It is not Bayern, but Bayern that is reviewing the size of the German championship this year. In our Sporza Daily podcast, Bundesliga commentator Luke van Dorslaer highlighted Bayer Leverkusen's “unique performance”.
After 11 in a row for Bayern Munich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen won the German title, for the first time in the history of the German factory team. With 5 match days remaining, Leverkusen can no longer hold on to Rekordmeister.
“Bayer wins the German football championship by a large margin over Bayern. It is a unique achievement,” says Bundesliga commentator Luke van Dorslaer in Sporza Daily.
Because Bayern failed? “Yes, although their performance wasn't too bad,” Van Dorslaer nodded.
“Until a few weeks ago, Bayern collected more points than last season or previous seasons.”
He added: “But let us highlight in particular Leverkusen's performance. They played exceptionally positive football and maintained it well technically.”
Most of the players will stay with Alonso.
Luke van Dorslaer
The architect of positive and technical football comes from Spain. As a player, Xabi Alonso (42) scored with the national team, with Real Madrid, with Liverpool and with Bayern Munich. And now he is also succeeding as a coach.
“When Alonso took over as coach of Leverkusen, the results improved immediately, even though they were not playing good football yet. Alonso chose to create a defensive organization first,” Luc van Dorslaer said.
“He's built that slowly. You saw that over the last season and now it's completely reversed. Alonso has found balance in his core. Not with the best players in the world, but with complete players.”
(Read more below the picture)
After a successful career as a player, Xabi Alonso is also scoring goals as a coach.
Van Doorslaer talks about Granit Xhaka (former Arsenal player), youth product Florian Wirtz or Victor Boniface (former Al-Ittihad player).
How likely are they to continue working at Leverkusen? Or is the temptation too great to look elsewhere?
“This is the classic schedule, but these opportunities were squandered by Xabi Alonso’s decision,” says Van Doorslaer.
“He announced that he will stay at Leverkusen. A special decision that was received very positively by his heart. Most of the players will stay with Alonso,” believes the Bundesliga observer.
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