Match date: 29 August 2015

Both sides had started the season with two wins and just one goal conceded each. This match last season ended 1-0 to Bayern Munich and had some interesting tactical pieces to it.

Pep Guardiola set his side out without a recognised centre back, with Jerome Boateng suspended, Mehdi Benatia injured, and Dante on the bench. Lahm, Alaba, and Bernat started in a back three in a 3-4-3, that featured something of a diamond midfield and a fluency in Xabi Alonso’s positioning.

Bayer Leverkusen have made a number of moves in the transfer market including the sales of Heung-Min Son to Tottenham, Gonzalo Castro to Borussia Dortmund, and Josip Drmic to Borussia Monchengladbach. All three played a lot of minutes for Roger Schmidt last season, but all have been replaced as Schmidt looks to build on a debut season at Leverkusen. The German coach set his side out in a 4-4-2ish shape.

Bayern’s Shape

As mentioned above, Guardiola set his side out without a recognised centre back in a 3-4-3 with a diamond midfield consisting of Xabi Alonso at the bottom, Vidal and Thiago as the ‘shuttlers’, and Thomas Müller at the top. Guardiola has used a number of systems with three at the back during his time at Bayern Munich, doing so much more often than he did at Barcelona, as well as using a diamond midfield frequently last season. This fixture last year saw Guardiola use a diamond midfield as well, but with a back four.

During the early stages of the match, Guardiola stuck to the three at the back, consisting of Lahm, Alaba, and Bernat. Bayer Leverkusen were playing a high block, but there was not an incessant pressing, which allowed the back three to have time on the ball. Rather than put pressure on Lahm, Alaba, and Bernat, the passing lanes to the midfield four were cut off with Leverkusen playing fairly narrow across their flat midfield four, thus Bayern Munich’s back three struggle to work the ball into Bayern Munich’s midfield with consistency. Below is a good example of Bayern’s shape in the early stages as well as Leverkusen’s willingness to let them have the ball, but cutting off the central passing lanes.

As a result of this, Xabi Alonso began to move into Bayern’s back line when the home side were slowly building from the back. It allowed the Spaniard to get on the ball much more often, but it also coaxed Bayer Leverkusen to begin pressing the back line, which now looked more like a four during Bayern Munich’s build up play at the back. With Leverkusen moving forward more, it opened up the space between the midfield and forwards, which allowed Vidal and Thiago to get on the ball more. This forced Kramer and Bender to move further up the field, allowing the likes of Müller to get between the lines of Leverkusen’s back four and midfield. At this point, however, Alonso would move from the back four into midfield once the likes of Vidal or Thiago were able to turn with the ball. Below is a perfect example of Alonso in the back line, with space in front of him and Müller finding space behind Leverkusen’s midfield.

Following Bayern’s first goal, which came from a diagonal ball from Xabi Alonso to Douglas Costa, Bayern switched from a 3-4-3 with Alonso’s fluctuating position to a much more permanent 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1. Vidal looked like a lone holding midfielder for much of the time with Thiago and Müller just in front of him, but the Chilean and Thiago rotated as the holding midfielder at times and it helped keep Leverkusen’s midfield narrow. At times both midfielders were in holding roles as Müller would drift out wide to try to create space for Robben and Lewandowski.

Bayern Attack Wide, Space Between the Lines

Pep had a plan going into this match that seemed very similar to last year’s 1-0 home win over Bayer Leverkusen: expose the wide areas with direct play. With a midfield diamond at the start of the match, it forced Bayer Leverkusen’s midfield to play very narrow, allowing Bayern to work the ball out wide to Costa and Robben with relative ease. Guardiola also set up Lahm and Bernat in very narrow positions allowing the lanes to Costa and Robben to remain open regardless of the ball moving across Bayern’s back three/four. When moving Alonso to centre back and having Vidal and Thiago rotating between the holding role, it was meant to unbalance Leverkusen’s midfield again, by making them track Vidal and Thiago and play narrow to fill the spaces once a midfielder left.

With these conditions, it allowed Robben and Costa to not only become isolated against Wendell and Hilbert, respectively, but it also allowed for the two wide players to have a huge amount of space to exploit behind their defender which allowed them to use sheer pace to get behind with the ball. The first goal is an excellent of this. Alonso sees Costa in a huge amount of space, plays a long diagonal out to him and Costa beats Hilbert by just knocking it around him almost in stride before squaring the ball to Müller. Countless times Robben and Costa found themselves with one defender to beat, causing huge problems for Leverkusen. Bayern were able to use the wide areas as consistent outlets, but only because Pep had set his side out back line and midfield in a way that allowed them to play those quick passes out to the wide players. Between the two of them, Robben and Costa completed 13 of their 25 attempted take-ons and in doing so, provided a constant threat.

Against Bayer Leverkusen, under Schmidt, it is easy to exploit the weak side with a long diagonal because of the compactness to which Bayer Leverkusen overload one side of the pitch both in possession and when they are pressing. Having Alonso in the back line, giving Bayern Munich a 4v2 in this area of pitch, allowed the Spaniard time on the ball to exploit the weak side with direct passes.

The wide areas were not the only space that Guardiola looked to exploit. As mentioned above, Bayer Leverkusen’s midfield and forward lines began moving up the pitch to press Bayern Munich, especially when Alonso dropped into the back line. This allowed for space to open up between the Leverkusen midfield and defense, which then allowed the likes of Müller, Robben, and Lewandowski to find space between the lines. This caught Leverkusen out often, especially in the second half when they were a goal down and ‘chasing’ the game a bit. Müller was always drifting, especially to the right side of Bayern Munich’s attack, allowing Robben to come inside and get on the ball between the lines before running at the Leverkusen back four.

The second screen capture above showed Alonso’s brilliant passing, but also Lewandowski between the lines. The Polish international was able to turn and beat Papadopoulos. He was dispossessed by Tah, but Vidal was there, played the ball back to Lewandowski, who played it wide to Costa, who won tried to cross the ball in only for Hilbert to use his arm to stop the ball and concede a second penalty.

 Leverkusen’s Attacks, Changes

Schmidt’s high tempo game plan never really worked. Leverkusen’s quick transitions were continually cut out by Vidal and Thiago, who put in high energy displays and covered the back line well, in particular, Vidal shielded Alonso very well throughout the match. Leverkusen arguably troubled Bayern Munich more when they were able to have some sustained possession in the home side’s defensive third as Alonso was at times left a little exposed when having to deal with a player running at or across him.

Schmidt never really changed his side’s approach too drastically. Brandt was brought on for Mehmedi at half time, but the shape stayed the same and Leverkusen’s problems were not fixed. Robbie Kruse was brought on after Bayern’s third goal, but again, the system did not really change.

Guardiola brought on Dante after their third goal, moving Alaba to left back in the back four. Alaba’s positioning was much more advanced than Bernat’s had been.

Conclusion

Guardiola won this match by using a very similar plan to last year’s 1-0 win over Schmidt and Leverkusen. Bayern looked to play direct balls out to the wide players and have them run at the back four, which Costa and Robben did extremely well.

Müller bagged two goals on his 200th Bundesliga match. His overall importance to the match was not just scoring goals, but how he created space for the wide players and Lewandowski and his instinctual finishing. Robben and Costa had excellent matches as well, as did Alonso, who was able to show his expansive passing with balls out wide.