2023-12-07 00:03:40
. Xabi Alonso enjoys being the leader of the Bundesliga. After a complicated arrival in October 2022 to get Bayer Leverkusen out of a complicated situation, the Tolosa coach is now experiencing an almost perfect season, with Bayer at the top of the standings without defeat. In an interview with Jorge Valdano for Movistar, Xabi Alonso acknowledges that “things are going great. It’s about controlling and maintaining that high level, we’re not cutting our wings but there’s a lot left. “We must find a balance between ambition and moderation,” he asks in a talk where he reviews both the current situation in Germany and his past as a footballer and coach.
After finishing his career as a player at Bayern, Xabi Alonso decided to start as a coach at a lower level, with the Real Madrid youth team. He was a way of taking it easy, although he is aware that in today’s football there is no truce or patience. «My idea was not to want to rush when I decided to be a coach, to do things little by little, calmly. So far I think I have. I have been covering stages and all of them have helped me a lot to be the coach I am now,” he says.
«I liked being a coach from day one – he adds – and I have learned many things in all the teams I have been on. I remember when I coached the Real Madrid kids and after Sanse that the most important thing was to give them freedom on the pitch, but at the same time also a little bit of content. You play the key they like and their performance is much greater. “The idea was always to make them better players.”
Xabi Alonso has already assimilated the change from active player to coach, with the responsibility that this entails. «In my case, the passion is the same, both on the pitch and on the bench. I enjoy it very much. I don’t tell the players ‘little battles’. I would like to be in the field again, but right now it is not possible. From time to time I start doing rondos in training. I work a lot in the field, by lines, by phases, and when there is time, by associations, in small companies, I learned that with Denoueix at La Real.
In the interview, Xabi Alonso acknowledges to Valdano that he decided on Germany because “he knew it was a good place to train. I don’t know Italy or France and the Premier was more distant because more years had passed since I left Liverpool, but here I wasn’t afraid because I knew it. In Germany there are very young coaches, there is no fear of the young coach », he assures. At Bayer he explains that “I knew that if I did a little well I could improve it because it was a matter of mood, there was a lot of potential in the team. That was the challenge. From the basic things, we start to build. And now people feel that something beautiful is being generated, the team transmits it.
In his talk he also highlights his episode with the farm. “It was a long process and it was not comfortable, you talk about it a lot with the family and advisors, but we have been left with the feeling that we fought for something that was fair.”
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