In the first half of Saturday evening’s top match, Bayer 04 Leverkusen was completely outplayed by VfB Stuttgart. After the game, captain Robert Andrich primarily criticized his team’s tackling.
When asked about the reasons for the clear and deserved 1-4 defeat in front of their home crowd, Robert Andrich didn’t have to think long: the 31-year-old had noticed a certain “sleepiness” in his team – which annoyed the Leverkusen captain. “We were never really there,” Andrich criticized the performance against VfB Stuttgart on Sky. “When you play against a team that plays so aggressively up front, you have to approach the duels in a completely different way.” But it was precisely this tackling that the 19-time international saw as the sticking point: “There were many duels that we didn’t take on, that we refused to take on.”
Goalkeeper Mark Flekken struck a similar note. “We clearly slept through the first 45 minutes,” analyzed the 32-year-old, who criticized “too many simple mistakes.” And: Bayer “wasn’t there in the duels. When you invite a team of such quality, it becomes very difficult.”
No luck earned
The topic of tackles was a recurring theme in the analyses of Andrich, Flekken and head coach Kasper Hjulmand. The Bayer defense looked poor for most of the four goals conceded in the first half, and there were also many turnovers in build-up play against the high-pressing Swabians, “who defend one-on-one all over the pitch,” as Andrich put it.
Leverkusen were not surprised by VfB’s approach, but the Werkself still couldn’t find an answer. In the second half, when the game was virtually over, Bayer at least showed signs of life. But the hole they had dug for themselves in the first 45 minutes was too deep. For only the third time in its Bundesliga history, Leverkusen was trailing 0-4 at halftime, and for the first time at home. In the end, it was their heaviest Bundesliga home defeat since August 2022 (0-3 against Hoffenheim).
Andrich counted “two or three good chances” for his team, including one in the first half: “If we score when we’re 2-0 down, then you get the chance to get into the game differently.” In this scene—Ezequiel Fernandez’s shot was deflected and brilliantly saved by Alexander Nübel—and also in the second half, the famous bit of luck was missing at times—“but you can’t have that when you play like that in the challenges.”
Flekken calls for “a different attitude quickly”
Andrich did not want to use the absence of some regular players such as Ibrahim Maza and Edmond Tapsoba, who are at the Africa Cup of Nations, or Patrik Schick, who had to pull out at short notice due to minor muscle problems, as an excuse. He repeated his mantra: “It’s not about the quality of football that’s lacking, it’s about the tackling.”
Schick could be an option again in the upcoming midweek fixtures (Hjulmand: “I hope so”). For the Africa Cup of Nations returnees – Maza’s Algeria campaign ended in the quarterfinals on Saturday (0-2 against Nigeria) – it is an “individual decision” when they will be available for the Werkself again.
The only thing that is certain is that Leverkusen must “quickly show a different face” in their away game in Hamburg, as Flekken emphasized.
