs to find an anchor, like a hand on the table or locking the chair. And he needs to not fold his arms across his chest, which is the universal sign for being uncomfortable. On the other hand, the guy on the right is a ball of energy who sustains interest is pleasing to watch.
Rapha face(s) from 06:11 😆😆😆
lol you could tell he had some rebuttals but then the video ended -_-
foreign players just seem to routinely have a better grounding in overall football philosophy and a greater tactical awareness. a lot of which will come down to how they were coached, the figures are well known about how few qualified coaches there are/were (think it's changing a bit now) in the UK compared to Germany, Spain, Holland. consequenly so much of the language and debate around the game in this country is reductive and simple, less so recently but certainly 5-10 years ago plus ago, it's all about getting stuck in, fast pace of the game blah blah blah, and what impact the refs had rather than how tactics impacted the game. you see it wit a lot of the x-pros in commentary now, none of them have great tactical insights to the game, you have to rely on journalists who spend time thinking about and watching the game and specialist chanels on you tube etc for actual tactical analsysis.
Spot on 👌🏻
fair point... Alonso's willingness to go first to the PL and then to Germany shows, i think, an interest in football culture and ideas that most great coaches have...
I think the problem with english football is that the clubs often hire on the basis of reputation rather than an analysis of what sort of manager they need.
English football has always been predominantly an uneducated, working class man's game, on the continent it's played by all classes.
Him, Howe and De Zerbi. And I wonder if Nagelsmann gets back in the conversation after the Euros.
@@Xabi_Ballonso Howe has done a fantastic job at Newcastle, look at how he’s changed the game of a number of players who were underperforming before him. Joelinton, Schar, Almiron, Longstaff just to name a few.
@@s717w I read an article that Newcastle gave a sweet bonus for the best player ( in performance wise) in training
And joelington won most of them
Money helps
Arteta is better than all of them. Just wait
Seriously. 🤣
this comment section has some of the dumbest n blindest mfs I've ever seen.
We've seen this hype before with the likes of ETH, Potter, Naglesman- all went on to crap their pants under pressure. It's all very good doing cute tactics at a club where most of the world doesn't even know when they are playing.....
Arteta is clear of them because he's an elite man manager too.
It's so obvious he's the next big thing. You only need to listen to him for 5 mins.
Pick any random interview of his from 3-4 seasons ago where he's defending the likes of Bellerin, Mustafi & Kolasinac( just to provide context what tools he had when he started) and pay attention to all the things he said he wanted to do. 4 yrs on he's done most of those things- Who else except Pep has done this in their first job ?? And he had Messi....
It's Arsenal's title to lose this season. I have 0 doubt they are winning either the PL/UCL this season- barring another injury crisis like last season.
@@Xabi_BallonsoHowe is an excellent coach/mamager
Anyone coached by both Pep and Mourinho is bound to be a good coach too. Shame that Etoo, Ibrahimovic. Robben are not going into management
Leverkusen had amazing players. They just needed a decent Manager to bounce back and be at a good spot. But Alonso's credit is in taking them from one of the better teams to the table toppers in Bundesliga. That's impressive
What about the Aus style?
The blue Peter mush from back in the day now on the Athletic team classs.
Best young coaches in Europe:
Xabi Alonso
Michel
Roberto De Zerbi
Francesco Farioli
No Xavi?
@@finfog4590 not for me, no style, identity, pattern of play. He's fortunate to have such talented players cos they have no attacking system. Relies on Raphinha, Lewa, etc to create something out of nothing.
Last year they got lucky in a sense with the league that Madrid were average, and they had one of the best keepers in the world save them countless times. Terrible in the cups.
@@granth1238 Understood
Arteta?
@@Authenticjew not a fan personally but I understand if people enjoy his football.
VAMOS XABI😊
The EPL is the bar in coaching you make it there due to the agressive media spotlight it will definitely put you top.
I'd love to see him in a managerial partnership with Mascherano.
