Sevilla Beaten, Schick Delivers – but Bayer Are Still Very Much a Work in Progress

Pre-season football is a dangerous thing. Win a match and suddenly everything looks brilliant, lose one and half the fanbase starts mentally preparing for a relegation battle. So after Bayer 04 beat Sevilla 2–1 at the season opener, I am trying to behave sensibly. Trying. Because there were certainly encouraging signs, but there were also enough rough edges to make sure nobody gets carried away just yet. Carles Martínez changed five players from the side that had beaten Rot-Weiss Essen 3–0, bringing Loïc Badé, Aleix Garcia, Montrell Culbreath, Afonso Moreira and Christian Kofane into the starting line-up, while Patrik Schick began on the bench. Sevilla quickly made it clear that this was a different level of test. Bayer struggled to find any real flow going forward, Sevilla made life uncomfortable and Miguel Sierra gave the visitors the lead after 16 minutes with a strike from distance. Not ideal, although obviously nobody should be sounding alarm bells over a pre-season goal in early August. Still, I would be lying if I said the opening 45 minutes filled me with confidence. Bayer had moments, but there was not enough pace, not enough sharpness and far too little happening in the final third. At times, possession felt a bit like one of those long family WhatsApp conversations where everyone is typing but nobody is actually saying anything. We had the ball, we moved it around, we looked for openings, but Sevilla were not especially impressed.

That, though, is exactly why I prefer tests like this to some meaningless 7–0 stroll against opposition who have already started thinking about the post-match buffet. Sevilla exposed weaknesses, and that is precisely what pre-season is supposed to do. The second half was much better. Bayer played with greater urgency, pushed Sevilla back and started getting more balls into the box. Christian Kofane went close with a header, and you could sense that the game was beginning to tilt. Then Patrik Schick came on, and sometimes football really does not need to be complicated. Miguel Gutiérrez, also introduced from the bench, provided the cross and Schick headed home the equaliser in the 66th minute. Thirteen minutes later he struck again after good work involving Victor Boniface and Martin Terrier. 2–1, job done. Two goals in 13 minutes is not a bad way of reminding your manager that you quite like the idea of starting football matches.

Schick’s impact was obviously the biggest positive for me. He looked sharp, decisive and, most importantly, dangerous. There are plenty of things Bayer still need to sort out, but having a striker who can turn a game with two moments of quality is not exactly a terrible problem to have. The wider attacking options are encouraging too. Martínez had Schick, Boniface, Terrier and Tillman available to change the match from the bench, and over a full season that depth could become hugely important. But there is a warning hidden in that optimism. We cannot simply spend an hour passing the ball around without much threat and then hope Schick appears to rescue us. Against stronger opponents, there needs to be more structure and more penetration from the start. Too often in the first half, Bayer looked neat rather than dangerous, and neat does not win many football matches.

What I did like was the reaction after going behind. There was no panic, no collapse and no wild desperation. Bayer stayed in the match and gradually improved, and for a side learning new ideas under a new coach, that matters. Martínez is trying to shape his own team now. New players are settling in, established players are adapting and patterns of play are still developing. Expecting everything to look perfect already would be ridiculous, even by football fan standards. There was also some bad news, with Montrell Culbreath going off during the first half and Robert Andrich later having to leave the pitch as well. Injuries are the one part of pre-season nobody needs. Testing formations is useful. Testing the medical department less so.

Overall, though, I will take the positives. Bayer beat a decent Sevilla side after going behind, the team improved as the game went on, the bench made a difference and Schick looked exactly as dangerous as we need him to be. At the same time, nobody should pretend this was a complete performance, because it was not. There are still clear issues in possession, attacking movement and creativity around the box, and that is fine. It is August, this team is still learning and there is still plenty to work on. For now, I am happy with a 2–1 win, two Schick goals and enough imperfections to stop me getting completely carried away. Which, for a Bayer 04 supporter, is probably about as healthy as pre-season gets.