Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he “understands” Xabi Alonso’s decision to stay at Bayer Leverkusen. The Spaniard has today confirmed he will remain with the Bundesliga leaders next season despite jobs being vacant at two of his former clubs, Liverpool and Bayern Munich.
Alonso was expected to be a front-runner to replace Klopp at Anfield next season thanks to his success in Germany. But Klopp says he can see why the 42-year-old former midfielder wants to stay at his current club, who he has only coached since October 2022 in what is his only senior role to date.
Klopp told a press conference on Friday: “A young manager being at a club that is doing really well, I was in a similar situation, I did pretty much the same. I never regretted it. That’s pretty much everything I can say about Xabi.
“He’s doing an incredible job there. Leverkusen has a good team and will probably keep their team together. That’s possible. It’s not in all years like that. I understand that he wants to do that. For the other stuff, I have nothing to say about it to be honest.”
The Reds go head-to-head with Brighton this Sunday, who are managed by Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian is among the leading candidates for the Liverpool job and Klopp has been impressed by the job he has done with the Seagulls.
The German continued: “We all know how difficult it is against Brighton. Roberto’s doing obviously an incredible job there. It’s a different game against Brighton, definitely.
“I think we’ve improved over the 18 to 20 months since he’s there and we’ve played them. The first game was surprising, we were the first opponent after he took over and we had no clue what to expect. We knew how he played at his former clubs.
“We knew what Graham [Potter] did [at Brighton before De Zerbi] but nobody knew how it would look. It was quite impressive how quick he got the team playing in his way. Since then it only got better. It’s pretty impressive.”
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