Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes former team-mate Xabi Alonso is the favorite to exchange Jurgen Klopp at Anfield.
Klopp dropped a bombshell on Liverpool followers yesterday, saying his choice to depart the membership on the finish of the season.
He said that, in his ninth 12 months on the helm of the Reds, he feels he’s ‘operating out of vitality.’ Klopp expressed contentment with the present squad, expressing confidence that he can be leaving the membership in good condition.
Klopp has managed to construct a reasonably stable crew, laying a powerful basis for his successor. A number of names have been linked with the job because the announcement, together with Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi.
Nonetheless, Carragher believes Alonso is the frontrunner for the job as a result of a few elements – his unbelievable kind with Bayer Leverkusen and his Liverpool previous.
Chatting with Sky Sports activities (by way of Day by day Mail), he mentioned:
‘I believe proper now, for those who look across the Premier League and Europe and also you assume who suits Liverpool, there isn’t any doubt you can’t get away from Xabi Alonso, a former team-mate of mine.
‘It’s as a result of he’s so revered at Liverpool for what he did as a participant, he’s a Champions League winner, has at all times held himself with actual class, he’s a World Cup winner – and that’s simply his enjoying facet.
‘You consider the managers he has labored beneath, Rafa Benitez at Liverpool, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, and all of those nice figures.
‘And proper now with the job he’s doing at Bayer Leverkusen, he virtually seems to be just like the brightest younger factor in European soccer, there isn’t any doubt about that.
‘The opposite one I have a look at is Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton, who has achieved a unbelievable job. The factor that stands out about them as effectively, which at all times stood out about Jurgen Klopp, was that Jurgen was at all times in a position to achieve success, with out being on the largest spending of groups.
‘You have a look at what Xabi Alonso is doing at Bayer Leverkusen, competing with Bayern Munich. You have a look at what De Zerbi is doing making an attempt to compete with different prime groups within the league, and has achieved very well particularly final season.
‘However I will surely say the frontrunner, and I believe it’s too wealthy me saying it, will surely be Xabi Alonso – for the job he’s doing at Bayer Leverkusen, who’re nonetheless the one undefeated crew in Europe in all competitions.
Alonso’s Leverkusen is the one unbeaten crew throughout Europe, having received 24 and drawn 4. He has turned Leverkusen from a mid-table crew right into a powerhouse within the German league, difficult Bayern Munich for the title, sitting on prime of the desk with a 2 level lead.
