In this blog I will be writing a tactical analysis on the Bayern Munich vs Bayer Leverkusen game which took place on the 28th of september 2024. This game was clash of titans, Bayer Leverkusen being the defending champions of the Bundesliga off the back of an incredible invincible season under Xabi Alonso travelled to the Allianz Arena to face a new and improved Bayern Munich with new coach Vincent Kompany who was looking to maintain his incredible start as Bayern manager.
Leverkusens game plan was very clearly early on as they were happy to sit into a flat 5-3-2 formation atempting to sit back and frustate this bayern side which in turn was very effective as Bayern struggled to find a way through the block. Leverkusens block can be seen below.
Bayerns answer to this was to build up in a fluid 3-1-6 shape with Pavlovic acting as the 1 being the focal point of the build and then dropping kimmich dropped back to form a back three either sitting between the two CBs as the CCB or dropping into RCB to form the three. They also pushed there full backs forward to sit in an inverted position and used there left and right wingers to hold width. Bayerns ultimate plan to break through the Leverkusen defense was using Kane dropping deep and pulling a man with to open up space for Olise and Musiala to drive into with the ball however the incredible work rate of the Leverkusen team made it very hard for Bayern to create these opportunities. Bayerns 3-1-6 can be seen below with Pavolvic as the 1 and Kimmich at right center back.
The most impressive part of Bayern Munich yesterday was there incredible Man to Man pressing. Every time bayern lost the ball they would trigger an incredible and relentless counter press which suffocated Leverkusen making them struggle to have any control of the game at all.
Leverkusens response to this was to play direct and go over the Bayern press rather than attempting to beat it using Boniface as a target man. Bayerns solution to this was for Upamecano to man mark Boniface which he did brilliantly. Throughout the game Upamecano phyiscally dominated Boniface rarely losing a duel against him thus suffocating Leverkusen even more as they did not have another physical option to play direct to.
When Leverkusen did however attack they would build up in a 3-2-5 formation with Frimpong holding width as a RW on the right hand side and Wirtz holding width on the left with Grimaldo inverted into the midfield.
No matter what Bayern Munich tried they could not break through Leverkusens 5-3-2 block. The two goals of the game were both incredible shots from outside the box with Andrich scoring an incredible low driven shot for Leverkusen and Pavlovic scoring a sesnsational volley for Bayern. It was clear Leverkusen were happy to take a draw as in the 90th minute Alonso brought on Palacios for Wirtz and defended the last 5 mins of the game in an even more defensive 5-4-1 shape.
Overall Bayern will view it as points dropped from their side. Bayern finished the game with an Xg of 1.38 compared to Leverkusens Xg of 0.06 which fr me clearly indicates Leverkusen clearly came to play for the draw and earned it defending brilliantly throughout.
This concludes the piece. All feedback and opinions are aprecciated!
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