Improvising instead of playing: Xabi Alonso’s constraints against Zurich
With the return of Florian Wirtz and Karim Bellarabi, the Bayer 04 hospital cleared up a bit. But before the test on Saturday against FC Zurich, there is a risk of further failures.
In the test against Zurich, he has to improvise more than he likes: Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso.
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The Winter World Cup in Qatar – you might not believe it – also has something good. Especially for Bayer 04 Leverkusen and the new Werkself coach, Xabi Alonso. Because of the tournament in the desert state, this year’s schedule offers the first Spaniard, who signed up at the beginning of October, the unique opportunity to do proper winter preparation. So much for the theory.
Despite a total of almost five weeks of training before the league starts again on January 22nd, the practice looks a bit different. Bayer will then have played more games than in the summer with four friendlies, but at least in the first phase of preparation, which ends on December 18, Xabi Alonso’s chances of really getting his team up to speed are limited.
Seven players are currently missing
Seven players are acutely absent for health reasons: Kerem Demirbay and Daley Sinkgraven, who are ill, are absent from training on Wednesday, as are Andrey Lunev and Nadiem Amiri, who are suffering from back problems. Patrik Schick (groin), Charles Aranguiz (calf) and Timothy Fosu-Mensah (muscular problems) have been in rehab for more or less a long time anyway.
In addition, Jeremie Frimpong (Netherlands) and Exequiel Palacios (Argentina) are not available after or because of their participation in the World Cup. As in Glasgow, Xabi Alonso will have to improvise against FC Zurich (kick-off 1 p.m. in the Ulrich Haberland Stadium) on Saturday, even if World Cup returnees Sardar Azmoun and Piero Hincapie could play again for the first time.
Big defect on the right rear
A trained right-back is again not available to the coach due to the absence of Frimpong and Fosu-Mensah. In the 3-0 draw against Rangers, central midfielder Ayman Azhil had to help out in this position, and he didn’t look good when he conceded the first goal.
Bayer’s games in December and January
If Demiraby and Amiri could not play against the Swiss champions, a total of four potential players would be missing for a double six, as Aranguiz and Palacios are also missing. So Xabi Alonso would only have Robert Andrich for defensive midfield.
Two eights could appear in front of Andrich with 17-year-old Zidan Sertdemir and young star Florian Wirtz (19). Whereby the latter should probably be used for a maximum of 45 minutes after his long injury break (cruciate ligament rupture). As in Glasgow when Madi Monamay, Isaiah Okafor and Noah Pesch came on, U-19 players will need to complete the squad.
Up front, on the other hand, despite the absence of top scorer Schick, there are opportunities for variation and substitution for the coach: Adam Hlozek and Azmoun could share the role of centre-forward. The wing positions in a possible 4-3-3 would also be doubled with Callum Hudson-Odoi, who is training again in Leverkusen after being released for private reasons, an Amine Adli, Moussa Diaby and Karim Bellarabi.