Jamie Carragher believes the manager Xabi Alonso could be influenced by the most is Pep Guardiola.
Famously, the Manchester City boss coached the Spaniard during their time at Bayern Munich.
Pep Guardiola was just one of the great coaches that the 42-year-old worked with during his playing days, with one names like Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid and Rafael Benitez at Liverpool springing to mind.
Jamie Carragher says Xabi Alonso could be influenced by Pep Guardiola
Xabi Alonso, who is doing a phenomenal job at Bayer Leverkusen this season has been heavily linked with replacing Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool’s next manager.
Last Thursday, The Athletic had reported that the World Cup winner was the “clear frontrunner” to take over the reins at Anfield next season.
As Jamie Carragher crunched the numbers behind Bayer Leverkusen’s fairytale campaign, he came to the realisation that Xabi Alonso may be heavily influenced by Pep Guardiola.
“What really stands out to me though when you talk about, is this the perfect fit for Liverpool is actually the passes and the amount of short passes. Here, you see the percentage of that, 95% [per game in the Bundesliga]. That is probably exactly what Liverpool are not right now under Jurgen Klopp. It’s not”, he said on Sky Sports.
“It’s more probably reminiscent of what we see of a Pep Guardiola team. And I think it’s really interesting where we go to the scattergun sort of graphic here that we’ve got and we see where Bayer Leverkusen are here, right here now alongside Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.”
“And we see where Liverpool are. This is for most short passes in European football with the big teams and we know, actually watching Liverpool they’re a more direct team, they go faster, they use counter-attacks more.”
Once again, Jamie Carragher likened the brand of football Xabi Alonso plays in Germany to that of Pep Guardiola, saying, “But Bayer Leverkusen, the company they’re keeping there means this team and his influence is maybe more Pep Guardiola-like and Manchester City-like.”
Natural that the Bayer Leverkusen boss is influenced by Pep Guardiola
Last month, it was claimed by BBC Sport that the ex-Liverpool midfielder left Real Madrid to sign for Bayern Munich for two reasons.
One, to become a fluent German speaker and two, to learn more about management from Guardiola.
As a result, when Jamie Carragher spots similarities between the approaches of Xabi Alonso and Pep Guardiola, one cannot be overly surprised.
In addition, while Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez are known for being extremely tactical, the Catalan boss is perhaps the most tactically progressive manager out of the bunch, which likely must have had an impact on how the Leverkusen boss views the game.
With that in mind, Xabi Alonso’s side also plays a style of football that is extremely reliant on dominating possession, as Pep Guardiola has done throughout his career.
