Index – Sport – From Barcelona to Liverpool, the wonder of Germany’s sleepy city is watched with envy

Unbeaten in 44 games in a row – including 30 in the league…

Xabi Alonso his sons have already written history. They won the first Bundesliga gold in the history of Bayer Leverkusen, which has existed since 1904. All this was already secured five rounds before the end of the season, with a home victory against Werder Bremen (5-0). But success can be even brighter than that. Since the creation of the league in 1963, it has never happened that a team has been crowned champion undefeated. However, the “pharmaceutical manufacturers” have a good chance for this as well, they only have to “get through” four championships, in that order, the home game against Stuttgart, the away game against Frankfurt and Bochum, and the season finale against Augsburg, which will be played again only in front of their own audience.

Singing the hymn of praise to Alonso and Leverkusen, no body forgets to note: the Basque specialist quickly formed a team in his image and brought it to the top of the Bundesliga, which was in the relegation zone a year and a half earlier, when the coach was appointed in October 2022. We have already written about the stages through which the band got to the point where it was able to break Bayern Munich’s 11-year monopoly…

• Last spring, it was possible to make the previously extremely fluctuating performance more balanced, significantly improving the team’s ball possession and overall play.

• Then, at the beginning of the new season, a significant improvement was also achieved in the transitions, by verifying some routine footballers with sufficient international routine; while in the squad we could find not only promising young people, but also sufficient experience with sufficient depth.

In the whole story, The Analyst highlights Alonso’s ability to adapt the most. When appointing a new head coach, experts usually like to talk about a grace period of three to four years, which is how long it takes to reshape a team step by step along a clear, clear concept. For ex-Liverpool, this essentially came together in two transfer periods, in just eight months.

When he arrived, the team’s only real virtue was its relatively accurate overall play: its predecessor was characterized by a passing accuracy of around 85 percent, Gerardo Seoane Leverkusen at the time. However, the team did not excel in attacking and in transitions either. Tellingly, in the 2022-2023 season, the guard recovered the second fewest possessions within 40 meters of the opponent’s goal in the entire league (high turnovers: 217), allowed them 15.4 passes without initiating any defensive action (PPDA), and he didn’t even excel in building an attack, during 34 rounds he was able to show only 373 attack building sequences, consisting of slightly less than 11 ten passes per match.

Compared to this, the champion team (based on 29 games) had the most 315 high turnovers in the German top flight, defended on average five meters higher, at 44.4 meters, reducing its PPDA indicator to 12.7 and increasing it by about eighty percent for 10 passes longer sequences (659). Alonso was also able to counter the team’s only real virtue, ball possession and passing. Leverkusen’s players have an average of 62.5 percent possession of the ball in their matches (a 12 percent increase is a rare indicator even in the top leagues, only Tottenham had a bigger jump, but a new coach arrived there in the summer), all with a passing accuracy of 87.4 percent. Needless to say, they lead the Bundesliga in both indicators.

The main indicators of Bayer Leverkusen
2022-23		2023-24
34	match number	29
217	high turnovers	315
15.4	PPDA	12.7
39.7	protection line height	44.4
373	10+ passes per attack	659
496	pass/90p	693
Source: The Analyst

All of this shows a kind of dominance and match control, the likes of which we have seen at the international level from Barcelona, ​​Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City at the top of the top leagues only in the last ten years. But it was possible to combine all of this – in case of turnovers – with attacking and counter-attacking and pressing indicators, which during their success in the Champions League Jurgen Klopp led by Liverpool and Hans-Dieter Flick We are used to it from Bayern Munich.

because there is no expert who would not note that it is unnecessary to apply any of the templates used by the English giants to Leverkusen. In fact, despite the similarities in control or pressing, Alonso’s team convinces them all in the transitions.

By the way, the style analysis of the Bundesliga teams shows perfectly that if a team wants a serious chance to win the “salad bowl” that belongs to the champion, it must move in the direction of a multi-pass, carefully constructed, control-based game. Bayern Munich, Stuttgart and Dortmund are the closest to Bayer in terms of the most passes per sequence, as well as the pace of attack construction expressed in metres/second. In other words, four of the top five teams swear by a very similar basic game. The only cuckoo’s egg is Leipzig, which works with much more long balls, so in addition to the mentioned four, it is faster in terms of attacking speed than Freiburg, Darmstad, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt.

