THE PROS AND CONS OF XABI ALONSO FOR LIVERPOOL

THE PROS AND CONS OF XABI ALONSO FOR LIVERPOOL

Dan spoke to German football expert Seb Stafford-Bloor (@SebSB) to find out what Liverpool could expect should Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso replace Jurgen Klopp as Reds’ boss. 

Watch or listen to the full show HERE – https://theredmentv.com/what-could-we-expect-from-xabi-alonso-expert-insight-w-sebstien-stafford-bloor/

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I want to touch on quite a simplistic one really just you say he’s cutting his teeth in management terms really he still relatively inexperienced but he’s doing a brilliant job at it up until now just in terms of if you had to pinpo of few of his key strengths and why do you

Think he is being so successful obviously we spoken about sort of his um his people skills his man management skills and clearly tactically he’s very Adept and stuff like that as well but what would you sort of put it down to from an early observation couple of different things

Um and in no particular order first thing is there’s clearly a reverence for him from younger players now that works very well at a club like leusen um because a lot of those players um particularly the ones between 20 and 25 have grown up watching him win European

Cups and World Cups and um to be this kind of uh culturally significant person across European football uh the second thing is it’s interesting because the way he played and you never than you know than I do about this but he you wouldn’t expect a particularly fierce person like

A fierce coaching personality you’d expect him to to coach the way he played which was um kind of smooth and as if the game wasn’t actually that difficult now if you watch him Coach a session he’s pretty Fierce like he’s um he speaks you know more languages than exist seemingly effortlessly he’s a

Brilliant linguist um but both him and his coaching staff are um they they’ve got some they’ve got some bite to their backk as well and that’s something that surprised me the third thing is I I think from a technical perspective that there are some really interesting things happening

Lusen because um in nearly every case what you have are a group of players beyond the kind of the um established mature players that we mentioned that came in over the summer a lot of players with high potential who are now playing right at the limits of their abilities

Now that’s probably best example of that might be someone like Florian Vitz who is going to be you know 100 million player one day but also guys like um cunu or um tap SOA or Jonathan tar who’s um had a little bit of a career in asence Jeremy Fring pong is a great

Example of someone who had moments before Alonzo arrived and was clearly very very talented but has become uh truly a world-class Wing back and one of the most destructive right-sided players in World Football under Lonzo and that to me highlights one of his great strengths he knows

Where to put players to best maximum their their effect and I think with some Fring pong Fring pong’s a fun example because Fring pong if you watch L enough you’ll have seen that at times he’s the furthest player forward and he’s a wing back and he he has he’s better

Defensively than people um give him credit for like he’s he’s tarnished with that kind of modern fullback Wing back brush which is oh you’re all athleticism not true but you see the kind of the way that he’s been jigsawed into the formation and the result is okay so you

Have all this width you have these offsetting fullbacks Wing backs one galdo is more of a playmaker pring pong on the other side who is um more Dynamic and more of an attacking weapon but then they used in a way which allows your internal players Jacka um glassos in

There as well but um that’s first and foremost because he’s the most gifted to have all this Central space and collectively you kind of optimize everybody’s role on the field and also the amount of times and this is the one thing I think a lot of Bundesliga

Coaches haven’t worked out and one of the reasons why they’ve remained unbeaten they outnumber oppositions so often like they’re not a transition heavy side which is unusual for the Bundesliga they are a good presser without being a kind of a Relentless counter presser um and yet they always always have these numerical mismatches

And that’s just good coaching and so I I I hav to think actually that um it’s the Bundesliga style is always thought to be that kind of that that um that old 20110 to 2013 youngon Club thing it with the heavy Transitions and that’s all there is I I think this is

Kind of this is sort of Best of Both Worlds I think lus do a lot of things that for instance guardiola’s Bay Munich did quite well in terms of their ball retention but they also have elements of that club style and so I think the portrait painan is of a coach who has

Absorbed so many different influences and if you think about the kind of the the coaches he played under right it makes sense um so around just a spectacle and just say I live in Germany and the Bundesliga was close to my heart and alonso’s leus have been real shot on

The arm for the division because yes the story is a little bit about B not being very good yeah there also about the Excellence of this side and you know and a great coaching story so it’s just um that’s not really the question you asked I gave you like 4 different answers to

Different questions but but that’s kind of that’s what I’ve taken away from watching it and these are these are all things which could be attributed to his strength in whatever way you want to really no amazing yeah and I think you’re absolutely right to mention how a lot of the media attention particularly

In recent days as we record this has been about tomall and the underperforming by Munich whilst the the the headline moreover should be how well by L are play and absolutely agree with you on that front well there’s one thing to add to that you know it absolutely it

Should be last season yes Bayern Munich won the title but they won they won the title with um their lowest points tally since well I think it’s about 13 years the last time they finish third in the division so um yeah bich could not been great but they got to been beaten and

There many years um previously when they haven’t been and when you know they’ve been able to get away with it in in a vertic comms um as a result you know the financial advantage or you know psychological hold over the league and you got to go out and do it and not the

Easiest thing in the world in the p neverin no absolutely no well neverin as is more potentially familiarly known as I’ve found out in the past few weeks um in terms of sort of weaknesses then I’ve been hard pressed to find the all here from anybody who can sort of nail down

Any weaknesses of shabby lonzo’s coaching OB at early days yet which you guess his Testament to the job he’s doing do you can you sort of spot any within there you mention how he is with the media obviously personality wise it comes across brilliantly my management

Seems to have it nailed down can you think of anything now is it simply a case of a lack of experience which can’t really be helped I think his weaknesses are theoretical because the one thing you got to understand about lausin is it’s a very small place uh also by lusin there

A football team attract no media attention whatsoever in fact Beyond B Munich with the occasional sort of Bry Dortmund Interruption there is no other story in town and so Alonzo has not yet really experienced what it’s like to be on the end of a negative cycle so um you know bad

Results in his first year because it did take a little bit of time to get going nobody cared because it was the nasman circus and then tle coming in and then s hamzic and Ali Khan getting sacked so there is always a biomic story that that attracts the media’s glare so don’t know

How he would um for instance if you were to uh be a head coach in Munich or in Liverpool or in Madrid how do you cope with that because bright light there it’s different these are bigger cities these are footballing powers and also leus and leus built to be in permanent

State of renewal so the idea if you talk to people who work at the club in their recruiting department you recruit players who in two or three years are going to go on to replace other players who they know are going to be sold who they intend to sell at the right Point

Liverpool don’t act like that b don’t act like that um so you know how do you have when you don’t have the kind of the the fluctuations that that sort of cycle um creat an excuse for and or asterisk against how do you cope with that similarly there are most Superstars at B

Lusen the closest you probably got is granite Jackie yes but Flor and vers and vers is a vers is quite a shy person he’s he’s quite um when you watch him and obviously the the German media have a a big interest in him ahead of the European Championship when you watch

Them clamor around him he’s quite inhibited in a way that like a true Superstar of the game mam Salah for instance just would never be um but at the same time time if you put Alonzo into a situation with a lot a lot of high profile players how does he behave

There like how does he deal with the ego that comes with that like lusen is a mix of players who are trying to improve probably to move elsewhere in their careers whereas Real Madrid Bay Munich Liverpool like these clubs their destination right um and you know if

You’re if you’re if you’re if you’re a player you’re you’re not I don’t think you’re tuned to be in quite the same way I I have no idea whether that will prove a strength or weakness of his it’s just at the moment he hasn’t experienced it so

We’ll see so it’s not that there are weaknesses there are just questions