Our European Journey Continues
23rd March 2024 - We’re heading back to Germany!
As we head into the international break, I can’t help but feel that it’s exactly what we all needed. An opportunity to catch our breath and take stock of our current situation. It’s been a very up and down start to the calendar year, but thankfully we’ve rediscovered a bit of form and things seem to have settled down a little bit in recent weeks. The draw with Villa was incredibly frustrating in the moment, but upon taking a step back and looking at the big picture, I think most fans would have taken a draw going into it.
Either way, we head into the break sitting 7th in the league. Yes, we’ve played one more game than those closely chasing us, but it’s still a great spot to be in. That said, by far the highlight (for me at least) is that we’re still in Europe. As we all know given our opposition so far, we’re not overachieving by any means, but it was never a foregone conclusion and the lads have stepped up to ensure that we’ll head into April with an exciting end to the season to look forward.
On that note, I thought I’d recap our European round of sixteen tie and preview what will surely be our biggest test in recent history as we prepare for a third successive European quarter final on the 12th April.
So we went to Freiburg as defending champions, albeit of a lesser European competition and thankfully our fans were allowed to attend this time. After brushing them aside twice in the group stages, I doubt I was alone in feeling that Freiburg were somewhat of a favourible team to draw. That said, it was gonna be tough either way, as the pressure was on us to ensure we didn’t throw away a golden opportunity to advance to another quarter final.
Going into the round of sixteen, I’d have preferred a more well known opponent, partly to get us fans more excited but more so to force the players to raise their game. The idea of a tie against Roma, AC Milan or Benfica for instance would be enticing regardless of the outcome and I thought would encourage our players to rise to the occasion. I had fears going into it that given the opponent, we’d potentially be a bit lack lustre and see two average teams play out a dull fixture where neither took too many risks. I knew that’d suit us and likely be what Moyes would hope for, especially given we’d have the opportunity to decide our own fate with the second leg at home. And well, that’s exactly what happened. We set up pragmatically and frankly got what we deserved. Maybe the loss was harsh but the reality is, we didn’t do enough to win and when you set up that way, you surrender the right to complain - even taking into account a dodgy VAR decision at the death.
Now naturally, losing the first tie in that fashion meant there weren’t many positives to draw on, with possibly the only silver lining being that it’d force Moyes to set us up to win the return fixture. Playing on the back foot was never gonna be a suitable approach, so it was a forgone conclusion that we’d have to setup differently, something for us to look forward to maybe?
Despite my expectations of a changed approach, I never thought we’d go with such an attacking mindset. I was prepared for a cagey affair, imagining we may grind out a small lead and get it over the line in extra time.
But no, much like the Brentford game at the end of February, we started quickly and never really looked back. Talk about Jekyll and Hyde. It was proof once again that we can play attacking football. As always, it raises the question as to why we take such a negative approach some weeks, when we’ve proven so often to be capable of playing on the front foot. We demolished Freiburg with a 5-0 win at home and possibly our most well rounded performance of the season.
Kudus grabbed a stunning brace, Bowen and Paqueta contributed as they have is recent weeks and even Aaron Cresswell popped up with a screamer. The entire team (except maybe Paqueta when he got subbed) was smiling throughout and so we progressed 5-1 on aggregate and through to the quarter finals.
One thing to quickly address while on the subject of “playing on the front foot” is of course Moyesy and that laughable post match interview. I mean, he makes it too easy sometimes, coming out with these comments. For anyone unaware, it went a bit like this:
Interviewer: “Does this make you want to play on the front foot the whole time?”
Moyes: “Well, I think we always play on the front foot, it’s other teams who force you to play on the back foot. But erm, nah I think we always have played on the front foot. I’ve never, never set my teams up in any other way but to try and win”.
I’ll put it simply - that statement is completely untrue. We don’t always play on the front foot. Moyes suggesting so is either a purposeful lie or just plain delusion and it’s comments like these that drive us mad. We won 5-0 as a result of an attacking tactical approach and we all loved it, but trying to cash in on the positivity and suggest that it’s the way we always play is just a bit naive. We’ve had poor results this year due to setting up pragmatically against the likes of Burnley, Forest, Palace and Sheffield United, so if they’re the types of teams that David’s referring to as forcing us to play on the back foot, then I’d argue he may need to reevaluate his approach to such games. Our fans refuse to suffer fools and this comment was just plain foolish. It’s a minor note in the grand scheme of things, however something I can’t help but acknowledge as the small amount of fuel that keeps the fires of discontent burning.
Either way, we’re through. Our European dream is alive and kicking, so onwards and upwards I suppose?
Well, back to Germany at least. This time however, the challenge is far greater. We return to the scene of our 4-0 pre season defeat, a game I remember watching and in fairness being blown away by the opposition. Bayer Leverkusen looked like a team that was flying high, with seemingly mid season sharpness and clinical players, most of whom I knew very little about. I wondered at the time whether they were just average talents that were having the game of their lives. As they’re currently proving, that game was far from a one off and many of those players are currently having the best season of their entire careers. I remember watching and getting that typical feeling, asking “why can’t we sign players like this”? Ironically, it’s a squad that Tim Steidten may have played a role in putting together, so the usual cynicism around us always being a step behind was replaced with an optimism that we may be able to bridge that gap and improve our transfer market activity in the near future.
