How will Leverkusen line up under Ten Hag?

Wirtz and Alonso were far from the only departures from the BayArena this summer. Wunderkind Wirtz followed flying right-back Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool, defensive linchpin Jonathan Tah left for Bayern Munich, while on-field leader Granit Xhaka joined Sunderland.

With goalkeeper and club captain Lukáš Hrádecký leaving for Monaco, only five of the average starting line-up that went undefeated in winning the Bundesliga in 2024 remain.

Watch: Meet Leverkusen’s new boys

Step forward Tillman, who fired PSV Eindhoven to the Eredivisie title last season with 12 goals – 16 in all competitions – from attacking midfield, before scoring three in two games as the United States finished an runners-up to Mexico at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

He has been joined by centre-backs Jarell Quansah and Loïc Badé, arriving from Liverpool and Sevilla respectively, a new shot-stopper in Brentford’s Mark Flekken, and, latterly, a nominal replacement for Frimpong in Dutch winger Ernest Poku, signed from AZ Alkmaar.

How might they all fit together under former Manchester United manager Ten Hag? bundesliga.com takes a closer look…

Leverkusen’s average line-up last season still offers up a firm basis for such speculation.

Bayer couldn’t repeat the success of 2024, finishing 13 points off Bayern’s title-setting pace last season, but the team was nothing if not familiar, lining up in the same 3-4-2-1 system in all but six of their Bundesliga outings last term. Wirtz thrived as one of two No.10s, with his 31 direct goal-involvements in all competitions making him the most potent attacking asset.

Watch: Wirtz’s story

Patrik Schick won back his place as Alonso’s preferred No.9 from Victor Boniface and top scored with 27 goals, while Álex Grimaldo and Frimpong continued to make a mockery of their nominal positions as defenders, combining for 25 assists. Xhaka pulled the strings in midfield, while the Tah-led back three contributed to the second-best expected goals against (36.2 compared to Bayern’s 25.5).

With Schick and Grimaldo still on the books, alongside other top performers like Piero Hincapié, new captain Robert Andrich and Nathan Tella, Ten Hag still has plenty of talent, old and new, to work with…

A look at Ten Hag’s Manchester United might offer some clues. The Dutchman’s time at Old Trafford may have ended prematurely in October 2024, but he had led them to a runners-up finish in the Premier League a year earlier, and won the FA Cup just five months before he left.

Rasmus Højlund was their 16-goal top scorer in 2023/24, but the attacking burden was shared, with five players hitting double digits for combined goals and assists. The bulk of those belonged to Bruno Fernandes, however, the Portuguese given pride of place in attacking midfield and ending the campaign with 15 goals and 13 assists.

Elsewhere, significant minutes were given to teenagers Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo – the former playing more than alleged Ten Hag favourite Antony – and young players can be assured that if they’re good enough, they’re old enough, at the BayArena.

What might that mean for Leverkusen under Ten Hag this season? Well, for one, he has already shown that he is not married to the 4-2-3-1 system he used in Manchester, and at Ajax before that.

In all five pre-season game so far – against Flamengo’s U20s, Bochum, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Pisa and Chelsea – Ten Hag has employed the same 3-4-2-1 system at Leverkusen that Alonso did. The 19-year-old Ibrahim Maza, another summer arrival from Hertha Berlin, has had the most minutes at attacking midfield, but Tillman, like Wirtz and Fernandes above, can expect to be prioritised there once he is over a recent calf injury.

Watch: Patrik Schick primed for new Leverkusen chapter

There has also been plenty of playing time for fellow teenagers Axel Tape, Farid Alfa-Ruprecht and Alejo Sarco, and the 21-year-old Poku can fully expect to be Frimpong’s heir on the right with the ever-versatile Tella used as cover there, for Grimaldo on the opposite flank, or indeed in the final third beside Tillman.

Attacking midfielder Claudio Echeverri, 19, is another exciting option, after completing a season-long loan from Manchester City just days before the start of the new Bundesliga season.

Flekken may not have André Onana’s ball-playing ability, meanwhile, but the one-time Freiburg man is already two clean sheets down, and looks like an upgrade on Hrádecký too. 

Die Werkself have rebuilt already. Write them off at your peril.