Bundesliga 2021/22: Dortmund’s defensive woes allow Leverkusen to hit five – tactical analysis

This previous Sunday Borussia Dortmund faced Bayer Leverkusen in a Bundesliga fixture with the hosts having an eight-point lead over their visiting rivals going into this tie. In a game that always seems to produce goals, Leverkusen surprised the home side with a blistering first-half performance before then picking them apart late on in the game to put to bed any form of Borussia Dortmund resurgence.

Winning 5-2, Leverkusen were then able to cut the lead between themselves and Dortmund to five points, and whilst leaders Bayern Munich sit well ahead now with a nine-point gap once more between themselves and Dortmund. The race for first place may seem likes less of a competition again, however, there is perhaps now a battle on for second.

This tactical analysis and scout report will provide an analysis of some of the key tactics seen in this fixture.

Line-ups and formations

Borussia Dortmund lined up in a 4-3-3 with Gregor Kobel in goal and a back four of Raphael Guerreiro, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Manuel Akanji, and Thomas Meunier. This defence had certainly seen better days, and with plenty of talk already about both Akanji and Zagadou’s contract situations at the end of this season, and the upcoming arrival of Nikals Sule, this performance would have done little to convince the Dortmund board to produce lucrative contracts for their current pairing, certainly in the case of Zagadou. However, whilst Akanji has proven to be the far more consistent defender, and Dortmund would be wise to keep him at the club if they can, this was an off-day for him at centre-back. 

In front of this backline sat Axel Witsel, with Jude Bellingham and Julian Brandt paired ahead of him. Thorgan Hazard and Marco Reus played either side of Donyell Malen in a front three.

For Leverkusen Lukas Hradecky missed the game due to Covid, meaning Lennart Grill made his first Bundesliga appearance of the season. Their back four was made up of Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker at right-back and left-back, respectively, whilst Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie played at centre-back. In midfield, Robert Andrich and Kerem Demirbay were paired in a double pivot, with the former scoring an outstanding free-kick, whilst Florian Wirtz played in front of them. Karim Bellarabi and Moussa Diaby played on the wings with Patrik Schick starting at centre-forward.

Goals in the game came from Jeremy Frimpong (OG), and Steffen Tigges for Dortmund, whilst a Manuel Akanji own-goal, and finishes from Florian Wirtz, Robert Andrich, Jonathan Tah and Moussa Diaby gave the goals for Leverkusen.

Dortmund’s open defence on transition

Leverkusen put Dortmund’s defence to the sword throughout the game, with the home team’s defence looking leaky from the outset. They were consistently caught either out of shape or short of protection from their midfield.