Leverkusen vs. Bayern: Average Position analysis

Matchday 13's table-topping clash between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern München forms the framework for this latest column.

By Simon Rolfes

The last matchday prior to the winter break had one final gift in store, with the top-of-the-table clash between Leverkusen and their closest pursuers Bayern. The stakes were clear before the ball started rolling: the winner of this clash would end the year at the top of the Bundesliga. It may not actually have been one of the most spectacular games of the season, yet there was so much packed into these 90 minutes, which can best be explained thanks to the Bundesliga Match Facts powered by AWS.

Bayern's puzzling formation

When Bayern's starting XI was announced around an hour before kick-off, there were many puzzled looks inside Sky TV's studio. With Niklas Süle, David Alaba and Jerome Boateng, there were three central defenders together with Alphonso Davies and Lucas Hernandez – two left full-backs. In Corentin Tolisso, Hansi Flick had named only one defensive midfielder, with not a single right full-back on the team sheet. Did this mean Bayern were going to play with a three-man defence for the first time this season? Would they have just one defensive midfielder behind five attacking midfielders?

Thanks to the Average Positions, it soon became clear within minutes of kick-off that Bayern were not playing in the predicted 4-1-4-1, but that they were rather sticking to their usual 4-2-3-1, with Alaba joining Tolisso in the holding midfielder role – a position he had experience in from earlier in his Bundesliga career and also from the Austria national team. Süle, meanwhile, played on the right-hand side of the defence, although this was not as strange a selection as it may have sounded in view of his excellent pace. In fact, the Speed Alert has already clocked the German defender at a top speed of 33 km/h (20.5mph) this season. Meanwhile, Hernandez fulfilled a role at the centre of the defence for the first time in 2020/21, but not for the first time in his career, having played their regularly for Atletico Madrid.

Watch: Bundesliga launches AWS Speed Alert

All about central domination

As for Bayer, their average positions confirmed the initial presumption they would play in a 4-3-3 formation. What was interesting, though, was how the average positions of both teams showed them far more compact than they had looked on paper. Only Kingsley Coman (who was later replaced by Leroy Sane), Davies and Leon Bailey remained more out wide than the rest, indicating how the battle to dominate the centre field was the priority. We did well in this regard, even boasting more of the possession with 52 per cent.

The Average Positions were a good indication of how the play would ultimately unfold, with much of the action condensed in the centre and very little on the wings. That is quite surprising since both Bayern and we place a lot of emphasis on the quality and effectiveness of wingers; players like Serge Gnabry, Coman, Bailey and Moussa Diaby found it particularly hard to make a mark on this game, given the lack of the ball in wide areas.

Watch: Leverkusen 1-2 Bayern - highlights

The Speed Alert shows: high tempo, but few counterattacks

There were also very few counterattacks over the 90 minutes, which can also be read from the Speed Alert statistics. Diaby, Davies and Coman may have all exceeded 33 km/h, but they are all usually capable of a few extra kilometres per hour. Yet the Speed Alert confirmed my impression that this game was played at a generally high tempo, with three of the league's top ten quickest players – the aforementioned Diaby, Davies and Coman – all on the field.

For me, the highlight of the game was undoubtedly Patrik Schick's dream goal, which only carried a goal probability of seven per cent. Of course, having to accept defeat right at the end of additional time was a bitter pill to swallow, especially given how well we had settled into the game. But I learned during my career that you've got to put defeats like these behind you quickly and look ahead. We'll go again in the near year, and hopefully put Bayern under plenty of pressure in 2021.