How to turn a football team around 180 degrees, parts one and two. Even after Bayer Leverkusen made the 4,000km journey back from Thursday night Europa League duty in Baku, and even after Union Berlin stopped their losing streak by picking up a point in Diego Maradona’s back garden, this could not have run more faithfully to current script.
At this time last year, Leverkusen and Union were polar opposites. Or almost. To be more precise at this exact point 12 months ago, the former were in 13th and the latter sitting up in second. The weeks immediately preceding that, even, had been the first evidence of the Xabi Alonso effect. When he had taken over as head coach of Leverkusen on 5 October, Die Werkself were second-bottom, a squad built to challenge for the Champions League glued in the relegation quagmire.
The gulf between the two clubs is just as pronounced now – but with the roles reversed. Union may have halted the haemorrhage in the week but they were scarecrows in the wind here, blown away by the Leverkusen hurricane. Their movement of the ball, the positional swaps and the carefully and sporadically applied bursts of speed by Jeremie Frimpong and Florian Wirtz in particular had the visitors in a spin from the get-go. Alonso’s side, despite their trek, employed “good energy and good concentration”, as the coach described it with typical understatement.
It was too much for the visitors, having a plan – which largely kept the dominant home side at arm’s length until Alejandro Grimaldo’s sublimely finished opener – but there was simply “a difference in class”, as visiting coach Urs Fischer put it. As the mental and physical toll of chasing shadows racked up, the individual errors multiplied. Leonardo Bonucci, who had looked weary in the warm-up, was substituted after Grimaldo’s goal and perhaps even such a seasoned warrior was grateful for an end to the punishment, for Leverkusen were relentless. Odilon Kossounou was allowed to walk into a header for 2-0 which, ironically, came in Union’s most positive spell of the match, and subsequently provided its denouement.
The game then morphed into a Leverkusen exhibition, very easy on the eye and entrenching current positions and situations. Jonathan Tah, with a clever finish from a Grimaldo corner after a Frederik Rønnow misjudgment, got a third. As Alonso rested tired legs Amine Adli and Nathan Tella were introduced in the last 10 minutes and less than two minutes after they came on, the former created the fourth for the latter, with the former Southampton winger applying an emphatic finish. If there was anything to make you believe in Leverkusen’s longevity this season then this was perhaps it. Their options from the bench are good ones, with the speed of the break from Adli and Tella – Alonso knows there is much more to come from Nigeria’s recent call-up – just impossible for Union, the mind telling them to push up to halfway line but the body having nothing left with which to deal with the Bundesliga leaders’ dynamism.
That’s right, Bundesliga leaders, still. If Alonso and his on-field muse Granit Xhaka continue to preach about having won nothing yet, the fact remains that they have dropped only two points in 11 games. As speculation continues about Alonso’s apparent date with destiny at Real Madrid sooner rather than later, he seems impervious to the rumours. What he does so well, and has done so well here from day one, is managing to drain the drama out of a situation. When he arrived to take on a team in the relegation zone there was no panic. Now, with his side flying high, there is no revelling in the moment or grandstanding.
Alonso is not concerned with gilding his reputation and potential legend. Even when responding to the observation of ESPN’s Archie Rhind-Tutt that almost 30 balls were lined up around the pitch for the game, ready to throw back in, allowing the opponent no respite, he ducks the credit. “It was not my idea but it was a good idea,” he shrugs. It is still early but that sense of control is what convinces. Leverkusen are here to stay – this season, at least.
Mönchengladbach 4-0 Wolfsburg, Darmstadt 0-0 Mainz, Augsburg 1-1 Hoffenheim, Bayern 4-2 Heidenheim, VfB Stuttgart 2-1 Dortmund, VfL Bochum 1-1 Köln, Leverkusen 4-0 Union Berlin, Werder 2-2 Eintracht Frankfurt, RB Leipzig 3-1 SC Freiburg
Talking points
• After his double cracked open a difficult, almost-Auswärtsspiel (away game) in the Champions League against Galatasaray in midweek Harry Kane was at it again on Saturday, striking twice to put Bayern in charge at the Allianz Arena against Heidenheim. Yet as so often, Thomas Tuchel’s still-unbeaten (in the Bundesliga and Champions League) team made themselves vulnerable, conceding two in under three minutes to Tim Kleindienst and Jan-Niklas Beste as Frank Schmidt’s visitors pulled themselves level. In the end substitutes Raphaël Guerreiro and Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting scored the goals to win the three points, which was followed by “the most harmonious annual general meeting in years,” as Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Martin Schneider put it, on Sunday morning, after the more turbulent affairs of recent times.
• The introspection this weekend, then, is left to Borussia Dortmund, well beaten at Stuttgart despite the home side needing a late penalty from the returning Serhou Guirassy (who now has 15 Bundesliga goals to Kane’s 17) to win the game. Niclas Füllkrug’s first-half opener for BVB had been against the run of play and former VfB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel had again been their outstanding player, saving one penalty from Chris Führich before conceding the second. “We have shown our limits against many good teams,” Füllkrug admitted wearily.
• Another high-quality early Xavi Simons goal – he scored in the first five minutes against Freiburg on Sunday, having made his mark in the opening 10 on midweek Champions League duty in Belgrade against Crvena Zvezda – set Leipzig on their way into the top four in Dortmund’s stead. Timo Werner is still on the outside looking in, with forward competition fierce, and as the striker looks to force his way back into the Germany set-up, sporting director Rouven Schröder didn’t rule out a winter move for the former Chelsea striker, either on loan or permanently.
• Borussia Mönchengladbach’s transitional season took an unexpected upward twist as they hammered Wolfsburg 4-0 in the Friday night game. They were ruthless in front of goal, with Tomas Cvancara and Franck Honorat influential, but their aggressive defending was the real step forward. “I looked into the lads’ eyes beforehand and I saw they were hot,” said sporting director Nils Schmadtke to Dazn.
• Gladbach’s big rivals Köln remained bottom on the weekend that the city’s Karneval kicked off but it could have been way worse at Bochum. Davie Selke’s equaliser put them in the position to take a point but saves from Marvin Schwäbe and some wayward finishing from the home side allowed them to hold on to it. “It was nice [to be so busy],” smiled Schwäbe, “because otherwise it would have been a bit cold today.”
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 11 | 24 | 31 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 11 | 33 | 29 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 11 | 15 | 24 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 11 | 18 | 23 |
| 5 | Borussia Dortmund | 11 | 4 | 21 |
| 6 | Hoffenheim | 11 | 3 | 19 |
| 7 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 11 | 6 | 18 |
| 8 | Freiburg | 11 | -8 | 14 |
| 9 | Borussia M'gladbach | 11 | 0 | 13 |
| 10 | Augsburg | 11 | -3 | 13 |
| 11 | Wolfsburg | 11 | -5 | 13 |
| 12 | Werder Bremen | 11 | -4 | 11 |
| 13 | Heidenheim | 11 | -9 | 10 |
| 14 | VfL Bochum | 11 | -14 | 9 |
| 15 | Darmstadt | 11 | -18 | 8 |
| 16 | Mainz | 11 | -13 | 7 |
| 17 | Cologne | 11 | -14 | 6 |
| 18 | Union Berlin | 11 | -15 | 6 |
