Three games, three wins – Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen meet at the league summit on Friday (September 15th, 2023, audio stream and live ticker at sportschau.de), each with an impeccable record. The fact that Bayern isn’t even that favored this time is very much due to the Bayer coach.
Of course, it’s not entirely new that a Bayer Leverkusen coach has a mia-san-mia past. Jupp Heynckes, for example, sat on the Bayer bench from 2009 to 2011, followed by former Bayern striker Bruno Labbadia for a year and Klaus Augenthaler between 2003 and 2005.
There were even more attempts to implant the Munich people’s idea of success, which lies somewhere between healthy self-confidence and unpleasant-looking arrogance, in the chemical metropolis on the Rhine. Dettmar Cramer, Erich Ribbeck, Peter Hermann, all worked at both clubs. But only one club won championship titles. That could change this season.
Tactical fox without show effects
It’s still very early in the season, but the Leverkusen team, who were vilified as “vice-runners” after missing out on titles, seem to be on the way to finally being able to give up their place as runner-up. There’s a lot that’s right in this team, starting with the coaching bench. Xabi Alonso has not worked at the highest level for long, and yet many in Spain already see him as the future coach of Real Madrid.
As a coach, the long-time world-class strategist in the central defensive midfield of Real and Bayern has an outstanding mix of tactical skill and a confident, credible demeanor without any hint of showmanship.
He exudes discipline and dedication to his job; he forgoes effects and transparent psychological games in order to impress his opponent. Xabi Alonso is the opposite of Uli Hoeneß and Christoph Daum; before the duel with his former club, he openly admits that this is one thing for him “big challenge” is. And immediately afterwards he says: “But we have a lot of confidence.”
Xhaka and Boniface are the optimal reinforcements
Bayer boss Fernando Carro sees Xabi Alonso as the driving force for the enormous reinforcements ahead of this season, especially attacker Victor Boniface, conductor Granit Xhaka and Jonas Hofmann.
Thanks to this trio, it is hardly noticeable that a striker of European quality, Patrik Schick, will soon be out for nine months or that a classy man like Moussa Diaby has left the club in the summer. “The coach always plays an important role in a player’s decision to join a club”said Carro to Sportbild. “He knows what a dressing room needs, he has won everything, the players listen to him.”
Spectacle under Bosz and Schmidt
What should also worry Bayern, in contrast to all previous years, is the balance between offense and defense that Xabi Alonso has managed. Bayer Leverkusen games may have been even more fun to watch under Peter Bosz between 2018 and 2021, but that was also due to the spectacle factor, which included far too many goals conceded. It was similar between 2014 and 2017 under Roger Schmidt, always just pressing, pressing and pressing without any rest periods. The team simply couldn’t do that in the crucial phases.
Now it’s completely okay for Xabi Alonso if Hofmann breaks up situations backwards instead of risking a bad pass or dribbling against two or three opponents. Or when Xhaka slows down to organize the forward movement and then accelerates it again with his sharp passing and his chips behind the opposing defense.
Size challenges for Thomas Tuchel
Gerardo Seoane was Xabi Alonso’s direct predecessor at Leverkusen; on the second matchday with Mönchengladbach, he knew exactly what was coming for his team. But the Swiss couldn’t prevent it, all his plans against the Xhaka chips, Boniface’s degrees and the free-spirited behavior of Florian Wirtz and Jonas Hofmann went awry in the still flattering 0:3. That may also have been due to Seoane’s staff, which of course cannot be compared to Bayern.
But it will be interesting to see how Thomas Tuchel wants to face all these challenges, the doubling and running behind of Hofmann and Jeremie Frimpong on the right, the cross runs of Alex Grimaldo on the left, the power of Xhaka and Exequiel Palacios in the center and the passes to Boniface.
Kimmich on the brink
The question for Bayern is also how they will cope with the international break, which is particularly psychologically stressful. Joshua Kimmich is ailing and was missing from the reparations against France after the Japan disaster. Leon Goretzka was somehow no longer needed, for Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry and especially Thomas Müller it was a rollercoaster ride between crash and rebirth within four days.
It will be exciting to see whose frustration or even whose momentum Tuchel now incorporates into his plan against Leverkusen. What he plans to do with Müller, for example, is not yet entirely clear. Tuchel has Harry Kane up front, but his luxury problem on the outside and in the ten with Gnaby, Sané, Müller, Kingsley Coman and Jamal Musiala and behind him Mathys Tel and Eric Maxim Choupo Moting seems luxurious, but also always creates stress.
Tuchel’s colleague Xabi Alonso rarely or never has to answer all the annoying questions about those who don’t play. At some point he can bring in Adam Hlozek or Robert Andrich in midfield – and no one subliminally accuses him of being ignorant because they weren’t in the starting line-up.
Concentrate on football without stress
It is simply less stressful to work in Leverkusen than in Munich. Xabi Alonso can concentrate completely on football, and he still embodies the Mia-san-mia gene credibly. That could be the mix that finally produces a new German champion this season. Friday could bring a foretaste.