Bayer Leverkusen: Xabi Alonso wants to make success more ‘sustainable’

​

Led Bundesliga with late goals 

It has been an incredible campaign by Bayer Leverkusen. Led by head coach Xabi Alonso, Die Werkself won the double of the German championship and the DFB Pokal. The only blemish to an almost perfect season was the 3-0 defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League final. But even then, Leverkusen managed to stay undefeated in 52 out of 53 competitive fixtures this season. Alonso’s team also became the first team in German history to win the Bundesliga without suffering a defeat. 

As the dust settles on the campaign, Leverkusen, however, are already looking to the future. “In the past, we didn’t have the history before this season to have this sort of success,” Alonso said after the 1-0 DFB Pokal final victory over Kaiserslautern at the Berlin Olympiastadion. “We must make good decisions for the future because I have the desire and wish to continue this success. Not right away, but next week Monday, we will sit down and start planning to make this season’s success more sustainable.”

Alonso and the director of sport Simon Rolfes will now sit down and plan next season’s squad. “First, we relax,” Alonso said. “But then on Monday, we will sit down and analyse and draw our conclusions.” It turns out that Leverkusen are already much further down the road than Alonso wanted to let on. On Monday, multiple reports indicated that Leverkusen were in the final stages of signing Girona midfielder Aleix García. “We will try to add new elements to the squad to create a new dynamic,” Rolfes said. García would certainly be an incredible addition to what is already a deep midfield. 

It would be very tempting for Leverkusen to run this squad back. All key players are signed to long-term contracts. Only Jeremie Frimpong is likely going to leave the club. Transfermarkt understands that Frimpong has an exit clause worth €40m and that the Dutch wing-back wants to leave the club this summer. But in the Brazilian Arthur Leverkusen have already a replacement ready to step up. 

Besides Frimpong, the Leverkusen bosses were tempted to make few changes. But that thinking might have changed over the last few weeks and was then accelerated when the club lost in the Europa League final. Legendary Man United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was known for completely rebuilding championship-winning sides, and Leverkusen might now turn to a similar strategy. One aspect, in particular, has the bosses worried. Together with Dortmund, Leverkusen led the Bundesliga with 14 goals scored between the 76th and 90th minute and eight goals scored after the 90th minute. Across all competitions, Leverkusen managed to score 15 goals deep into injury time. The late comebacks have made for a great story, but scoring late to overturn results will simply not be sustainable. 

As a result, there might be more changes this summer than originally anticipated. Indeed, García might be just the first piece of many for Leverkusen. Also, Leverkusen might be more willing than originally thought to part with certain pieces in order to give the team the energy to play Alonso’s system and remain consistently successful over the next few years. “The bar is quite high,” Alonso said. “We need to learn from this season. The expectations are going to be high. But we can manage them, which is the coach’s job and the club’s role. We will have a good season, but things will be different.”