Bayern Munich – Bayer Leverkusen: Bundesliga Heavyweights Draw Despite Bayern Dominance (1-1)

Bayern Munich dominated everything but the scoreline as they shared the spoils with Bayer Leverkusen in this early season title-contender clash. The visitors took the lead against the run of play, but the hosts equalized before half-time courtesy of a long-range Pavlovic half volley. Despite Bayern’s dominance in possession, territory and chances, Xabi Alonso’s side managed to hold on for a point.

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Smoothy.

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All eyes were on the Allianz Arena this weekend, as the two Bundesliga title favourites went head-to-head. Last season, Bayer Leverkusen lifted the league trophy for the first time in their 120-year history, ending Bayern Munich’s 11-year domestic domination. Reclaiming their spot at the top of German club football was therefore Bayern’s priority objective this campaign.

Vincent Kompany has enjoyed a perfect start to his managerial tenure in Bavaria, winning all six of his opening matches across all competitions. Selected to keep their 100% record going in this fixture was Manuel Neuer, who returned after missing last weekend’s 5-0 victory over Werder Bremen. Helping defend his goal was a back four of Alphonso Davies, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min-jae and Raphaël Guerreiro at right back to replace Konrad Laimer. Joshua Kimmich partnered Aleksandar Pavlovic in central midfield, with Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry all ahead, supporting Harry Kane in attack.

Going into this game, reigning champions Leverkusen trailed their rivals by three points, having lost in the Bundesliga for the first-time in fifteen months to RB Leipzig in Matchday 2. Since then, Xabi Alonso’s side have returned to more familiar winning ways, with back-to-back victories. Conceding goals has been a concern, however, with nine shipped in the league, including three in their last outing against Wolfsburg.

Five personnel changes were made from that match, with regulars Piero Hincapié, Jeremie Frimpong, Robert Andrich, Martin Terrier and Victor Boniface all returning to the side. They joined goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký, defenders Edmond Tapsoba and Jonathan Tah, left wing-back Álex Grimaldo, central midfielder Granit Xhaka, and attacker Florian Wirtz, to take on Bayern in this early season title-contender clash.

Leverkusen’s offensive gameplan is not ‘overly’ elaborate nor effective

Prior to the match, Xabi Alonso predicted that “Bayern will go full throttle” and “we have to be ready for that” and this declaration was immediately proved correct. Right from the off, the home side were aggressive with their out of possession approach. Aiming to engage any deep Leverkusen possession between Hrádecký, back three (plus, Grimaldo) and double pivot, with high pressure.

Primarily, this involved a front-five of Kane on Tah, Olise and Gnabry engaging the outside center-backs, and Musiala and Pavlovic locking onto Xhaka and Andrich, with support from Guerreiro jumping to Grimaldo, who was playing his deeper, asymmetrical left wing-back role. As a precautionary measure, when Leverkusen had the ball on the far-side to Guerreiro, the nominal right back positioned himself in a halfway position, so able to provide both cover in the backline, if needed, or get back out to Grimaldo in the event of a switch.

As revealed by Xabi Alonso, however, Leverkusen were “ready for this” approach and instead of trying to play through their opponents, they simply, and repeatedly, attempted to go over them. There was logic behind this tactic though. It did not – at least to begin with – look like they were always being forced into going direct completely against their will (it did on various occasions later though).

With Bayern prepared to accept one-versus-one (1v1) match-ups in their backline during their pressing phases – due to committing five, often six, players high in the opposition half – the away team’s gameplan aimed to exploit these potential opportunities. Typically, their targets were Frimpong positioned high on the right wing (marked by Davies), Terrier in the right half-space (tracked by Min-jae), and then Boniface (covered by Upamecano) either central or interchanging with Wirtz (mainly picked up by Kimmich and occasionally Guerreiro) to manufacture and exploit space in the left channel.

Most of Leverkusen’s possession sequences began with a (decoy) set-up to play out from a goal kick or deep to bait the Bayern press. In the opening fifteen minutes, on the few occasions the away side did have possession, there were fleeting moments when their tactics looked like they might cause Bayern some danger. Like in the second minute, when Tapsoba – positioned six-yards from his own byline – lofted a forward pass over nine Bayern players towards Boniface who had half the pitch ahead of him and just one opponent (Upamecano) to defend it. 

However, and in what became a recurring theme of this match, the Bayern defender won the individual duel (albeit conceding a throw-in on this occasion, but consequently allowing his teammates time to recover and get back into shape). Bayern defenders winning aerial and ground duels, and generally Bayern players winning second balls, helped limit the effectiveness of Leverkusen’s offensive tactic.

16th minute: in reaction to Bayern’s high pressure, Hrádecký passed wide to Tapsoba who immediately looked forward to exploit 1v1 opportunities against the Bayern backline. Tapsoba punched a pass into the dropping Terrier who then exchanged passes with Frimpong before trying to find the right wing-back in behind. However, in an example of Bayern defenders winning duels, the left back out paced Frimpong before calmly defending the situation to prevent any attack.

Compounding the issue for Xabi Alonso’s side was the fact that because Bayern were having such frequent duel success, and as Bayern had lots of players positioned high in the Leverkusen half, every time the visitors turned over the ball – a byproduct of their own strategy – Bayern were not only well-positioned to win second balls, but it subsequently helped pin Leverkusen in their own territory too.

In the first-half, this became a vicious cycle for the visitors, especially with their direct-ball target often the central Boniface. When the ball into him didn’t stick, it consequently came straight back down the throat of Leverkusen. This perhaps provides another reason as to why Boniface and Wirtz began to interchange position on the left-hand side – as when Boniface lost a duel on the flank, it presented less immediate danger.