Turning back to Leverkusen, in the 3–4–2–1 formation preferred by Alonso, the two wing-backs, perhaps already described at the international level To Alex Grimaldo and on the far right To Jeremie Frimpong they got amazing freedom (the two now have 17 goals together). Leverkusen, relying on their speed, could counterattack dangerously if necessary. Just as the early spring “golden battle” against Bayern Munich is also a great example. A 3-0 win against the Bavarians in February resulted in Leverkusen’s fourth fewest high turnovers in a game (7) and the weakest possession rate (39 percent). However, Bayern’s offensive game was suppressed, the Munich squad created the fewest and worst quality chances in the league since the fall of 2017 (xG of 0.56). On the other hand, Leverkusen scored three goals for an expected number of goals of 1.32, hitting the goal of the German record champion eight times out of fourteen attempts. And the end was 3-0 for the Alonsos – two of the three goals were scored from a classic counterattack.

In the majority of the champions, however, control dominated, which he lured away from Arsenal Granit Xhaka took a leading role. Ryan Benson, Opta’s analyst says that without the routine Swiss, Alonso would not have had the chance to reorganize Bayer so quickly.

In addition, he played 92.6 percent of his balls accurately from action (open-play). By the way, with the latter, he is in second place in the league, the pillar of the Leverkusen defense is the best, Jonathan Tah however, with significantly fewer passes to his name, 1894 points out of 2004 attempts.

Xhaka’s performance in the attacking third is even more outstanding: his 409 passes are by far the most in the top leagues. He played a role in actions completed with 206 shots, 93 situations (one of the last two passes before the shot) were created directly by him. If you only look at the number of goals and assists, you can throw your arms around him at this point – he has two goals and a shutout – but if he was a hockey player, he would have been praised a long time ago. He had more balls that were directly followed by a goal assist than any other Bundesliga player (12), highlights The Analyst.

If Xhaka is the engine, Florian Wirtz the conductor. The 20-year-old midfielder finally completed a season without a significant injury. He is the only one who took part in creating more chances than his Swiss teammate (227, including 107 in the last two passes immediately before the shot). Leverkusen’s savior has clearly stepped up, in 2024 the papers no longer refer to him as one of the biggest promises of German football, but as a complete player, for whom he was not at all tempted to ask for a transfer fee of 150-180 million euros, as the leaders of the red and blues are said to be planning. in summer. In short: we could call it world class.

Wirtz’s playing connection was injured in January, so he missed a significant part of the spring With Victor Boniface is also worth highlighting. Until December, the two scored seven goals, making them the best duo in the league in terms of time.

A few years ago, Klopp talked about how mental strength plays almost as much role in football as physical and tactical preparation. According to the statement of the German manager, he is really confident when he feels that mentally indestructible “monsters” inhabit the dressing room. Alonso’s Leverkusen is second to none in this as well. Ten times in the season, the team was able to equalize or convert in the moments of extra time. The last time it was played was the previous weekend in the league at the home of Borussia Dortmund Josip Stanisic (as a loan player from Bayern Munich, he would also deserve a Mass) saved the team’s unbeaten streak in the 97th minute.

The Bundesliga’s official YouTube channel also collected the scores obtained in the German league and cup…

It is a huge question, what will be able to be saved from this football, which is irresistible at the level of the Bundesliga, in the next season, in the new Champions League. Alonso’s decision, according to which he wants to stay in Leverkusen for at least one more season, despite the temptation of Liverpool or Bayern Munich, gives us the opportunity to find out. There is not much cause for concern, seeing the march of the team in the Europa League.

In the spring of 2024, Bayer can do away with the stereotype of the likable runner-up forever: in addition to the historic league title, it can even triple this season. The team is in the semi-finals of the EPL and will face off against AS Roma, while in the German Cup, only the second-tier Kaiserslautern can wrest another trophy from the hands of the Xhakás. In fact, they haven’t won a cup in over 30 years…

In the end, the pharmaceutical companies just found the winning formula.

The reign of (terror) in Munich was broken.

GERMAN FOOTBALL
BUNDESLIGA, ROUND 31
Saturday, 18.30: Bayer Leverkusen-VfB Stuttgart

(Cover photo: Jonas Hofmann and Granit Xhaka celebrate a goal in the Europa League match against West Ham United. Photo: Mika Volkmann / Getty Images)