In the Europa League final on Wednesday, the 51-game unbeaten German team will face Atalanta in an attempt to complete the season undefeated.
Europa League final: Atalanta vs. Bayer Leverkusen
Date: Wednesday, May 22 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
Location: Aviva Stadium -- Dublin, Ireland
TV: CBS Sports Network | Stream: Paramount+
One of the main contributors to such defensive prowess is something that may not appear to be such a drastic departure from German football tradition. Actually, Alonso's team holds onto the ball. The Bundesliga's top five teams, on average, complete more than 3.5 passes each sequence, proving that the gegenpressing era is far from ended. They are second in the league in terms of meters advanced and average more passes per sequence (4.9) than any other team. They are, therefore, a team that is modeled after their manager and puts control above all else.
Regarding his team, Alonso has stated, "We like to do that differently." This includes placement, tempo, and game structure. "We try to be patient, we don't like to be too crazy or hectic. That is something that is not easy to do in the Bundesliga."
You need a player who can play like Alonso if you want to succeed. The Leverkusen manager is reportedly less dogmatic about the structure his team should utilize, with a more flexible blueprint than those who have managed numerous clubs. However, he is evidently more of a fan of a double pivot in the middle of the field. Granit Xhaka is the guy running that; among many other stats, he led the Bundesliga at the end of the season in touches, pass completion, passes into the final third, and carries. With assistance from Robert Andrich or Exequiel Palacios, the former Arsenal player establishes the pace and dominates the middle of the field. thwarting the opposition's attempts to advance numerically. The pass map from a 4-0 victory over Union Berlin in October highlights the disproportionate role that Xhaka (No. 34) and Palacios (No. 25) play, even for central midfielders. This was one of those less common than you might think games where the team that is thought to be the title-winning XI actually takes the field together from the start.
It is up to Alonso's wide players to expand the pitch if Xhaka maintains possession of it. In order to accomplish this, Jeremie Frimpong puts the wing in the back. The Dutch international, who frequently plays as a one-man right flank with Jonas Hoffman positioned more infield, must extend the field and inject blistering speed into the side now that Moussa Diaby left for Aston Villa in the summer. His eight goals "from wing back" may appear impressive, but then you'll see that he was the only player in the Bundesliga with more touches in the penalty area. Harry Kane: 197. Lois Openda: 225. A man whose title includes the word "back" will finish in more than 400 minutes less: 230.
In addition, compared to Frimpong's 19 touches in his defensive penalty area, Kane and Openda have both received more touches. To put it briefly... Jeremie, this isn't your typical heatmap.
Alejandro Grimaldo is marginally more conventional. He usually stays closer to the left flank rather than breaking into the penalty area, and when Leverkusen does lose the ball, he usually drops deep to form a four-man defense. It's possible that his ball-recovering abilities have gone unnoticed, which makes sense considering the impressive goals he has scored from dead balls and transitioning into more central positions.
His 19 assists and 12 goals (from 7.6 xG) in particular point to what is likely an inescapable reality for a club that wins 51 games out of the gate: several of their players have hot runs in front of goal when their opponents aren't taking use of their opportunities. How many incredible deep shots have you seen on social media this season? Examples include Xhaka's unbelievable bending effort against Mainz, Florian Wirtz's goal against Werder Bremen, and Grimaldo's bend from the left into the far right corner to defeat Union Berlin. For the past ten months, Bayer's shooting hand has been burning.
Strangely, Victor Boniface is the only one who hasn't really blown the doors off his xG in the Bundesliga. Given that he is averaging 0.7 non-penalty xG per 90, that is not too much of an issue. Only 1553 minutes have been allotted to the Nigerian, the most of which were attributed to an adductor problem that occurred before the winter break. Because of his physicality, he can play with his back to the goal well, but he can also carry the ball quite well, averaging six takeaways every 90 minutes and 1.3 opportunities generated. While January loanee Borja Iglesias, Amine Adli, and Patrik Schick provided part of what Boniface does, having him at full strength will provide Atalanta with a far more difficult test.
Then there's the person, the homegrown superstar (well, since they plucked him at the age of sixteen from the Koln academy) who, like Alonso, claims he is more focused on creating history with Leverkusen than on emulating Diaby, Kai Havertz, or Michael Ballack by leaving the Bay Arena. Wirtz is the jewel 10 and Hoffman is the dual 10. The 21-year-old possesses every trait of a prototypical creator: he is a carrier and creator in the final third, an outlet for ball advancement, and a decisive figure near the penalty area.
What makes him the lodestar for this Leverkusen side is his off ball work. His teammates don't have to accommodate Wirtz without the ball. If anything he leads the charge, competing in more duels than any other member of Werkself, making more ball recoveries in the final third than anyone in the Bundesliga. If that sort of player is creating six and a half shots for him and his teammates per 90 minutes, well then you're working with something special indeed.
The nitrous dropped onto the V12, Wirtz's rise to no longer be one of the world's best young players but simply one of its leading talents explains why Leverkusen have the talent to go unbeaten. There is one more ingredient to this superteam: the remorseless belief, perhaps now knowledge, that they will not lose. Even when they don't actually need a goal they keep chasing more. A goal down to Roma on the night but 3-2 up on aggregate in their Europa League semifinal, they chased parity, Stanisic went driving forward, showing staggering cool to take the ball at full pelt, put his defender on the floor and drive home an equalizer to make it 49 undefeated.
"You can't count us out, not even for a second," Frimpong said after that great escape. "No one gives up. Everyone knows that if we go down, we will get a goal."
Seeing Roma, West Ham, Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt cave at the death is to get the sense that it isn't just Leverkusen who are waiting for the late dagger.
Leverkusen's manifest destiny, it would appear, is an undefeated treble, the sort of season that no one in Europe could have imagined Manchester City, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid delivering, let alone a team who were in the Bundesliga relegation zone 19 months ago. The team that once only knew how to lose now seems to view the idea that someone might beat them as simply unimaginable.
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