Match date: 31 January 2015

An excellent match up coming back from the winter break as both sides need a win; Leverkusen need to solidify a Champions League spot despite having the lowest point total at this stage for a third place team in Bundesliga and Dortmund need to start a rise up the table after spending the first half of the season in the relegation zone.

Roger Schmidt and Bayer Leverkusen were without Heung-Min Son, who just suffered a loss with South Korea in the Asian Cup final to Australia. Tin Jedvaj was always out after suffering an injury in Florida, USA during Leverkusen’s winter break.

Jurgen Klopp finds himself and Dortmund in an extremely difficult position, fighting relegation and battling constant injuries to what would be their strongest starting XI.

Dortmund Sit, Leverkusen Possess, Fail to Exploit Wide Areas

Both Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund are well known for their gegenpressing and highly energetic attacks. Klopp once described his side’s style of play as ‘heavy metal’ music in comparison to the symphony-like style that Arsenal (Dortmund’s Champions League opposition at the time) attempt to play. It is accurate and over the last few years Dortmund have arguably been the best in the world in terms of this style while Schmidt’s Red Bull Salzburg last year and Bayer Leverkusen this year have shown an even greater degree of high octane attacking play.

In their last meeting, Leverkusen scored in the opening seconds of the match, but continued to press Dortmund very well, though they allowed Dortmund to have about 60% possession of ball. In this match, however, that possession statistic was reversed as Leverkusen had about 60% of the ball and were unable to find many opportunities to attack a vertically and horizontally compact Dortmund side in the fast paced manner that they are used to. Instead Leverkusen seemed somewhat comfortable playing against Dortmund’s defense. Leverkusen’s front players, in Schmidt’s 4-2-4, seemed to take far too long on the ball and it allowed Sahin, Ginter, and the ball side centre back to surround the ball carrier and either win the ball back or hit a hopeful ball forward.

With their incredibly compact defence, which was also caused by the in-field runs of Bellarabi and Calhanoglu, Dortmund left the wide areas to be exploited and Leverkusen did play into the wide areas fairly frequently, but did so at a pace that wasn’t able to catch Dortmund out of position. Below, you can see a good example of Dortmund’s back four and the space that they allowed out wide.

Leverkusen’s best chance of the match came from this sort of ball with Kiessling dropping deep and playing a ball into that same highlighted space in the above picture for Bellarabi to run on to. The German pulled the ball back for Castro, who had made a late run into the box, a midfield run that could have helped Leverkusen exploit these wide areas a bit better, but Castro’s effort was cleared off the line by Mats Hummel’s head. The other times when Bayer Leverkusen were able to work the ball out wide, it was too slow and allowed Dortmund to shift over and for the full backs, Piszczek and Schmelzer, to get covering help from Grosskreutz, new recruit Kampl, and either Sahin or Ginter. Below you can see the ineffectiveness of Leverkusen’s wide play.

Dortmund’s Poor, Hopeful Attack

One of Dortmund’s primary issues this season has been their inability to finish chances. Ciro Immobile was brought in to help fill the void left by Robert Lewandowski’s free transfer to Bayern Munich, but the Italian, who won the award for Serie A’s top goal scorer last season, has managed just three goals for Dortmund as the rest of the team have also struggled to find the net, costing them many points this season.

So while in many matches their reason not getting a result has been their inability to finish, in this match, their forward play was incredibly poor and relied on hopeful balls forward from deep positions and when they managed to get good possession of the ball, Leverkusen proved difficult for Dortmund to break down. It was clear that the plan for Klopp and Dortmund was to allow Leverkusen to have possession of the ball, absorb the pressure, and then try to release Immobile. It didn’t work and many of the balls that Dortmund played to Immobile were in the wide areas, which not only highlighted how isolated he was, but also did not give him the opportunity to create chances for himself.

Needless to say, these hopeful balls forward (they only completed 35% of their attempted forward passes) were very ineffective. Immobile had just one shot on goal, which was saved well by Leno, and when he got on the end of one of the hopeful balls forward, he was able to beat Toprak, but Wendell deflected his pass to Reus and the chance went out for a corner kick. When Dortmund did play the ball centrally, it was often in the air and Immobile struggled to contest Toprak and Spahic effectively.

Changes

Klopp was forced into his first change as Piszczek sustained a thigh injury and was replaced by Subotic. As a result, Sokratis moved to right back and Subotic played alongside Hummels, who had an excellent match, at centre back. Klopp’s next change was more calculated, bringing off Grosskreutz for Mkhitaryan, who has had a relatively poor season. The Armenian had very little contribution, as he was played on the left, but played in Immobile in the chance mentioned above as well as Kampl, just minutes later, although the new signing hit his attempted cross off of Wendell for a corner. Klopp brought on Ramos for Immobile with about nine minutes to go, but the Colombian had little impact.

Schmidt’s were similar in their impact, although Rolfes did create an excellent chance for Castro on a good Leverkusen counter attack, but Castro tried to lob the ball over an on-rushing Weidenfeller, only for the ball to go over the cross bar.

Conclusion

Neither manager will be pleased with the result. Dortmund desperately need to start accumulating wins in order to avoid a relegation battle in the second half of the season, especially with them still being in the Champions League. This draw saw them drop to last in the Bundesliga with just 16 points from 18 matches played. Leverkusen and Schmidt will be disappointed as a draw saw them drop to sixth, although they are just one point from third place, indicating just how important it will be for them not to drop their standards and points.

Leverkusen have what should be an easier match against Hertha Berlin in their next fixture, while Dortmund have another tough match against Augsburg, who are one of three teams on 30 points, one point ahead of Bayer Leverk