Leverkusen’s ineffective offensive gameplan was an issue throughout the whole game. Whilst not the only times, there were examples in the 9th, 14th, 18th, 27th, 29th, 36th, 41st, 49th, 53rd, 58th, 67th, 72nd and 81st minutes of the visitors turning over the ball after attempting this direct tactic. A number of these occasions also led to Bayern shots.

To offer a (weak) analogy on the Leverkusen issue. It was like they were pushing a sled up a slippery slope. But with no one getting hold of it higher, their attempts to get up only ended in the sled coming crashing back down onto them.

Bayern’s dominance

In complete contrast to Leverkusen’s tactics being a vicious cycle, Bayern’s overall gameplan of dominating both in and out of possession resulted in a continuous beneficial loop. Due to the effectiveness of Bayern without the ball – and equally the ineffectiveness of Leverkusen with it – the hosts were afforded lots of opportunities to implement their in possession plans. 

The hosts wanted the ball and the visitors were content to concede it, being relatively passive defensively to prioritize maintaining their compact medium-to-low 5-4-1 block. This enabled frequent uncontested progression for Bayern in their own half. Then once in the middle third of the pitch, Bayern were able to begin executing positional adjustments to their 4-2-3-1 (on paper) formation.

Bayern’s solutions to progressing the ball towards, and into, the final third included; 1) using their fullbacks (or Kimmich rolling out to the right back slot) to go around the narrow opposition block, 2) using Kimmich, Pavlovic, and a dropping Musiala, to manipulate and disjoint the center of the Leverkusen block to play through, and 3) positional interchanges in wide areas, between Guerreiro and Olise on the right and Davies and Gnabry on the left.

Bayern Munich Passmap versus Bayer Leverkusen

Once in the final third, Bayern again had some repeatable traits in their play. Including 1) pinning nearby support defenders to get wide forwards 1v1, 2) diagonal infield passes, 3) players getting between the lines, 4) switches to the far-side half-space, 5) out-to-inside blindside movements from their fullbacks, and 6) relying on Musiala’s tricky-feet to beat several opponents in and around the box.

Bayern were able to sustain possession and territorial advantage in the final third through prolonged spells of possession and quick counterpressing regains following turnovers. All of this helped generate Bayern’s superior shot count. Although, a number were from distance and set pieces.

However, on the half-hour mark, Bayern’s dominance counted for nothing when Leverkusen took the lead against the run of play. The visitors’ medium block forced Guerreiro into a turnover, before Pavlovic was forced back towards his own goal and into a mistake which conceded a corner. From the resulting take, Andrich scored from the edge of the area to make it 1-0.

Less than ten minutes later though, Bayern were level. Following a possession sequence, Bayern were in the final third with the opportunity to play a diagonal infield pass to the inverted Guerreiro via a Musiala dummy (who importantly attracted / distracted Xhaka). From here, Guerreiro played a one-two pass with Kimmich who then spread the play out wide to Olise whose inswinging cross was headed clear but only to Pavlovic. The young midfielder controlled with his chest, before shooting from distance, with the curve of the ball beating Hrádecký’s outstretched hand to make it 1-1.

39th minute: possession sequence which led to Bayern’s equalizer

Shortly after half-time, Bayern had two attempts to make it 2-1, with both falling to Gnabry and each shot hitting the woodwork. The second half largely followed the same narrative as the first. Bayern dominated and Leverkusen found little joy with their attempts to go over their opponents’ press – often being foiled by the defensively impressive Min-jae.

The Bayern shot count continued to grow after the break, with the hosts persisting in their aforementioned attacking tactics.

Bayern Munich – Bayer Leverkusen xG Plot

One of the most notable tactics was Guerreiro and Davies occupying the far-side half-space for a diagonal pass / switch. The two fullbacks frequently found themselves free in these areas, often aided by one of Leverkusen’s wide midfielders being more concerned with play in front of them and the two central midfielders getting pinned, with Musiala or Kane intelligently positioning themselves in between / behind them.

(In addition the 75th minute example below, also check out the Halfspace and Zone 14 Plot visuals at the bottom of the article for further evidence of this).

75th minute: Bayern possession sequence which led to a Davies shot. After progressing the ball wide right, Bayern looked to direct their attack infield. Kane recognized the opportunity so made a movement on Andrich’s left shoulder which helped create space for Davies to receive the pass, free in the left half-space before shooting.

Ultimately, however, Bayern failed to produce the quality needed in their final shot, pass and action to win. Their attacking threat lessened as the game grew on and post substitutes. Leverkusen’s low block remained resolute and the away side nearly nicked it in the 87th minute after a couple of (unsurprising) direct balls and a Kimmich slip allowed Wirtz to pick up the loose ball before sliding in Nathan Tella whose shot was straight at Neuer. In the end, both Kompany and Alonso appeared respectively satisfied and happy with a point apiece.

Takeaways

Pre-match, Vincent Kompany proclaimed that: “Bayern always want to be as dominant as possible.” In this respect, Bayern cannot be faulted. From start-to-finish, the home side dominated their opponent in every aspect of the game, both collectively and individually. Whilst a victory to accompany their impressive performance would have been a statement, Bayern had to settle for laying down a marker. It’s clear that not only do Bayern immediately want their title back, they also want to dominate the German top-flight again in the process.

As for Leverkusen, Xabi Alonso also had foresight in his comments ahead of the fixture. The Spaniard told reporters: “…it will be a challenge. We need to play at our highest level, with and against the ball for 90 minutes.” The Bundesliga champions will undoubtedly be disappointed in their display with the ball, but without it, they showcased discipline, resilience and determination. All traits they will need to defend their title, in a season which looks like it’ll contest a highly competitive two-horse race.

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