Erik ten Hag has been officially appointed to replace Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen. The Dutch strategist has signed a 2-year contract with the BayArena team and will have a press conference to launch next Monday.
Ten Hag was sacked by Man United in October 2024 after a series of poor performances. From then until now, the 55-year-old coach is rumored to return to the Netherlands to continue his career. However, Ten Hag chose a new destination, Germany, to test his ability. Leverkusen is the 2023-2024 Bundesliga champion and has just finished the 2024-2025 season as runner-up.
Last season, Leverkusen started the season without any titles, in contrast to the previous domestic double in the 2023-2024 campaign. They finished 13 points behind Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Therefore, the challenge of reclaiming the silver plate for Ten Hag will be extremely difficult when Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and possibly a few other pillars will leave the team this summer.
The Xabi Alonso platform leaves the only but also the biggest advantage for Ten Hag at the moment. Although he has left, Leverkusen has not immediately returned to the position of a mid-level team as before. Having played regularly in the Champions League in recent years helps the BayArena team have a very good financial source, enough for them to buy more this summer.
With the remaining pillar framework such as Alex Grimaldo, Granit Xhaka, Patrik Schick, Piero Hincapie, Edmond Tapsoba and Exequiel Palacios, Leverkusen is still very strong and capable of competing in many arenas. The sale of Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong will be enough to bring in at least 2 more quality stars. Ten Hag will not worry about shortaging players to prepare for the 2025-2026 season.
Despite financial advantages, the transfer policy is something that both Leverkusen and Ten Hag have made mistakes in the past. The Dutch strategist brought in many players at Man United, but most of them played below expectations. Meanwhile, the summer of 2024 was considered a transfer failure for Leverkusen when they could not increase the depth of the squad to compete with Bayern Munich. In the Champions League, Leverkusen also did not have good results.
To compete with Bayern, at least in the domestic arena, Ten Hag does not only need quality contracts in the summer of 2025, he must have a breakthrough in tactics and strategy. Leverkusen are stronger than most other teams in the Bundesliga, but when placed next to Bayern Munich, they are still a bit outperformed.
Ten Hag does not need to aim for a domestic double with an unbeaten record like Alonso in the 2023-2024 season, just bring the silver plate back to BayArena in the next season, that is enough.
Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen is a passionate, fiery team that always shows chivalry. Meanwhile, Ten Hag's coaching identity is each digital detail. These two extremes could collide when the remaining players have absorbed Alonso's philosophy. Changing players or changing himself is also something Ten Hag needs to consider.
Alonso is very close to the media, Ten Hag sometimes doesn't have that intimacy. After the defeat at Man United with his extremacy, perhaps now is the time for the Dutch strategist to change his personality to suit the new destination as soon as possible.
