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On October 5, Bayer Leverkusen found itself at a turning point. Their best player has been sidelined since mid-March and who knew if he would return to the strength he was after the World Cup? They fell from a relatively favorable Champions League group. In the Bundesliga, meanwhile, they found themselves stranded in the relegation zone at the start of the season.
To get them out of the mire, they sent a coach whose only previous experience had been with the Real Sociedad B team. Xabi Alonso – formerly of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – certainly knew what an elite team looked like, but he started life as a top coach in difficult circumstances.
His players would be the first to acknowledge that.
“When he first came, we were all down,” says Jeremie Frimpong. “He had to lift the team.”
He sure did. Seven months later, Leverkusen’s horizon has completely changed. Before Friday’s disheartening 2-1 derby defeat to Cologne, Alonso’s men had been unbeaten in all competitions since February 19. They have risen from the graveyard of the Bundesliga and are in the sun-drenched highlands of the European places. They left it too late to attack the top four, but they may not need that to qualify for the Champions League anyway. Thursday brings with it the first leg of their Europa League semi-final against Roma (live on Paramount+) with a chance to add just a second continental trophy for a club that has a reputation for being the most men in German football.
“It would mean everything,” says Frimpong. “I don’t think Leverkusen has won a trophy for a long time. It feels like it’s about time. We are a good team, we should win a trophy. Hopefully it will be this one.”
Solid foundations
How did Alonso do? One of the most elegant playmakers and forward-thinking ballplayers of his generation started with the most basic of principles, backing up a defense that leaked 1.7 goals per game under his predecessor Gerardo Seoane. Some of Leverkusen’s problems early in the season were the result of individual errors from other, albeit reliable, players, a bit of difference in finishing at both ends of the field, most notably some out of form from the likes of Patrik Schick and Moussa Diaby .
“Initially we really had to focus on stabilizing ourselves defensively,” said Florian Wirtz, who was an interested spectator from the sidelines at the time, working his way back from the cruciate ligament rupture that robbed one of football’s brightest young stars of the chance to shine at the World Cup. “We had to improve that part of the game. So the whole team was focused on defensive work. Defending our goal first and foremost, not giving up goals. That was really the foundation that Xabi wanted to build.”
Those foundations look solid. Under Alonso, Leverkusen has allowed opponents two fewer shots per game and their expected number of goals allowed (xG) has dropped from 1.51 to 1.2.6 per game. The 0.09 non-penalty xG per shot their opponents took before Friday’s defeat The Work itself the best grade in the top flight. That is quite an achievement for a team that was hardly known for its resilience last season.
Only now that the backline is safe has Alonso loosened the strings. Their scoring dried up somewhat in recent weeks, with both Wolfsburg and Union Berlin hanging on to a 0–0 home draw against Leverkusen; in the five-game Bundesliga winning streak that followed, they scored 15. They are also the top scorers of the Europa League knockout stage with 14 in six games. “We started building that up through the middle and then up front with more ideas,” says Wirtz. “How could we tear down our opponents in attacking third place? How could we best use our strengths?”
Superstars on the attack
The 20-year-old is just as strong as everyone else. Since returning from injury, Wirtz has played 808 minutes, almost the equivalent of nine full games. In that time he has registered enough assists, six, to make it into the top 15 providers for the Bundesliga. He creates a big chance every 90 minutes, a figure that vastly eclipses anyone in the German top flight. In short, he is back where he was last season, the best young maker in world football. Wirtz can even underestimate that qualification. In 2021/22, only Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi averaged more goalscoring plays per 90 than the prodigy.
“I think I’m at the level I was before, maybe even a little bit better in some areas,” he said. “That was always the goal from the beginning of the recovery: to get the best out of rehab and to be as prepared as possible.
“I had no doubt at all that I would be able to play football well again. I remember being quite shocked when the diagnosis came in.” [after the injury] and I was determined to just look ahead and make the best of the situation. There was a lot of work to do – lots of different things to focus on – but it was always looking ahead, checking to see if we were back on the pitch. Just give everything to be in your position again.”
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Wirtz flows and so does Leverkusen. Witness the ease with which he blazed through the Union Saint-Gilloise defense in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final, five defenders collapsing on the same pitch and the youngster simply kicking in a low shot into the bottom left corner, a crucial goal that prevented his team from making up for a deficit in Belgium. Even he has to admit that “it all feels really easy for now.
Roma boss Jose Mourinho may be confident in devising a defensive plan to slow Wirtz down on his own, but what can he do when he also faces a devastating right flank from Frimpong and Diaby? Together, these two have scored 41 goals in all competitions, 17 of which, quite remarkably, have come from full-back Frimpong. Both players are among the five fastest players in the Bundesliga this season; Diaby just shadows the two, even though his teammate seems to think the difference is significant.
“He’s faster than me. Did I test it? I just know,” says Frimpong with the air of a man who really isn’t inclined to take part in one of the few running races he might not win.
Rather, that explosive move frees them to take whatever unorthodox position that best tests the defenders. Under Alonso, for example, Frimpong will occasionally slide into more inverted positions to complement the threat he poses along the byline. Diaby’s touchmap is nothing like that of a so-called right winger, even in games where Transfermarkt says he starts on that wing.
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If all their opponents have no idea how to stop Leverkusen’s dynamic right flank, it might come as no surprise that Frimpong can’t explain it either.
“How am I supposed to stop us? I don’t know to be honest. Is it impossible? No, but I don’t know, it’s a very fast attack. I think you should find out.’
Good luck Mourinho.
Can it last?
However, the question Leverkusen might face once their Europa League race is over is the same one that all but the richest teams on the continent are facing. How long can we keep this all together? Diaby is wanted by Newcastle and Arsenal. Frimpong has been linked with a switch to his compatriot Erik ten Hag at Manchester United. As for Wirtz, there isn’t a top club in Europe that wouldn’t want him with huge admirers from Liverpool, Manchester City and Barcelona.
Leverkusen understands that the time this team is together may be fleeting. In November 2021 director of sports Simon Rolfes told CBS Sports about his wish that this team “maybe get a year where they accelerate their careers togetherPerhaps they will get even more time from Wirtz, who feels he still has unfinished business.
“I am here in Leverkusen. We have a good team. We have a young team. I have a lot of friends. I just fully focus on my duties here. I have some of my own personal goals that I want to achieve here in Leverkusen So I don’t look or think about other clubs, but instead I just prove that I can be the best player I can be in every game and help the team win games,” he said.
It will certainly be an easier task to keep this talented young side together for Leverkusen if their talented young manager stays in the dugout. Wirtz and Frimpong are both glowing in their assessment of Alonso, said to be of interest to Tottenham, and his staff.
“They helped a lot, not just me, but you can see from our results and the way we play that they have done the same for the whole team,” says the Dutch full-back. “The coach has made a big difference and the staff, we’re just really thankful to have them and hopefully he can keep us going.”
Wirtz added: “He really shows, even in training, how well he can still play. He has so much experience on the field as a player, he really knows how to carry himself and gives the guidance we need so that our team can achieve its goal.” full potential and so we are all at full capacity. He really puts it on himself, so that the team is really locked in mentally and focused, but also that we are completely there physically as well.
“The atmosphere was great. We have really become a team. We give everything we can to be successful with the team.”
A team of fearless, explosive young talent now has a boss of whom you could say the same. That leap of faith Leverkusen took against Alonso seems to be an inspired decision.
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