Nagelsmann: “I love this team”

The first away game of the Bundesliga 2017-18 season is fast approaching – TSG will face Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the BayArena on Saturday at 15:30 CEST. Julian Nagelsmann looks ahead to the clash with Heiko Herrlich’s team.

Julian Nagelsmann on...

...the opponents.

We have a difficult away game against very good opponents ahead of us. Leverkusen had a strong squad last season but they had a poor season. Now they have a new head coach and they want to forget last season and start over again with their squad, which is still strong. The way they defend is much the same as last season but they’ve made a few changes to their attacking play. It’s no longer their first choice to play long balls. They want to build it up from the back now. They now also have a second style of play, which they implemented very well in the second half in Munich. They didn’t have to lose that game – they created eight or nine big chances.

...the players.

Serge Gnabry and Karem Demirbay both took a knock in the game. I don’t think we’ll have both of them come Saturday; maybe one, but not both. We’ll be able to decide that on Friday evening or first thing on Saturday. Both of them are testing their fitness today. Kerem’s foot is blue and swollen, it doesn’t look great.

...the plan for Leverkusen.

The team have been preparing for the Leverkusen match since Thursday. I made the game plan on the plane and brought it on paper here. The players were then sent videos to their phones. The coaching team and the analysts have been focussing on Leverkusen for a long time and I watched their game against Bayern Munich live.

...the play-off loss.

In all of the two games against Liverpool, we had a bad half-hour. The games were analysed and they’re over with now. The team and I are doing well. I was annoyed about the way my players were reported on afterwards. We lost to our opponents, who also beat Bayern Munich 3-0 in pre-season – I saw that live too. Bayern looked poor for much more than 30 minutes. I didn’t see reports on how well Liverpool played; everyone knows we played badly but the reporting is ridiculous, nevertheless. I love this team – it’s brought the fans and me so many amazing moments and great accomplishments in the last year. We played badly for one game.

Previous meetings

The overall balance between Hoffenheim and Leverkusen doesn’t speak volumes for TSG – Hoffenheim have managed just three victories from 18 meetings in the Bundesliga. Two matches ended with a draw and Bayer 04 triumphed 13 times. However, the most recent meetings provide some confidence. TSG were last beaten by Leverkusen in August 2015 and have drawn once and won twice since then. The last two matches ended 3-0 at the start of the 2016-17 Bundesliga season and 1-0 in the same season’s home fixture.

The opponents’ form

It’s still early in the season and Bayer 04 have only played a few games. New coach Heiko Herrlich’s men prevailed 3-0 against third-league side Karlsruher SC. What sounds like a commanding victory was actually a hard-fought match – they only managed to get through after extra time. They lost 3-1 to Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga opener, but showed good play over long periods, particularly in attack. The home team were under huge pressure after the break and Leverkusen managed to push them back.

The key areas

Kevin Volland, Joel Pohjanpalo, Admir Mehmedi, Julian Brandt, Stefan Kießling, Leon Bailey, Kai Havertz, Karim Bellarabi: Leverkusen’s forwards have great quality and are also unbelievably fast. This is also true of the TSG forwards. Both teams want to and will play attacking football and create chances. The crunch point will be efficiency – whoever the most clinical team in front of goal is will win.