2–2 in Augsburg – 80 Good Minutes, Ten Minutes Asleep

There are matches after which you are not quite sure whether you have gained a point or thrown two away. The 2–2 draw at Augsburg belongs exactly in that category. Bayer 04 were the better side for long spells, deservedly took the lead, finished with 30 shots and 63 per cent possession – and still needed Patrik Schick in the 89th minute just to rescue something. Standard Bayer madness, really: do plenty right, then nearly ruin the entire afternoon with ten minutes of collective sleepwalking.

Carles Martínez made two changes from the 4–0 win over Union. Moussa Diaby started for the first time since his return, while Christian Kofane was preferred to Schick up front. That decision paid off. After a long ball from Edmond Tapsoba, Kofane controlled it brilliantly, beat his man and finished for 1–0. It was not just a lovely goal, but also a reminder that Bayer have more than one reliable option through the middle.

I liked the first half. Tapsoba and Facundo Medina largely kept Augsburg away from goal, Ibrahim Maza was a threat and Diaby added pace. The 1–0 lead was deserved and probably too narrow. That is why what happened after the break was so difficult to accept. Suddenly, almost all of the defensive order disappeared. For the equaliser, Augsburg came through far too easily before Gregoritsch finished through Flekken’s legs. Five minutes later, the same player was completely unmarked at the far post from a corner and headed in for 2–1. For me, that is more than just a brief lapse in concentration. In that sequence, it was simply poor defending.

The second goal in particular should never happen. From a corner, everyone knows the dangerous areas and who needs to be picked up. Yet Gregoritsch was standing there almost completely free. No pressure, no proper marking, apparently not enough communication either. He practically had time to recite his postcode before anyone in a Bayer shirt noticed that he was alone in the box. If we seriously want to compete near the top of the table, we cannot defend like that. It had nothing to do with bad luck. It was just not good enough.

And that is currently the sore point of this team for me. We talk a lot about the attacking quality – Schick, Kofane, Diaby, Maza and all the options going forward. But what is the point of having all that talent if the defensive structure can disappear within a few minutes? We already saw in Elversberg how quickly Bayer can lose control without the ball. Against Union, the response was excellent. In Augsburg, the same problem appeared again, even if only for a short spell. It cannot become a pattern.

At least Bayer did not collapse this time. Maza appeared to equalise, only for VAR to rule the goal out because of an earlier foul by Quansah. Martínez brought on Schick and Guéla Doué, and from then on it was almost one-way traffic. Augsburg dropped deep, Bayer crossed, shot and pushed – only to find another leg, another block or another bit of imprecision in the way. Thirty attempts sound dominant. They can also describe an awful lot of frustration.

Then came Schick. Of course he did. In the 89th minute, he redirected a mishit effort from Malik Tillman with his heel into the far corner. 2–2. Technically excellent, instinctive and exactly the sort of finish that makes him so valuable. Schick does not always need the perfect move. Sometimes half a second in the box is enough.

Overall, Bayer played a decent away game against the league leaders and deserved the point. Kofane scored, Schick scored, Diaby added pace and Doué got his first minutes. But I do not want those positives to hide the main problem. The attack is currently capable of repairing a lot of defensive mistakes. That is not a sustainable plan.

Four points from three matches are no disaster. But they also show that this Werkself are still a long way from being truly stable at the back. If we want to challenge near the top, it is not enough to score attractive goals. We also have to stop turning controlled matches into rescue missions because of two badly defended situations.

Maybe the lesson from Augsburg is actually very simple: Up front, we have enough quality to rescue almost any game. At the back, we really need to stop making them do it.

4–0 Against Union – That Is Exactly What a Response Should Look Like

After Elversberg, there was really only one thing I wanted to see: a reaction. No tactical masterclass for the cameras, no fireworks for the sake of it, no philosophical discussion about possession. Just a Bayer 04 side that showed from the first whistle that it understood how embarrassing that Bundesliga opener had been. And that is exactly what we got against Union Berlin. A 4–0 win in the first home game of the season, four different goalscorers and, above all, a performance that looked almost completely unrelated to the miserable 3–2 defeat in Elversberg. Before kick-off, Carles Martínez had demanded mentality rather than a reliance on talent. Ninety minutes later, it was fair to say: message received.

The difference was obvious within seconds. Ezequiel Fernández scored virtually straight from kick-off after good work from Miguel Gutiérrez, his first goal in a Bayer shirt. That is exactly how I want to see a team start when it has something to put right: awake, aggressive and without spending the opening quarter of an hour politely checking whether the match has actually begun. Ibrahim Maza had an early opportunity to make it two, Patrik Schick tested Frederik Rönnow with a header, and although the game became a little quieter for a while, I never had the feeling that Bayer were losing control. After Elversberg, that alone felt almost therapeutic. Martínez had also reacted with his team selection. Jarell Quansah and Facundo Medina came into the starting eleven, while Lucas Vázquez and Loïc Badé dropped to the bench. Both changes paid off. Quansah added stability on the right and contributed intelligently going forward, while Medina was excellent on his first Bayer start and powered home Gutiérrez’s cross for 2–0. A defender scoring on his first start while barely putting a foot wrong at the other end is what I would call a fairly successful afternoon.

