Xabi Alonso helped Bayer Leverkusen to improve a lot in the past season but failure of the club in Europa League against AS Roma with Jose Mourinho shows that Xabi still needs more experience as a coach to win big titles. He does not have enough ideas and flexibility to change tactics when his players are struggling in a match.
Yes, Xabi Alonso has brought Bayer Leverkusen back to the limelight after a successful season in Germany; and even though Bayer Leverkusen has started the league in good form; i think the coach needs to downplay the comparison the media is bringing between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich because this will only pile up expectations and pressures on the young Bayer Leverkusen side.
Xabi Alonso is a coach who is still quite young and he has been able to bring very good development to Leverkusen in just 1 year so there is still a big possibility for Leverkusen to become 3 of the top teams in the Bundesliga because from the previous season there were only two Bayern team and Dortmund who are always in 1st and 2nd place.
From Leverkusen development at the start of this season there is great hope for them to be able to compete for the most points and win the title by competing with Bayern Munich and Dortmund but the most dominant and tough opponent for Leverkusen is only Bayern Munich.
Yes, Xabi Alonso has brought Bayer Leverkusen back to the limelight after a successful season in Germany; and even though Bayer Leverkusen has started the league in good form; i think the coach needs to downplay the comparison the media is bringing between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich because this will only pile up expectations and pressures on the young Bayer Leverkusen side.
I don't take away Xabi's important role. But Bayern Leverkusen is always in the top 10 at the end of every season. Even they can reach the top 3 at the end of the competition. The last game of the season against Bayern was indeed quite good. They were able to get 1 point and were number 1 temporarily. Xabi came 2022 and he managed to give a performance no less good than the previous coach. But the season is still going to be very long, so Xabi also has a lot to do to keep them at their best.
How can it be said that Xabi Alonso did not have an important role in Leverkusen achievements at the start of this season?
We can see clearly in the history of the Bundesliga standings and Leverkusen in the last few seasons was able to reach the top 3 in the 2021/22 season and in the previous season Leverkusen only finished in 4th or 5th position.
Moreover in every match Leverkusen players have also created better games than the previous season and last season was the initial season for Xabi Alonso to do research and learn how to improve the squad he is coaching and now we are starting to see Xabi Alonso performance as coach Leverkusen.