Leverkusen 1-1 Bayern: The home side dominate, but miss too many chances
An enjoyable game that Leverkusen should have won, and ultimately it was a terrific weekend for Bayern – with Schalke suffering a surprise defeat, Bayern are now two points ahead of Schalke and six ahead of Leverkusen, with four games to play.
It’s rare these days that you find two sides both lining up with a standard 4-4-2 system, but that’s what we had at the BayArena. We also had a strange mixture of an open game, but few open players – both sides played expansive, attacking football, but the similarity of the systems meant that both sides struggled to find a player in space – there were no players between the lines, no unmarked midfielders, and it was back to the traditional battles of a 4-4-2 v 4-4-2 – wingers up against full-backs, strikers up against centre-backs, and two midfielders on either team doing battle with each other.
In these situations, it is often the full-backs who are in the greatest amount of space – and Leverkusen dominated the early stages because they seemed more willing to push their full-backs forward. The right-back Castro went on a couple of off-the-ball runs that exploited both Frank Ribery’s lack of interest at tracking back, and Holger Badstuber’s tendency to move into a fairly central position when the ball was on Bayern’s right, and Michael Kadlec also got forward from left-back.
As far as Bayern’s full-backs were concerned, Badstuber himself remains tentative about attacking, whilst on the other side Philip Lahm finds it difficult to get down the line because Arjen Robben’s starting position is so wide. Indeed, this was the main difference between the basic structures of the two 4-4-2s – Bayern’s wingers hugged the touchline and looked to stretch the play at the top end of the pitch, whereas Leverkusen’s wide players – Toni Kroos and Tranquilo Barnetta – both moved more centrally when their side was in possession. In fact, Leverkusen’s best two chances came when those two found themselves in central positions in the box after making a run inside, but neither could hit the target with just Butt to beat.
Bayern missed Thomas Muller’s ability to drop off into a deep-lying forward position. The Gomez-Olic partnership didn’t function particularly well in the box (on one occasion Gomez went for goal when a square ball to Olic surely would have resulted in a goal) but their main problem was in open play – Olic played slightly deeper than Gomez but seemed slightly uncomfortable making runs towards the ball, and the two Leverkusen centre-backs coped well in the absence of Sami Hyypia. Meanwhile, Martin Demichelis was unable to step out from the backline because Leverkusen deployed two out-and-out strikers.
Although Castro’s attacking nature meant Leverkusen dominated the start of the game, his defensive inabilities meant they conceded the first goal of the game. He got himself into an awkward position when Franck Ribery picked up the ball, then allowed the Frenchman to enter the penalty area before he put a clumsy tackle in. Ribery went down, won a penalty, and Robben converted.
Leverkusen later equalised with a scrappy rebound after a set-piece hit the post, and but for poor finishing would have won the game. Leverkusen did really well in keeping their lines close together – their forwards dropped off, letting the Bayern defenders have the ball in their own half, and instead made short passes to Schweinsteiger and van Bommel difficult. At the other end of the pitch, Reinartz and Friedrich pushed high up the pitch, and neither Gomez nor Olic were able to get in behind.
A tactical victory for Jupp Heynckes over Louis van Gaal, and it’s little wonder Heynckes said after the game, ”My team were tactically smart today, and based on the chances we created, we’d have deserved to win.” Nevertheless, van Gaal and Bayern emerge happier from the contest.
Leverkusen 1-1 Bayern: The home side dominate, but miss too many chances
Why do all sites inevitably become about sex? (line 2..!)
“Bayern are now two points ahead of Schalke and sex ahead of Leverkusen”
Typo or freudian slip?
Sex ahead? Sexy football!
I was wondering why the moderation queue suddenly went mental! Thanks, corrected…
Just wanted to correct this:
Gonzalo Castro is german with spanish heritage.
Oops, thanks for the correction.
Interesting. From reading the United articles it sounds like Bayern’s system plays better than a 4-4-2 should against a 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation.
However, could the same things that make Bayern better against a 4-5-1 make it worse againt a flat 4-4-2? For example: Demichelis not getting forward?
If nothing else, it does seem to confirm that formations aren’t rock/paper/scissors.
While I agree with the sentiment that formations aren’t rock/paper/scissors, I think it is important to note that Bayern were most dominant against United in the first leg after Ferguson switched to a 4-4-2 with Berbatov. Furthermore Fiorentina played a 4-5-1 and were tactically better than Bayern (unfortunately there are no tactics to defend against a player who is 5 metres offside and a blind linesman).
The lack of attacking instincts shown by the Bayern fullbacks is understandable in the case of Badstuber who is more of a central defender and is still learning the trade, but I am surprised that Lahm hasn’t got forward more. The wide starting position of Robben is a good explanation, although with the German national term, Lahm has often made good diagonal runs towards the centre (see for example his winning goal against Turkey in Euro 2008). I just wonder if van Bommel is uncomfortable covering in wide positions and whether Lahm has been instructed to stay back accordingly.
the reason lahm did those diagonal runs in germany’s national team was that he was playing left fullback as a right-footed player. his crosses hardly arrive where they should when he kicks the ball with his left foot, so he figured he’d rather start a run with the ball from out wide, then cut in some 25 to 20 meters in front of the goal-line to either shoot, chip it to the far post or put it through into the box. as a natural right-footer, he’s hardly able to do that when playing on the right of the pitch. the only option on that side for him is to get through to the touchline and swing a cross in (regularly negated by robben being in the way) or stay behind robben and cross it from 20-30 meters wide out right.
That’s a good point. However, I am not only talking about running with the ball at feet, but also runs off the ball. If an opposition left back marks Robben too tightly over on the sideline, that opens a space for a diagonal run from the fullback. See for example this Dani Alves goal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=eDPQZpbVevI&feature=related
Another player who scores from these sorts of runs is Maicon. Both are right footed right backs.
Bayern is having luck at this moment… Seven days, three away games against 04, United and Leverkusen. Two wins, one draw whilst they were not the good side in some (or most) of the time in the play. Great job by van Gaal, and, as said, very lucky indeed which is exactly what is needed when a team is at the final stages.
[...] Leverkusen 1-1 Bayern: The home side dominate, but miss too many chances “An enjoyable game that Leverkusen should have won, and ultimately it was a terrific weekend for Bayern – with Schalke suffering a surprise defeat, Bayern are now two points ahead of Schalke and six ahead of Leverkusen, with four games to play.” (Zonal Marking) [...]
It must be said that while Leverkusen do play with a very standard looking 4-4-2, their wide players aren’t really traditional wingers in the Ribery/Robben mold. Barnetta and Kroos are very centrally inclined players, Kroos especially who is a traditional #10 naturally.
The attacking impetus is created by Barnetta and Kroos cutting into the middle and allowing Castro and Kadlec the space to run forward and support the play. Fortunately for Leverkusen, Bayern have a CB playing at LB, which is why Castro and Barnetta had such a relatively easy time on the right flank.
Can I ask,when you show the main formation diagram at the top of the page is it based on average positions during the game?
Very interesting website by the way.
[...] An enjoyable game that Leverkusen should have won, and ultimately it was a terrific weekend for Bayern – with Schalke suffering a surprise defeat, Bayern are now two points ahead of Schalke and six ahead of Leverkusen, with four games to play. It’s rare these days that you find two sides both lining up with a [...] Zonal Marking [...]