2024-04-30 05:46:08
We highlight the success factors of “pharmacists”.
İdman.biz presents an article with a link to footballhd.ru.
The current Bundesliga season has been historic, but not for a team that has won the previous 11 titles. This time, Bayer resolved all the issues ahead of schedule and for the first time in the history of the club became the champion without losing a single match. The Pharmacists have every chance of breaking Bayern’s ten-year-old record for the most points ever scored in a single Bundesliga season.
This shows that even the Munich club in their heyday might not have been able to compete with this Bayer. This outstanding achievement is a testament to the fact that the team is all working in harmony with each other. “Pharmacists” showed a master class on and off the field. The right selection of players and quality coaching provided these players with the platform to achieve greatness.
The transfer of Alex Grimaldo should go down in the history of the best free agent signings. Victor Boniface’s goals early in the season inspired the whole team and Bayer continued to score even after his injury. Also important are the leadership qualities of Granit Xhaka and the superb performances of the precocious Florian Wirtz. And at the center of this story is Xabi Alonso.
It all seems surreal when you remember where Leverkusen were when Alonso was appointed head coach in October last season. They were the penultimate team in the Bundesliga. “The starting point was a team without trust, players without faith. It was a difficult situation. A really difficult situation for Xabi,” said Pharmacists sporting director Simon Rolfes. After 18 months, Bayer became the best team in Germany, and maybe in all of Europe.
Alonso had experience as a professional footballer and had shown some evidence of his desire to build a coaching career, but appointing him to his first top job was still a risky decision. Rolfes relied on a young specialist who at one time worked with the best coaches in Europe.
Having been part of Spain’s winning team and playing under Pep Guardiola at Bayern, Xabi understandably places a premium on possession. The trophy winner under Rafael Benitez and Jose Mourinho also knows how to make his team difficult to beat. Add to that a Champions League win under Carlo Ancelotti, a master of dressing room management, and you have a top man who has learned from the best.
Putting everything together in a dysfunctional team is very difficult. But as former Bayer Leverkusen striker Ulf Kirsten explains, Alonso is unusual in that he has the aura of a great player without the feeling that he already knows everything. When a coach himself wants to learn and develop together with his team, it looks very attractive.
Alonso inherited a young team capable of counter-attacking quickly, but wanted to unite it with a more patient approach. Last season, having lifted the Pharmacists to 6th place, Xabi was able to do it in a relatively low-key manner. Leverkusen have been transformed this campaign. Ball possession increased from 51.8% per game to 63.4% – the biggest increase of any team in Europe’s top leagues. However, Bayer can still break through opponents and counter-attacks, moving forward at great speed.
The breakthrough happened last season, but the summer was decisive. It’s not just that Leverkusen did a brilliant job in the transfer market, the club having found quality players before, but that Alonso was able to identify the exact characteristics of the players that he needed to take the team to the next level. Former German national team player Lothar Matthäus praised the Spaniard’s personnel approach. Previously, they only worked with the younger generation. However, Xabi thought that experienced players were also needed to fight for the championship.
In this regard, the 31-year-old Xhaka, who has become a midfield general at Bayer Leverkusen, stands out. Jonas Hofmann, also 31, was another smart signing. But some other signings were prescient. Boniface, a transfer from Belgium, quickly scored 7 goals in his first five Bundesliga matches and made a promising start. But, perhaps, the best transfer of the off-season for the “pharmacists” was Grimaldo. At Leverkusen, the 28-year-old full-back became both a creative and a goalscorer. Only Boniface scored more than him.
Grimaldo started 29 of his 30 Bundesliga matches, underlining his status. But there are other important players. Boniface missed a long period from December to April, but Patrick Schick replaced him well and the victories kept coming. Defender Jonathan Ta has had a superb season, but Leverkusen haven’t conceded a single goal in three Bundesliga matches without him. Success in the cup competitions, in which Alonso often rotates, underlines the depth of this squad.
Having players who can help off the bench has been a big factor in allowing Bayer to pick up points late in matches. “Pharmacists” earned 8 points, scoring after the 75th minute, for which they were nicknamed “monsters of mentality.” The most dramatic examples of this happened in the Europa League. Losing to Qarabag by 2 goals, Schick scored twice in stoppage time and Leverkusen won. In the match with West Ham, another 2 late goals broke the Hammers’ resistance. In the match against Borussia Dortmund, Bayer equalized the score in the 7th minute of stoppage time. The players’ faith is palpable.
If Real Madrid, for example, had accomplished such feats, it would have been attributed to part of the culture and the innate self-belief that comes with being one of the most successful clubs in history. But Alonso has achieved success at a club not known for big wins. The nickname “Neverkusen”, forever associated with the year 2002, when Bayer lost 3 trophies, including the Champions League, became their defining factor. Xabi removed that label by dethroning Bayern and winning the league title for Leverkusen in style.
By deciding to remain in his post, despite the interest of Liverpool and Bayern, Alonso made himself respected even more. And there are no signs that this story should end quickly. Bayer has the opportunity to build something even bigger. But that’s a different conversation. What the “pharmacists” have already achieved, reaching the end of April without defeat, deserves to be called one of the greatest seasons in European history. An outstanding achievement for Leverkusen. An outstanding achievement for any club. Based on Sky Sports
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