Perfectionist Alonso: making the difficult simple

Bundesliga - Perfectionist Alonso: making the difficult simple

Xabi Alonso is a perfectionist. Even the current record run of 24 competitive matches without defeat from the start only gives the Bayer Leverkusen coach limited satisfaction. "He is simply hungry for success and perfection," says his new team leader Granit Xhaka.

After the 5:1 in the Europa League against Molde FK last Thursday, Alonso replied to the question of whether the goal conceded bothered him: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, of course. I would have preferred 5-0." After the 3-0 win against Eintracht Frankfurt three days later, he would have liked to have scored more goals. "We always want more."

Sporting director Simon Rolfes therefore has to laugh at first when he is asked whether his coach is really never satisfied. "He's satisfied after the game," said Rolfes with a grin: "But you always have to be awake during the game." Being awake, greedy, always wanting more - that's how Xabi Alonso became world champion, twice European champion and twice Champions League winner.

Carro: "Xabi knows what a dressing room needs"

With Bayer, he has already been crowned Christmas champion ahead of the last game of the year against VfL Bochum on Wednesday (20:30/Sky). "Especially with Bayer Leverkusen, we've got an opponent who has to be taken very seriously," said Bayern Munich's honorary president Uli Hoeneß with a view to the battle for the championship on Servus TV. As one of three Bundesliga teams in the quarter-finals, the Werkself are also clear favorites in the DFB Cup. In the Europa League, Leverkusen is also one of the title contenders as the only club with only wins in the preliminary round.

Alonso gets his message across so well as a coach because he doesn't do it with the doggedness of Oliver Kahn, but with the aura of a man of the world and the necessary amount of ease. In this way, he has formed a team at Bayer that follows him unconditionally. "Xabi knows what a dressing room needs. The players listen to him," said club boss Fernando Carro. "He knows exactly how to deal with the players, when to criticize and when to praise," explained Xhaka.

Praise from the players

And it's not just because things are working that Alonso is spreading the fun of the game. "You can tell that the team enjoys playing soccer. No matter who comes in," said Rolfes. And that is perhaps the even greater secret of Leverkusen's soccer, which is currently enchanting the whole of footballing Germany. And while soccer aesthetes are intoxicated by the technical masterpieces of Florian Wirtz and Co., the protagonists do not see the final secret of Leverkusen's high-flying success in the spectacular. Quite the opposite.

"Our strength is the simple game," said Xhaka: "A lot of movement without the ball, high pressing, giving the opponent almost no room to breathe." National player Jonas Hofmann also praised his coach for "many simple but effective things. And that's what counts in soccer." It's "about the small details that turn a good midfielder into a top midfielder", said Xhaka: "It's incredibly rewarding to have a coach like that."

Thomas Tuchel, coach at serial champions and current runners-up FC Bayern, is happy to agree. He himself has "learned a lot from watching Xabi Alonso play soccer", explained the Bayern coach. Because the complicated becomes simple. But, as Xhaka also made clear: "It looks easier than it is." Because otherwise anyone could do it.