Teams of the Decade #6: Bayer Leverkusen 2001-02
Ultimately, this Bayer Leverkusen side won nothing; the pressure of challenging on three fronts with a small squad had disastrous results at the end of the season, where they completed the most unwanted ‘treble’ in footballing history – losing the league on the final day of the season, losing in the German Cup final to Schalke, and finally, being defeated by Real Madrid in the Champions League final.
But to dismiss them as ‘Bayer Neverkusen’ ignores the incredible job Klaus Topmoller did at the club. Leverkusen were an unfashionable, unremarkable club, having never won the Bundesliga in their history. Indeed, when the club celebrated their Centenary in 2004, their best-ever XI contained no fewer than seven of this side.
Their Champions League run didn’t receive enough credit in England – probably thanks to the fact that, incredibly, they put out Arsenal, Liverpool and then Manchester United in successive rounds, at a time when English football was desperate for success in European football (and attempting to overthrow the Bundesliga as the third-best league in Europe, and therefore receive a fourth Champions League place), and they were cast as fortunate, scrappy underdogs.
In reality, the 4-1-4-1 formation employed by Topmoller was terrific. Oliver Neuville arguably reinvented the lone striker role, at 5’7 demonstrating that you don’t have to be a target man to play upfront by yourself. He drew defenders out of position, creating space for the runs of Michael Ballack, who scored 17 goals in 29 Bundesliga games (an incredible record for a midfielder, and just one off being the league’s topscorer) and 7 in 15 Champions League games. Alongside Ballack was the equally talented Yildiray Basturk, who lacked Ballack’s pace but provided intelligent, methodical passing from the centre. Bernd Schneider and the wonderful Ze Roberto (one of the most underrated players of the decade) worked the flanks excellently, swinging in crosses and covering their full-backs in equal measure.
Another key feature was Carsten Ramelow, a tall, rugged centre-half who played just in front of the defensive line. He was comfortable dropping deep and taking up a position as a third centre-back, meaning that Placente and Sebescen were free to roam forward.
The loss of captain Jens Nowotny to a serious knee injury ahead of the run-in hit Leverkusen hard, although they were far from outplayed in the Champions League final. In the end, they lost to the goal of the decade, a tremendous left-footed volley from the most celebrated player of his generation, and Leverkusen will probably remain most famous for Zidane’s greatest moment.
All things considered, it’s perhaps not entirely unfair to claim that this Leverkusen side set the tactical tone for the decade – a lone forward who liked to drop deep, a midfield encouraged to make forward runs, a holding midfielder in front of the back four, and attacking full-backs.
In the summer of 2002, both Ballack and Ze Roberto left the club to join Bayern Munich, and Leverkusen struggled with Nowotny out for the entire campaign. They advanced to the second round of the Champions League, but spent much of the domestic season in the relegation zone, and Topmoller was fired in January. They finished one place off relegation.
This season, they currently sit atop the Bundesliga, level on points with Bayern Munich, and still unbeaten. It would be tremendous if they could go onto win their first-ever title, the trophy this great side deserved.
Teams of the Decade #6: Bayer Leverkusen 2001-02
Good post. Although firstly I’d like to take an Arsenal bias naturally stating that in the second group phase they failed to defeat the Gunners, losing 4-1 in that memorable game at Highbury where they were demolished. It was Deportivo La Coruna who ultimately knocked Arsenal out with two wins in an incredibly tight group (and maybe one of the next teams you talk about I guess alongside Barca, Man. Utd, Villarreal, Roma, Real Madrid maybe, Zenit, I’ll stop guessing.)
Anyway, it was a shame Schnieder couldn’t have progressed as he was the best midfield the national team never had. Lucio was and is still fantastic, Bastruk was great and hopefully we’ll see him in a Blackburn shirt this season while Ze Roberto was also splendiferous.
Indeed, fair points you make. Although in the final group stage game, if I remember correctly it was Depor who had already qualified, and Leverkusen won on the final day whilst Arsenal lost at Juve, so it seemed like Leverkusen were the ones knocking Arsenal out.
Was great to see Lucio on form the other day against Chelsea. Has Basturk done anything for Blackburn? I try to avoid their games…
Didn’t this side also feature a young Berbatov as a supersub?
Yes, correct.
His great time came about 2 years later, where he scored 36 goals and achieved 13 assists in 2 seasons between 2004-2006.
Besides Neuville, there also was living club legend Ulf Kirsten making 32 appearances in 2001-2002. Somehow he almost never played in Champions League.
Good post, great team. Maybe the last real great team in Germany to this day.
Excellent shout, I’m glad this team is getting credit, small teams like Leverkusen and Real Sociedad (early 2000s Nihat/Kovacevic/X Alonso) always seem to implode after one good season as their team is torn apart by the bigger clubs, such a shame…..great article though, keep it up
Great analysis yet again. A forgotten side but one of the most entertaining of the decade in my opinion.
Another reason this side was so effective was because their midfield was so diverse and stocked with intelligent multi-dimensional players.
Ballack was the most obvious, a capable energetic box to box midfielder who timed his runs into the box perfectly and always found space to get into. He stood out that season because of his goals and forward movement but his defensive work and off the ball running also needs to be credited. All throughout the season, Ballack was always one of the players with the highest work rate and mileage.
Basturk was a more traditional central attacking midfielder, highly creative and a great screen for Ballack to do his work. To this day, coaches still haven’t figured out that to get the best out of Ballack, a good link up player is needed in front of him. Basturk was the perfect compliment.
Ze Roberto and Schneider were the wide players in Toppmöller’s side but both were centrally inclined players who were very comfortable cutting in or drifting into the middle as the fullbacks overlapped. Both players played central roles later in their careers, Schneider became a utility playmaker before he retired and Ze Roberto reinvented himself as a central midfielder when he left for Brazil and upon his return to the Bundesliga.
All four had the tendencies and attributes of playmakers which made the midfield a very dynamic and fluid system that was constantly interchangeable. It is also why the teams they faced were so suddenly overwhelmed by Leverkusen’s ability to keep the ball and constantly move it forward.
Bernd Schneider gave his farewell game yesterday. One year after his last game for Leverkusen a lot of great players like Michael Ballack, Ulf Kirsten, Carsten Ramelow, Jens Nowotny, Jens Lehmann, Ze Roberto, Berbatow, etc. etc. joined his personal dream team.
Bernd Schneider played for his home club Carl Zeiss Jena, for Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen. Rudi Voeller said: Big clubs wanted him, but in the end he always stayed here in Leverkusen.
His player career came to an end because of a spinal disc injury.
Bernd Schneider won only one title in his career, the Thuringia cup with Jena in 1995, but he will be remembered as one of the greates German football players of the last decade.
Now he moves back to his hometown Jena to teach kids how to play football.
And who could be a better coach for kids than Schnix, or the white Brazilian (that’s how his Brazilian teammates called him after the 2002 WC final.)!
After the Confederations Cup 2005 Bernd Schneider was on vacation and saw some British tourists playing football. He asked if he could join and they accepted, not knowing that a World Cup finalist was nutmeging them.
Another story is that Michael Ballack was talking to his teammates during the half time break of the CL final 2002 and said: maybe, this is our only chance to play in a final like this. And Schneider returned: Maybe your only chance!