Bayer Leverkusen appointed Xabi Alonso has their new manager this week and no doubt plenty of eyes will be drawn to the BayArena to watch his progress.
The Basque manager is one of the most highly-touted prospects in coaching, having played at the highest level for many years under many of the game’s most prominent coaches.
He was asked during his presentation what the most important lesson he had learned from the likes of Pep Guardiola, Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho was. Sport carried his comments.
“The first lesson that I learned from them is that the players need to follow you, they need to believe in what they are doing, they need to know that they are improving with you coaching, with your help.”
He also set out his ideas to Diario AS, in terms of what he wanted to inculcate his players with.
“We want to play modern football. That means: intensity with and without the ball, being more active than passive and with a strong mentality. The team has to know how we want to play. Dominant, intense, controlled, with a winning mentality and that should be from the first kick-off until the final whistle. I will try to give the players clear instructions and ideas.”
So far Alonso’s journey in coaching has taken in a spell in Real Madrid’s academy and then two seasons with Real Sociedad B. He returned the La Real reserve side to Segunda for the first time since the 1960s in his first campaign too. This summer he left the Txuri-Urdin and takes over Die Werkself in dire straits as they sit in the relegation zone in the Bundesliga.
Spanish fans will get an early look at that progress on the 26th of October, when he takes his Leverkusen team to the Metropolitano to face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.