Yes
Speaking of former holding midfielder's becoming good manager's/head coach's. How can you not talk about Michael Carrick? Especially when he plays similar style of play( more like Roberto de Zerbi) like Pep and arteta. You guys spoke about Gerrard and lampard but not Michael Carrick, that's not fair.
I’m glad he did not jump in the summer, I wanted to see him do a full season from the beginning without the ‘new manager bounce’ affect.
Loved him as a player, and as a person, he’s always studied the game even from his early years travelling abroad.
Hope he can achieve a trophy or two with Leverkusen.
yes.
To be honest, he's the NEXT BIG thing.. Definitely he'll do great things in the coming years and it's inevitable that he'll definitely coach Real Madrid.. as early as it is, he's doing a good job currently and there is more to come.. Watch the Space 🙌🏾
I won't be the only Rangers fan who was groaning at the forgetfulness/ignorance of Steven Gerrard winning a league and doing relatively well in Europe at Rangers.
Sam Worthington
Zidane ??????
Man United should sell 12 players and go for Alonso. Remember that the great Matts Busby was a Liverpool player.
I have a feeling he'll coach Liverpool first for 5-6 years and then take the real Madrid job
Brexit mindset holds too many English coaches back. Exceptionalism; we don’t need to know any other languages; probably quite suspicious of fancy tactical insights; and prefers players who can run and put in ‘hard work’ rather than technicians. The success of the PL ironically has also probably held back English coaches for the same reasons because it exacerbates that English exceptionalism. Then look at someone like Eddie Howe as both a counterpoint to this and a good example of it. He’d be viewed suspiciously by large swathes of English people as an ‘intellectual’ and therefore someone to be distrusted. He went abroad to work with foreign coaches and improve his knowledge and understanding of the game. A citizen of nowhere. A metropolitan elite. That’s not how we do things
England has had this football mindset far worse during our reign in the EU (and even before we joined the EC/EU).
It's an English mindset, not based on exceptionalism, they just see the tactical/technical advances of continental football more as peripheral issues, certainly not fundamental. And it shows in our game and obviously in international tournaments. We've (nearly) always been able to produce great players, but coaches and managers? Just look at Southgate. That said, I really hope Howe encourages other English managers to do the same.
@@joevolcano6720 true, but Brexit put a name to it. Before, it would have just been characterised as bland nationalism or similar, which could apply to anywhere. Brexit was the perfect embodiment of this specific English affliction which arises from England’s specific history: our empire, having the world’s dominant language and the fact that despite all these advantages, we still manage to fuck everything up and be shit at things that we invented
@@crayontom9687 Not really, Brexit only "put a name on it" when it came to the EU and only then to the BBC and/or London class/parts of the country.
England has felt itself as distinct from Germany as it does any country in say Eastern Europe going back to the medieval ages. That's quite documented.
Now when it comes to football it has never felt compelled to innovate, because they're not really in it for that. Think how much "bootin' it" was part of football when we were in the average English playground - the direct physicality of it is what football spirit is based on.
Also, you don't have to excuse the empire to know though it's problems it really didn't manage to "fuck everything up". Try living in post colonial Africa - some parts make the Empire look like a Utopia. I think that mindset could be more of a result of liberal 'white-guilt' than a country of great players, but not enough great coaches.
Tooop
he will either end up at Liverpool or Real Madrid. Depends on the timing.....
I'm watching these boring videos from this channel in hope if there's something useful to know as information, but by suffering while watching.
💥Pep = always has great starting formation then makes mistakes with changes.
💥Klopp = always starts with wrong formation then makes brilliant changes to fix it.
💥 7Hag = starts with wrong formation then makes it even worse.
Nope. It's Mikel Arteta.
Maybe second after him.
Lol
@@opsoo2229 Lol. Granit Xhaka is bigger than Bayern Leverkusen. It's all very nice doing cute tactics at Leverkusen where half the world doesn't even know when they're playing. We've seen this hype before with the likes of Naglesman, Ten Hag, Potter. All got cooked under pressure.
"Lol"
@@Never_Wr0ng you didn't see what Xabi was doing with Bayer Leverkusen last season then
The next Real Madrid manager 😊