Last summer, Bayer coach Xabi Alonso first involved a young 17-year-old Ukrainian, Oleksandr Petrenko, in training with the first team. During his career, the youngster has already trained at the academies of Dynamo and Shakhtar. The goalkeeper spoke about his current club and head coach Xabi Alonso.
"The phenomenon of this Bayer is in discipline. With the arrival of Xabi Alonso, everything changed - the course of the game and the players' thoughts, their behaviour on the pitch. Alonso has imposed Spanish football and a lot of discipline - everyone has to get back behind the ball line. If someone doesn't, they get a penalty. Not literally, but they are punished 100%. The team plays from ball control. In almost all games, Bayer are more with the ball than the opposition. They train this a lot. Every training session, the players do different ball control exercises.
In the training process, Haby is very energetic, very helpful to the players, constantly stopping the training to come over and give them advice. He adds a lot of his views on the game and football. He even plays with us. When I first went to training with the first team, I was scared. It was my first training session with the first team in my career. I had never trained with the first team before. I wouldn't say it was difficult, but it was very interesting for me to gain this experience.
I would like to praise Bayer for what they are doing. Within the team, regardless of whether it is the first team, U-19 or even younger, everyone has the opportunity to communicate with each other. Any coach can easily communicate with any player. There is no barrier between the players and the people who work in the club's structure - they may not be coaches, but ordinary employees, former players. "Bayer is working to make sure that we are one family and very close in the team.
There was no official invitation to train with the first team. The U-19 coach just came and said: "You're with the first team tomorrow". When I first saw Xabi Alonso, he came up to me and said: "Sasha, welcome to the team". To be honest, I was shocked. I looked at him and didn't know what to say. I remember that I was a little short of falling over there(laughs). Seriously. It was the first training session, and I was approached by a man who had won everything in football, whom I had watched on TV. It was really cool.
Xabi Alonso helps me. When I'm with the first team, he can come up to me and give me tips. It's the same when I stay with him for kicks. We can talk during the training process. He can say, "Sasha, you trained well today" or "You can do something better there".
When I first arrived, I didn't speak English very well, and I didn't speak German at all. I tried to speak English as best I could. The guys from the team helped me. I also went to learn German. Bayer provided us with a teacher, because they are also interested in us knowing the language. At first it was difficult, I didn't understand what the guys were saying to me. Moreover, not everyone knew English. In a year and a half, I learnt it to the point where I understood everything. Now I have no problems with the language at all - I can speak both English and German with ease. The training process is conducted in both languages. I communicate with the coach in German," Petrenko said.
