Xabi Alonso could be one of the frontrunners for the managerial job at Liverpool in future, with his tactical flexibility potentially offering an advantage over Steven Gerrard.
The ex-Red’s progress at Real Sociedad is allegedly being closely monitored, as the club considers life post-Jurgen Klopp.
“Alonso is a very modern manager with that high pressing, high energy style, and tactics-wise, it is primarily a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1, but he can also evolve into a three at the back as well – he is quite flexible,” Spanish football writer Alan Feehely told the Echo. “Alonso’s whole concept is around taking bits from all of the managers he worked for, with real attention to detail, and then creating his own system.”
“There are tactical changes and changes in shape but Gerrard has been marked by the way he came into Rangers with an idea and a game model,” McFarlane, from the Scottish Daily Record, said. “That is not to say that Rangers do not change at all but there are very slight variations on the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 how they go about each game. But the core idea does not really change.”
It’s a horrifying thought not having Klopp at the helm, however, it is an eventuality that we will at some point have to face.
Both managers have impressed at the early stages of their coaching careers, but they arguably have a long way to go before being considered for the Liverpool job – less than four years, to be precise, when Klopp’s contract ends.
Given how we have excelled under Klopp by keeping unpredictable and constantly evolving some aspect of our play or setup, Xabi Alonso’s tactical flexibility would arguably put him above Gerrard in the pecking order.
Of course, if a Julian Nagelsmann-type manager came available around the time our own German called it quits, the club would almost certainly forgo an emotional move in favour of a coach with more experience.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves here, of course, as Klopp could very well choose to extend his stay – something we’d be very much in favour of.