Xabi Alonso seems to be the favourite to succeed Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool right now. His affiliation with the club make him an ideal candidate on paper. He’s already played at Liverpool for many years. And already has a cult like hero status with the club’s fans.
Alonso will be given time and patience to get his vision across at Anfield. He’s young as managers come at 42-years-old, but what he has achieved in the game is already impressive.
From working his way up initially coaching at Real Madrid’s youth teams, to diving into senior football at Real Sociedad. And then, of course, his utter transformation of Bayer Leverkusen – completely turning the club’s fortunes around. That is about as strong of a resume as they come. And there is also one thing Alonso has achieved, which even Jurgen Klopp couldn’t do in the Bundesliga.
Alonso has done what even Klopp couldn’t
Alonso is still unbeaten with Bayer Leverkusen this season in the Bundesliga. His run of games unbeaten has now stretched to 19 matches. That’s closing in on the best start ever to a Bundesliga season – made by Pep Guardiola, which was an unbeaten run of 28 games.
Alonso’s record is also more than Jurgen Klopp. The Liverpool boss was never able to begin a season in such impressive form, and go for that long unbeaten during the beginning of the campaign. At one point Klopp did go 28 games unbeaten as well with his Borussia Dortmund side – but that was after he lost three of his first six games in the 2011/12 season.
This just goes to show how impressive Alonso has been in the Bundesliga. If he can keep this run of form going, he has a chance of surpassing both Klopp’s and Guardiola’s best ever unbeaten runs in the competition.
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