Final season, Bayer Leverkusen blew away the competitors within the Bundesliga, as they convincingly received their first Meisterschale, ending the marketing campaign unbeaten.
Within the course of, Die Werkself have been capable of boast the very best defensive document within the league, conceding simply 24 targets, a mean of 0.7 targets a sport.
Nonetheless, this season, Xabi Alonso’s aspect have already tasted defeat by the hands of RB Leipzig, whereas solely three sides—Augsburg, Hoffenheim, and Holstein Kiel—have conceded extra targets than the reigning champions.
Having shipped three targets to VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday afternoon for the second time this season, Granit Xhaka had some alternative phrases for his aspect’s efficiency, and in a latest interview with Sky Germany, the midfielder emphasised the significance of highlighting their points:
“A very powerful factor is that we took the three factors, however there are just a few vital issues that must be clearly addressed and which can be merely not adequate in the intervening time. We’re conceding too many targets. In the event you have a look at what number of targets we conceded in the entire of final season and examine that with the present season, you may see that now we have already conceded half of the targets we conceded within the earlier season. That can’t occur to us so simply, and that’s what I used to be particularly speaking about. We all know that now we have to enhance on this space, and hopefully, we are going to quickly.”
With Leverkusen presently conceding a mean of two.25 targets a sport, there are clear issues affecting Alonso’s aspect, and Xhaka appeared to handle why that is the case:
“We’re presently conceding targets too simply and usually are not managing to deliver the fundamentals in opposition to the ball onto the pitch and take that one step additional than the opponent. At this stage, you’re instantly punished for that, and we noticed that in opposition to Wolfsburg, but additionally within the house sport in opposition to Leipzig. Two house video games and 6 targets conceded? That merely can’t occur to us, and now we have to work on that.”
Regardless of this, the previous Arsenal midfielder is assured that Alonso will be capable of flip round Die Werkself’s defensive vulnerabilities:
“Xabi clearly sees what we do effectively and what we do much less effectively. He analyses the coaching classes and video games. If anybody is aware of what must be improved, it’s the coach. It’s good that we gamers additionally realise that we’re not fairly the place we have been final season. However I feel that’s fully regular. We’re solely at the start of the season, and we nonetheless have a whole lot of video games forward of us. After all, the workload and stress are fully completely different from final season, however I’m satisfied that we’ll proceed to win our video games if we’re higher defensively. Everybody is aware of that our assault can rating two or three targets per sport.”
With a visit to Bayern Munich awaiting Leverkusen on Saturday night, there’ll undoubtedly be stress on the reigning champions to attract stage on factors with Der Rekordmeister, who’re having fun with an ideal begin to life below Vincent Kompany.
GGFN | Will Shopland
