On Saturday, August 30, 2025, Werder Bremen faced off against Bayer Leverkusen at the Weserstadion, for Matchday 2 of the new Bundesliga season.
Both teams had hired new managers in the offseason: Horst Steffen for Werder and Erik ten Hag for Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Yet both teams had started the season with defeats and were looking to change momentum and avoid a miserable start to the league.
Bayer Leverkusen were coming off the two most successful years in their history.
Under head coach Xabi Alonso, the team won their first Bundesliga title and the DFB-Pokal, made the UEFA Europa League Final, and finished second to Bayern Munich last season.
Unfortunately for them, Real Madrid called Alonso, and he answered, leaving the club.
This prompted a chain reaction, which ultimately led to many top players leaving the club, most notably Piero Hincapié, Jonathan Tah, Granit Xhaka, and Florian Wirtz.
There were 12 departures and 17 new signings at the club, a complete turnover.
Erik ten Hag, former manager of Ajax and Manchester United, was supposed to manage the new Bayer Leverkusen team.
With a big name, expectations were high for Leverkusen coming into the season, but with the completely overhauled team, the start to the season went rather rough.
They struggled against a fourth-tier team in the DFB-Pokal and lost their first game at home against Hoffenheim.
Werder Bremen scored the equaliser in stoppage time, despite having been a man down and trailing 3-1 with 15 minutes to go.
Leverkusen captain Robert Andrich talked to the media, heavily criticising his teammates.
Just minutes later, Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen Sporting Director) and Fernando Carro (Bayer Leverkusen CEO) declined to comment on Ten Hag’s future.
The decision had already been made, and Erik ten Hag was ultimately sacked after just three games in charge.
In this Bayer Leverkusen tactical analysis, we will examine how things derailed so quickly for Erik ten Hag style of play, why Ten Hag was sacked, what tactics the Dutch coach used, where Bayer Leverkusen need to improve, and give a little context to a decision that came as a shock to most people.
Lacking Cohesive Ideas
Robert Andrich was very blunt after the game against Werder.
The German international told reporters that in this game, Bayer Leverkusen had not been playing as a team; everyone was just playing for themselves.
Watching the game back, it becomes very obvious that the team lacked coherent patterns of play in pretty much all phases of the game.
Therefore, no collective decision-making was taking place on the field; it was just 11 men working on their own.
The second goal for Werder makes it a bit clearer.
At this point, Leverkusen were leading 3-1 and were one man up compared to Werder.
Leverkusen often managed to play through the Werder midfield, which is not a surprise given the circumstances, but when reaching the final third, the team lacked a clear plan to finish the game off for good.
Ten Hag’s men were often able to get the ball to the winger at the edge of the box, who was facing off against a full-back.
Subscribe To TFA To Unlock All Posts - Free 7 Day Trial
Try TFA Free For 7 Days
Gain access to all of TFA's premium contents.More than 12,000+ articles.
