Bundesliga goes to have a aggressive title race this season courtesy of Xabi Alonso. It is a sentence that has been hardly used for the German league. The reason is Bayern Munich’s domination within the league since 2013. The Bavarians have received the final 11 seasons, dealing with only some challenges throughout this era. This time, although, one thing has modified. Bayern Munich is third within the desk, and the 2 groups above them, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen, have performed some good soccer. Whereas Stuttgart have been closely reliant on goal-scoring phenom Serhou Guirassy, Bayer Leverkusen have a much more balanced squad, which is being led by Xabi Alonso, who’s slowly making his identify within the managerial circuit throughout Europe.
Even earlier than he took cost on the BayArena, Alonso had a reasonably restricted profession as a supervisor, together with his solely stint coming with Actual Sociedad’s youth and B crew. Nevertheless, he has taken like a duck to water since taking cost in October 2022.
So, how did the gifted Spaniard do it in a span of 1 12 months?
Bayer Leverkusen stats and enjoying type
When Alonso took cost of the membership, they have been second from backside. Alonso made a direct impression, successful six of his first ten video games. The truth is, Alonso took Bayer Leverkusen on two five-game successful streaks within the season. Bayer Leverkusen was the fourth-best crew within the league.
After ending the season in sixth place, the membership strengthened their squad over the summer time, including gamers akin to Nathan Tella, Granit Xhaka, and Jonas Hofman. Nevertheless, their finest purchase was Victor Boniface, one of the crucial in-form gamers throughout the continent.
And the outcomes have been huge. Alonso is an enormous proponent of Gegenpress, particularly within the opposition’s half. It is a high quality that he admired about Pep Guardiola when he performed beneath him at Bayern Munich.
For this reason they’ve been persistently urgent their opponent. Information from Soccerment present that Leverkusen has a Gegenpressing Depth % (GPI) of 61.38, the second-best in Europe. They’re additionally top-of-the-line groups by way of Discipline Tilt, which measures the proportion of possession a crew has of their opponents’ half.
This excessive press type suffocates their rivals, forcing them to commit errors and provides the ball away near their objective. Profitable the ball excessive up the pitch additionally ensures a crew has a excessive probability of making goal-scoring alternatives. No crew has created extra large possibilities within the prime 5 leagues than Leverkusen.
One other nice space the place Leverkusen have improved massively is the midfield, and that has been largely right down to the addition of Granit Xhaka. The skilled Swiss worldwide has introduced metal to the midfield and ensured the crew aren’t dominated in the course of the park.
Analysing Bayer Leverkusen techniques
Underneath Xabi Alonso, Bayer Leverkusen play a 3-4-2-1. The motive of this formation is straightforward: use the wing backs to stretch the sphere as giant as potential, whereas Boniface is aided by two attacking gamers who play within the two inside channels.
Nevertheless, whereas this technique could also be efficient, it requires a variety of effort from the gamers. This requires squad depth, which is what Leverkusen achieved on the finish of the switch market. So, whereas the again three could include gifted gamers akin to Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Tah, and Edmond Tapsoba, ought to something occur to them, they’ve an ample substitute in Piero Hincapie.
Equally, in midfield, Xhaka and Exequiel Palacios maintain issues easy, retaining the ball and creating a number of passing choices, particularly to Florian Wirtz, who’s a quantity ten, or to the 2 backs in Alex Grimaldo and Jeremier Frimpong.
Grimaldo has particularly been give the licence to go up the pitch and ping the ball into the field. The opposite scoring alternatives are created by the neatly made turns by Jonas Hofmann and Florian Wirtz duo. These two type a lethal passing partnership with Xhaka and Palacios.
The quartet types numerous passing strains via their imaginative and prescient and fast motion, which leaves the opponent normally chasing shadows. Wirtz, who missed final season as a result of an harm, has stepped up massively being the creator-in-chief for the crew. He and Hofman have created 42 possibilities for the crew, greater than any duo throughout the highest 5 leagues, which is why Leverkusen has been scoring targets lots.
Bayer Leverkusen key gamers in squad: Targets and Assists
One beauty of Leverkusen’s squad is that they don’t seem to be over-reliant on any single participant. Whereas Boniface supplies the objective, Hofmann and Wirtz create it. The truth is, Xhaka and Palacios have additionally massively improved their attacking recreation this season. Palacios has received 18 fouls for his crew, the joint-most within the league, whereas Xhaka has delivered the second-most via balls within the league.
In defence, the triumvirate of Tah, Kossounou, and Tapsoba have stored issues easy, beginning the play from the again and expertly breaking the opposition’s excessive press. And as soon as the ball reaches the midfield, it’s powerful for the opposition to regain possession.
Furthermore, the squad additionally has high quality replacements on the bench, which ensures that even within the occasion of an harm or suspension, the standard of the crew doesn’t take a success.
Leverkusen possesses all of the qualities {that a} crew requires to cease the Bayern Munich juggernaut. No matter occurs, come Could this season, the Bundesliga could have one heck of a race to xbe topped champions.
