Nobody will doubt that Bayer Leverkusen are a Bundesliga team with a lot of potential. However, it seems that Leverkusen cannot really keep up with the absolute top sides of the league. Despite a really attractive style of play, their results often upset their plans.
In the following tactical analysis, we are going to examine Bayer Leverkusen under Peter Bosz and explain what Leverkusen lack to become a true Bundesliga top side. Therefore, we give a short overview of Peter Boszs system at Leverkusen before unveiling three of their main weaknesses as well as how they could be solved.
System
At first, we have to look at how Bosz sets up his side. Different to last season where Leverkusen often played with two advanced midfielders, Leverkusen often play with a single playmaker this season. Since Julian Brandt left the club and moved to Borussia Dortmund, his former partner in advanced midfield takes over the position of the single playmaker now. As one can see below, Leverkusen played most of their games in a 4-2-3-1 system in the first half of the campaign.
With the heart of their midfield in Kai Havertz recently being man-marked by an opposition defensive midfielder though, Leverkusen struggled to find solutions to penetrate the opposition defence.
With problems to create chances through the centre, Leverkusen often relied on their wing play which we are going to examine in the following part of our analysis.
