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Published8. May 2024, 11:23
Robert Andrich: “Xhaka has strong authority”: Bayer star praises Nati captain
Leverkusen star Robert Andrich raves about teammate and national team captain Granit Xhaka in the Copa TS podcast.
Granit Xhaka and Robert Andrich showed off their skills against AS Roma.
SRF
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Leverkusen’s midfield clearer Robert Andrich was a guest on the Copa TS podcast.
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There he raved about Granit Xhaka’s mentality.
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Both are alpha animals, but Andrich and Xhaka never clashed.
He is currently one of the best midfielders in the Bundesliga. Robert Andrich is having a dream season with Bayer Leverkusen. The midfield clearer is one of the Bayer fans’ favorites. And rightly so: Andrich always impresses with his tough style of play and strong passes.
Now the 29-year-old was a guest on the “Copa TS” podcast. Among other things, Granit Xhaka was also a topic of conversation. Andrich praises the Swiss’s mentality highly.
“Never give up, never stop”
The Nati captain moved from Arsenal to Leverkusen last summer. Xhaka was already a leader in the team in London. “He has a strong authority,” says Andrich about him. “After a short time, you noticed that he wanted to take this ‘never give up’ and ‘never stop’ attitude to a completely different level in our team.”
And how Xhaka did it. Leverkusen have scored the equalizer or the winning goal in stoppage time several times. Master coach Xabi Alonso’s team is now unbeaten for a total of 48 games. “I think granite is very, very important to give the team a certain level of security,” adds Andrich.
No battle of the alphas
Andrich and Xhaka both play as a six in midfield. “When Granit was signed, I was still struggling with an injury,” says the newly crowned champion. He had to get in line at first. “During training, you notice relatively quickly whether this is someone you only talk to when necessary, or whether you also interact with them between units and games,” explains Andrich. “That’s when we realized that we were a good fit.”
He is not the type of person who “artificially” doesn’t get along with someone just because that person plays in the same position. “That’s complete nonsense,” emphasizes Andrich. «We know that we are competitors somewhere, but the success of the team is of course the priority. We’ve never had an alpha animal versus alpha animal problem.”
Difficult to build on success
Leverkusen is already German champions. The Werkself are still in the DFB Cup final and can also win the Europa League. When asked whether he was worried that there would be no more highlights in his career, Andrich replied: “Yes, in a way. If I hopefully play two more finals and then maybe the European Championships in the summer, then that’s a lot of extremes that can happen in one year.”
Then he first has to digest what he experienced. «I hope that these aren’t the last highlights. It will of course be difficult to play a season like that again next year.” Robert Andrich is guaranteed to have a really big highlight ahead of him. He will play in the Champions League with his Werkself next season.
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