Match date: 6 December 2014

On paper a good match with two sides lead by two managers in Pep Guardiola and Roger Schmidt that preach different versions of attacking football. Guardiola and Bayern Munich keep things controlled by keeping possession and putting sustained pressure on the opposition’s defense. While Schmidt’s philosophy calls for high energy with and without the ball and quick, vertical passes in possession. Last year when Schmidt was still with Salzburg, he beat Guardiola 3-0 in a friendly during the winter break.

For this match, Guadiola set out Bayern in something of a 4-3-3 with Xabi Alonso in the holding midfield role behind a rotation of Robben, Ribery, Götze, and Müller.

Schmidt continued with a 4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1 with arguably his strongest starting XI including a front four of Kiessling, Son, Bellarabi, and Calhanoglu.

Leverkusen’s Press, Bayern Play Wide, Directly

Schmidt’s sides are best known for their high pressing. At Salzburg last year, it was certainly the reason his side were not only successful, but were also the recipients of much attention from the football world and a combination of those two factors was one of the reasons that Bayer Leverkusen brought Schmidt in. Against Bayern, the pressing started right away and, as expected, was high energy. Leverkusen had an excellent chance due to the uncertainty their pressing caused as Bellarabi beat Neur with a chip but saw it cleared off the line by Bernat. Usually their pressing shape is something of a 4-2-2-2, with Kiessling and Calhanoglu pressing in the middle and Son and Bellarabi in the wide areas, pressing to outside backs and forcing the opposition into direct play. Below is a screen capture from the game showing Leverkusen’s early press, with Bellarabi chasing a pass from Bernat to Boateng to give Leverkusen three pressing players.

Leverkusen’s pressing on the night, however, was not as effective as usual in terms of winning the ball back high up the pitch and penning the opposition in. Rather, they were effective in breaking up the tempo of Bayern’s play with a lot of fouls and a few good tackles high up the pitch. To be fair, this is a way to frustrate a team like Bayern. If they cannot get control of the match’s tempo, their rotation and movement becomes too static for them to be effective.

Guardiola got the better of Schmidt here though with the good rotation of this quartet of attackers in Robben, Ribery, Götze, and Müller. It can be argued that Xabi Alonso was the only real centre midfielder that Bayern had on the pitch for the first half and he was given a huge amount of space to operate in. Ribery was a left winger that drifted inside, Götze was a number 10 that roamed, and Robben was a right sided player that drifted in and out. Below you can see an excellent example of a scenario that occurred throughout the first half; Alonso was given a huge amount of space by Leverkusen and his teammates, but he wasn’t used as frequently as usual. In fact, Alonso received the ball just 39 times in the match.

Rather than use that central option to try to bypass Leverkusen’s press, Pep told the likes of Robben and Ribery to start their runs from the inside and when Rafinha and Bernat got on the ball and were pressed, offer an option in the wide area. It was incredibly effective on both sides of the pitch. On the right side of Bayern’s attack as Müller was playing as a right winger which meant that Wendell was occupied by the German, allowing Robben to receive the, usually, chipped pass and turn. Other times, like in the screen capture, Robben would drag Wendell with him and allow Müller space to receive a long ball from Rafinha. On the left, Lewandowski would often drift to the Jedvaj, freeing up Ribery for Bernat to play to.

So Leverkusen’s pressing was effective in that in forced Bayern to play more direct, but rather than try to hit Lewandowski, Bayern were clever in playing into the spaces that Leverkusen left open with their pressing.

Rode On

Guardiola made a half time change, bringing on Sebastian Rode for Mario Götze. At times point, Leverkusen’s pressing was still effective in stopping Bayern from dictating the tempo of the match, but Bayern were still able to get around it with their play in the wide areas. By playing wide, however, it meant that Bayern’s shape was disjointed when they got forward and led to 0 shots on target in the first half.

His passing wasn’t great, but neither was Bayern’s as a whole. What Rode brought to the side was high energy in the midfield. As mentioned, Alonso was the only permanent midfielder and was afforded a huge amount of space. So when Rode came on, he was able to use that space very effective with his direct running breaking the lines and offering support for his teammates.

He was exceptional in the tackle, with one being decisive. Just five minutes into the second half, Rode won the ball back from Spahic, got by two Leverkusen players, and had pull back blocked by another for a corner. The resulting corner led to Ribery’s only goal of the match.

Bayern 1-0

After the goal, Bayern began to dominate the match in a controlled fashion and exerted more pressure on Leverkusen’s back four. Leverkusen’s pressing became less intense, aiding to Bayern’s ability to control the match much better. Bayern were still a bit more direct than usual, which would be largely attributed to Rode’s energy and direct running in midfield, but the more expansive passing stretched Leverkusen even more.

Bayern had more chances to go ahead. Müller had a cross that Leno somehow deflected onto his back post, while Lewandowski hit the side netting from about six yards out.

Conclusion

Schmidt and Leverkusen will be lamenting the opening stages of the match when they had Bayern Munich pinned well and could have been up by two goals had Bellarabi’s chip not been cleared off the line and had Kiessling been a bit closer to Son’s ball across Neuer’s goal.

Guardiola got his tactics spot on in order to beat the best part of Leverkusen’s play, but it left his side in an uncomfortable shape when they were going forward. Recognising this, however, Guardiola’s change at halftime inspired a win for Bayern and restored their seven point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.

Both sides have Champions League ties in the midweek, but both have already qualified for the knockout rounds, although Bayern’s match could have an influence on the second place side in their group.