With only 4 teams lower than them in terms of possession,
they are averaging 46% per game, yet find themselves third, and tied on points
with Dortmund. Sami Hyypia’s Leverkusen side are proving that possession is not
key as they fire their way up the Bundesliga table.
Leverkusen are a little bit of an enigma. Low possession
sides tend to make lots of tackles and interceptions in order to break up the
opposition play, but Leverkusen have made the second lowest average amount of
tackles per game. Only Bayern the kings of possession have made less. They aren’t particularly big on interceptions
either. Hyypia’s young side however are
grabbing all kinds of the right headlines. They pushed Dortmund far last year
in the race for second and this year has gave no indications that anything is
going to change in that respect.
Up front Leverkusen are lethal. Having sold key asset
Schurrle to Chelsea, Leverkusen replaced him with former Hamburg man Son
Heung-Min. At 21, the Korean left the Hamburg side that developed him with a
very impressive 20 goals in 73 appearances. Not bad at all for a 21 year old.
At 6’0 he helps with the Leverkusen aerial threat and with two strong feet he
is a constant threat on the left, either down the flank or cutting inside. In terms of Bundesliga Heung-Min has 4 in 9
from the left and has even chipped in twice with assists.
On the other side Leverkusen have another former Hamburg
man, the Germany cap Sidney Sam. Sam has been at Leverkusen for three seasons
now and has over 25 goals for them, but this season undoubtedly has been his
best. Sam is one of the best performers not just in the Bundesliga this season,
but across Europe. According to
whoscored.com his 8.01 rating has him 11th across Europe, wedged
nicely in between Aaron Ramsey and Robert Lewandowski. Sam is joined with the goal machine Kiessling
on 7 as Leverkusen’s top scorer and has weighed in with 5 assists. This does
not give Jogi Lowe a selection headache as much as a selection migraine ahead
of the 2014 World Cup.
Playing a 4-3-3 formation, Leverkusen play with 3 shutters
centrally, usually Lars Bender, Simon Rolfes and Gonzalo Castro. These three
protect their back 4 and then Hyypia trusts his dynamic trio up front to win
his side games. Only 6 Bundesliga goals have been scored not coming from one of
the front 3 this season, 2 of which came from back up-striker Robbie Kruse,
indicating that majority of Leverkusen’s goals come from those up the business
end of the pitch. It is a formula which is working very well for Hyypia and at
the time of writing this Leverkusen have won 14 of their last 17 Bundesliga
games.
In terms of Champions League football things aren’t going to
bad either. 2 wins and a draw from 4 leaves them only a point behind Manchester
United with United having the difficult task of having to travel to the
BayArena next. Things are looking positive for Leverkusen, and many eyes will
be fixed firmly on Hyypia’s side, to see how far they can push domestically and
perhaps a Champions League run might not be too far out of the picture.
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