His Leverkusen side are elite, across Europe, for shots conceded (one of the very best, much better than Liverpool this season) AND shots taken (I want to say top five across Europe, with Liverpool up there on that side too).
I saw another graphic, and the axis were quantity of passes and speed of passes. Alonso’s Leverkusen side were a dominant outlier, they pass loads, like a Man City, but the speed of passing, as it helps to transition to shots taken, is much better again.
This young manager looks every bit to me to be a man with a plan, taking the best of a Man City sort of game and a Liverpool game, and amalgamating it in his own sort of way.
His Leverkusen side is fantastic on both sides of the ball.
Give Alonso his chance at Liverpool, with the added resources we have in comparison to Leverkusen, and we won’t look back.
I honestly think we are about to nab the best manager of the next generation.
But yes I do think Xabi is the most visible choice for now. We don’t know what are some other possible outliers there are. Playing for us, being respectful of our culture as a club is very important and Xabi has that advantage. Having said that, there will always be some out there who admires Liverpool knowing our history and know us very well and might not have previously played or worked in Liverpool
I do not. I think Nunez will go from strength to strength under Xabi’s style. The sheer quantity of shots it brings is up there with the best of the best. Nunez will thrive in that environment, with the quick play coming at him and making lots of action in the opposition third.
On Nunez in particular, it’s up to him to improve in terms of conversion, but under Xbi he will have a butt load of chances.
I think we are going to go from strength to strength and Nunez will become an utterly dominant centre forward.
It’s clear that Gerrard doesn’t have the same credit in the bank that he had when he was managing Rangers. Him failing at Villa (which isn’t a crime in itself) and refusing to buckle down and climb the ropes again with a championship club (more importantly) rules him out of the Liverpool job
Cheapest perhaps. But it’s a pretty risky move for him and he may want to have another year or two at Leverkusen (esp if they don’t win the league). If he comes here he’ll be under a lot of pressure and a poor start to his second season could be fatal. Being selfish, he may also reason that the Liverpool job would be more desirable after someone else has failed rather than straight on the heels of a PL win under Klopp. The Bayern job, for example, for 3 seasons may make ‘more sense’ as his next step. Hopefully he is drawn by his heart and the club sell him the romance but, while he is clearly our best option, I’m not sure he’ll think we are his.
I think this is kinda what @gasband is alluding to - if Stevie G really ‘got’ us and was desperate to manage us in the future he wouldn’t have gone to Sandy fucking Arabia
There’s nothing to state that FSG would choose the Liverpool manager based on club loyalty. They fired Kenny for instance. It’s clear that they would choose the best available candidate.
Gerrard doesn’t have the personality or skills for the job. I never wanted him to be our manager and wasn’t even that convinced by him as a captain.
He doesn’t have the empathy or patience to relate to players who aren’t at his level, and he doesn’t seem to be a great tactician.
Xabi seems to have these qualities on top of his connection with the club.
My worry with him is that he seems a bit inept in terms of setting a team up defensively. You just don’t win the biggest honours without that solidity.
He’ll know how toxic the culture at Bayern is. From the board to the players to the fans, they are a bunch of arrogant entitled pricks.
If he doesn’t win the CL in his first season there, he’ll be under pressure.
If another flavour of the month appears in the BL, he’ll be out.
I understand that to a certain extent obviously following the club for 20+ years, but what does that exactly mean?
Is it impossible for Liverpool to have a successful manager for a few years that doesn’t necessarily understand the whole culture of the club?
Even understanding sounds a bit too strong, you’d have to be really dumb not to understand certain aspects about us that are always there. But being somewhat different.
It’s often talked about a lot without getting into more details. Pretty vague at times.
Xabi has played for some of the biggest and most iconic clubs in the world. Some of which he might manage.
Not sure if clubs can be separated into toxic and arrogant and non-toxic and non-arrogant.
It’s just big clubs that have different, better and worse times. Individuals change. Bayern are always up there in Germany, though lately there are certain question marks about their transfer strategy, style of play, etc.
Xabi simply might want something different, outside Germany, as his next move post-Leverkusen. Whether that’s this summer or in a few years.
No doubt they’re a massive club and for a German speaking coach, if you’re not Jurgen Klopp or someone like that, of course you’d be open for it.
I don’t see Bayern or Real being his next destination as hes so early in his career. Plenty of time for those jobs. That’s not to say that Bayern is a bigger job than the Liverpool job.
My gut is he either stays at Leverkusen or he comes to us.
I think his Chelsea performance will count against him.
I know people will make mistakes and the club is a bit of a nut case but the fact Brighton didn’t seem to be knocked off their stride would send alarm bells.
I’d also be a bit concerned with their current guy on that, is he just coming into a rather excellent set up a bit like Swansea was or is he genuinely that good.