It’s probably important to acknowledge that my initial perception around Leverkusen being a “moneyball” style team doesn’t exactly ring true. Maybe I was alone in thinking that. Either way, I did a bit of digging. Some quick research reveals that a lot of their high performers were purchased for decent sums. This season the likes of Victor Boniface (€20.50m) Nathan Tella (€23.30m) and Granit Xhaka (€15.00m) were all signed for sizeable fees and in recent years they were able to sell Leon Bailey (€32.00m) and Moussa Diaby (€55.00m) (both to Villa) for decent profits, but these aren’t players they picked up for pennies. There has been an element of risk to most of Leverkusens recent transfer activity, but these are risks for which they’re currently reaping the rewards as they sit top of the Bundesliga table, ten points clear of Bayern Munich.
On a side note, as a West Ham fan, the fact Harry Kane left Spurs in search for silverware and will likely miss out despite signing for the club most guaranteed to provide it, is simply too funny. Hats off to Xabi Alonso and his club if they’re able to make that a reality, something which seems highly likely given their current position.
Truthfully, our chances of advancing past this stage look slim. We could possibly make the case that Bayer Leverkusen’s opportunity to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in their history, may force them to take their eye off the Europa League. I’m possibly clutching at straws there though when you consider the gap they’ve created between themselves and second place. One could argue that they came close to crashing out in the round of 16 given what were arguably their shakiest performances of the season against Qarabağ FK of Azerbaijan. They went 2-0 down in both ties, despite ultimately displaying absolute resilience to draw the first in stoppage time with an equaliser from Patrik Schick and then win the second with two injury time goals from the same man (a Czech striker many fans will remember us being linked with after he won joint top scorer in the 2020 Euros).
One thing that’s glaringly obvious from those two ties though, is the fact that they managed to concede four goals in the process, including one whilst their opposition were down to ten men. A quick note on that as well - we could do a lot worse than signing up a couple of players from Qarabağ for what would be nominal fees after the performances I saw from them.
So, are there any potential weaknesses that we may be able to exploit? Well yes. Of note in the first leg was Leverkusen’s lack of speed at the back, with their captain Jonathan Tah looking slower than Kurt Zouma at times, something which could be pivotal for us to target when we play them. Combine this with their propensity to play a high line and it’s something we’ll have to exploit with the pace in our attack. I’d expect a counter attacking approach from Moyes and it’s something that may play into our favour. In the first leg, Leverkusen were dispossessed from a high press while playing out from the back, leading to their first conceded goal and the second was a through ball that caught out their entire back line, allowing a foot race and easy finish for Qarabağ’s pacy striker Juninho. For the second goal in particular, Leverkusen didn’t have a single defender in their own half when the ball was played through, the kind of scenario Kudus, Bowen or Antonio would dream of. In the second leg, both of Leverkusen’s conceded goals came in a similar fashion, with overlapping runs exploiting huge gaps down the attacking right wing, leading to simple crosses and finishes, something Bowen in particular could seemingly do in his sleep at the moment.
Another possible weakness could be Matěj Kovář, Leverkusen’s backup goalkeeper. He’s been the main stay for their cup games this year and looked somewhat shaky in the second leg. It’ll be interesting to see whether Alonso picks his number one Lukas Hradecky to start the remaining games, who on the flip side has 12 clean sheets in the Bundesliga, the highest in the division. That said, even he conceded two goals in their last match against none other than Freiburg, so by no means are Bayer Leverkusen an impenetrable force.
Ultimately, what all of this tells us is there are opportunities to be forged and goals to be had, but as we know all too well, it will fundamentally come down to the managers bravery in allowing our attacking players the freedom to take a few risks. Counter attacking may suffice and if our stars are dialled in and clinical, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to grab goal or two and defend a lead. It could be argued that setting out to attack them from the off may be entirely unexpected and could yield results, but I just can’t see Moyes taking that approach. Let’s just wait and see.
Now, despite the aforementioned points, there’s a multitude of evidence to highlight the scale of the challenge we have on our hands. Bayer Leverkusen really are flying high at the moment. Xabi Alonso initially seemed like flavour of the month but has slowly become the hottest managerial prospect in world football. He won’t be short of options come the summer and it seems likely that Liverpool and Real Madrid will be battling for his signature over the coming months. Leverkusen’s upcoming fixtures all seem favourable, with only mid table opposition in the league before and in between our Europa League ties, not to mention a semi-final against second tier Düsseldorf in the DFB-Pokal (the German FA Cup). For some context, in their current form Bayer Leverkusen could complete a treble, as favourites to win the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal and obviously as one of the favourites to take out the Europa League. They’re currently on a 38 game unbeaten run, have overtaken Bayern Munich’s previous unbeaten record in the Bundesliga and just to drive home the magnitude of these potential achievements, any trophy this season would be their first silverware since 1993.
The reality is, it’s hard not to get a kick out of the Leverkusen story. Alonso took over in October 2022 with the team sitting second last, guided them to Europa League qualification in the same season and now has them on track to win their first ever Bundesliga title and other silverware. Leicester winning the Premier League in 2016 springs to mind as a possible comparison in terms of recent feel good football stories, the types that’ll likely warrant movies being made about them in the future.
So, with all that said, let’s hope we can play a bit of a role in this future film. You know the part when things are ticking along a little too nicely, then out of nowhere an unexpected challenge arises? We can be that challenge. I mean, there’s no harm right? Just imagine: High flying Bayer Leverkusen are unexpectedly knocked out by West Ham, the eventual Europa League champions, but all is well as Leverkusen still win two domestic trophies and both sets of fans collectively laugh at Harry Kane as he ends another season without silverware. That’s a film I’d watch.
