Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen techniques and Liverpool’s squad usually are not a pure match

As a participant, Xabi Alonso would have been superb for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Simply shut your eyes, crank up some YouTube spotlight beats and movie these trademark lengthy, pushed diagonals flying off a proper boot so cultured it belonged within the Prado. If he’d had Mohamed Salah or Darwin Nunez working onto the top of these, good evening.

As a supervisor, although? Perhaps he’s not such an ideal match. Earlier than we rush to anoint him Klopp’s pure successor based mostly on a fast look on the Bundesliga desk and fond recollections of how good he used to look in pink, it’s value taking a more in-depth take a look at how Alonso’s present Bayer Leverkusen aspect really play.

The principle drawback for Liverpool, mockingly sufficient, is that Alonso the coach doesn’t imagine in lengthy passes. He desires his staff to play it quick, on the grass and straight up the center so quick it’ll make your head spin.

Solely a handful of managers have been as ideologically dedicated to quick passing as Alonso at Leverkusen. He’s acquired much less in frequent with Klopp than with Maurizio Sarri at Napoli (2015-2018) or Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton — good managers and nice groups, certain, however by no means like the present Liverpool.

Leverkusen’s build-ups begin from a versatile again three that may swing one exterior centre-back broad to turn out to be a again 4 when the scenario requires it. In entrance of them, a pair of defensive midfielders play very slim at barely staggered heights, a la De Zerbi’s Brighton, for fast mixture play between the strains.

Right here’s a attribute sequence in opposition to Bayern Munich in September:

Third-man patterns like these are the essential constructing block of Leverkusen’s quick passing sport. By dropping one midfielder under one other as he receives, they arrange a lay-off to a participant dealing with ahead who can play one other quick move between the strains with one or two touches, making a lightning-quick ladder up the center of the pitch.

Not like Brighton, who use shut combos in midfield to place Kaoru Mitoma one-v-one on the wing, Leverkusen’s main playmaker is the central attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz. Quick third-man passing within the half-spaces pulls aside the opponent’s strains so Wirtz can flip and dribble straight on the again line whereas the younger Nigerian striker Victor Boniface runs forward of him to complete the transfer.

Leverkusen’s rapid-fire model is as engaging as it’s efficient — their 1.97 non-penalty anticipated targets per sport within the Bundesliga is up greater than 30 per cent since final season. Their perch atop the league greater than midway via the season isn’t a fluke.

However the best way Alonso’s aspect assault may be very completely different from Klopp’s Liverpool, with good cause. It’s not nearly ideology — it’s in regards to the gamers.

Like all elite trendy sides, Liverpool are comfy constructing from the again, pushing their line of defense excessive up the pitch and patiently selecting aside compact opponents. Klopp’s secret weapon, although, has been lethal lengthy diagonals from his again 4, particularly Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back.

Whereas Leverkusen use their midfielders to drive the ball via the centre of the pitch, three of Liverpool’s prime progressive passers within the Premier League this season are defenders: Alexander-Arnold and the centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, all of whom are comfy spraying lengthy balls to runners on both wing. The fourth is Salah, who’s spent the final couple of years receiving wider than he used to and dribbling in from the aspect of the field to interrupt down defences.

Alonso’s model at Leverkusen doesn’t encourage excessive balls to the wings or broad creators like Salah. Evaluating the 2 sides within the Europa League group stage, the place Liverpool weren’t even utilizing their first string half the time, it’s straightforward to see the distinction.

The genius of Klopp’s Liverpool has been discovering methods to again up these killer lengthy balls with a high-octane urgent sport. Due to all their quick passing that retains gamers shut collectively, Leverkusen are glorious at counter-pressing to win the ball again within the moments after a turnover — in response to The Analyst, they’ve created 36 photographs from excessive turnovers this season, prime within the Bundesliga — however they’re a lot much less aggressive in opposition to an organised build-up.

Urgent out of a 3-4-3 that appears just a little like Chelsea again when Thomas Tuchel was round, Leverkusen enable 13.8 passes per excessive defensive motion (PPDA), a well-liked urgent metric that places them seventh within the Bundesliga. Liverpool have a PPDA of 9.2, probably the most fierce excessive press within the Premier League.

This season’s Liverpool is usually a little chaotic. Backing off the offside lure that prompted issues in current seasons has pulled open house between the strains for opponents that crack the primary line of stress to run free via midfield, making video games extra end-to-end. Nonetheless, doubling down on their outdated heavy metallic id has been a profitable technique for Klopp.

Taking part in like Leverkusen would change all that. If Alonso cut-and-pasted his present sport mannequin onto Liverpool, the excessive press would drop off into extra of a Man Metropolis-style mid-block. In possession, the artistic gamers on the again would have much less freedom to select runners excessive and Salah might need to desert his wing to create between the strains. Even Alisson would see his function diminished in a back-three system that daunts the goalkeeper from venturing out of his field to be a part of the build-up as a keeper-back.

All of this may work and it’s actually performed wonders for Leverkusen, however a supervisor’s first job is to suit the staff’s techniques to the strengths of the squad, which is partly why it’s very arduous to foretell whether or not teaching success will carry over to the following job. Alonso doesn’t have an extended sufficient managerial report to counsel how he would possibly deal with the transition.

Then once more, this is similar man who used to drop 50-yard diagonals inside a shoelace-width margin of error and who would possibly quickly be the primary supervisor in over a decade to dethrone Bayern Munich. When has he ever missed?

(Prime photograph: Getty Pictures)