Gutiérrez was probably the player whose transformation pleased me most. A week earlier in Elversberg, very little had worked for him. Against Union he looked like a different footballer: constant movement, intelligent runs, dangerous crosses and real energy down the left. He kept the ball alive for the opening goal and supplied the assist for Medina’s header. It was a useful reminder of why definitive judgements after one bad match are usually a terrible idea. Footballers are not stock prices, although as supporters we occasionally behave as though we need to redraw the trend line after every Saturday afternoon. Fernández also looked composed after his goal, Tapsoba was far more secure than in Elversberg, and suddenly the defensive unit looked like a functioning Bundesliga defence rather than a group of people who had met in the car park ten minutes before kick-off.

Bayer made sure there would be no unnecessary drama after the break. Just three minutes into the second half, Quansah found Schick and the Czech striker did what he has been doing with reassuring regularity: he scored. For the fourth, Schick showed that he is currently offering much more than goals, producing a lovely backheel into the path of Maza, who finally rewarded himself for another lively display. Maza still occasionally wants one touch too many, but I would rather see a young attacking player take risks than watch every promising move end with the safest possible sideways pass. Schick, meanwhile, looks wonderfully clear about his role. Score goals, link play, cause problems. There are more complicated tactical descriptions available, but I am quite happy with that one.

And then there was Moussa Diaby. His return had dominated the build-up to the home opener, and although he began on the bench, the reception when he came on in the second half was exactly what you would expect. There are moments when my Bayer fan bias works perfectly well, thank you very much, and seeing Diaby back in our shirt was one of them. He immediately offered a few promising attacking moments, even setting up Maza unselfishly late on, and the chants for him after the final whistle showed just how much affection remains. Nostalgia alone will not win football matches, of course. Past memories are lovely; goals and assists in the present are even better. But as a first chapter of his return, this felt pretty good.

There is no need to turn one 4–0 win into proof that everything has suddenly been fixed. Union were remarkably harmless and Mark Flekken had one of the quieter afternoons a Bundesliga goalkeeper will enjoy. Not every Bayer player was outstanding either. Aleix Garcia had some avoidable errors, while Moreira and Tillman were relatively quiet going forward. But the overall picture matters. Bayer were switched on, physically competitive, defensively far more stable and ruthless enough in the decisive moments. Those were precisely the qualities missing in Elversberg.

That, for me, is the most important thing about this result. Anyone can explain away a poor performance. The real question is how a team responds to it. Bayer answered emphatically.

Elversberg was embarrassing. Union was convincing.

And if losing a match is going to be followed by a 4–0 win every time, I might just be able to get used to this particular recovery plan.

2–3 in Elversberg – A Bundesliga Start That Could Hardly Have Gone Worse

You can start a new Bundesliga season away to a promoted side and expect certain things: an excited home crowd, a tight stadium, opponents flying into every challenge as if the entire history of the club depends on it. All of that is normal. What Bayer 04 probably should not do is find themselves 2–0 down after ten minutes while looking as though nobody had mentioned that the league season had actually started. That is exactly what happened in Elversberg. We eventually lost 3–2, despite late goals from Patrik Schick and Christian Kofane giving us a brief flicker of hope. And while I normally try not to turn every defeat into the beginning of the apocalypse, this opening-day performance worries me far more than any lost pre-season friendly. 

Carles Martínez made only one change from the comfortable 4–0 cup win in Wiesbaden, with Mark Flekken replacing Janis Blaswich in goal. So, on paper at least, there was continuity. On the pitch, there was very little of it. Elversberg started with aggression, speed and exactly the kind of intensity I had expected from Bayer. Lukas Petkov made it 1–0 after eight minutes and just two minutes later Cole Campbell added a second, helped considerably by a dreadful misplaced pass from new captain Edmond Tapsoba. After a quarter of an hour, it could easily have been 3–0. Flekken and his team-mates prevented things from getting even worse. When the best thing you can say after 15 minutes is that you are only two goals behind, something has gone very badly wrong. 

What bothered me most was not simply the scoreline, but the manner of it. Elversberg were sharper, braver and quicker in almost every action. Bayer needed what felt like 20 minutes just to understand what sort of match they were playing. Of course a promoted side is allowed to start with energy. Of course you can concede an early goal. But when the supposed favourite barely features in the opening exchanges while the Bundesliga newcomers create chance after chance, it is no longer just a slow start. It is a proper warning sign. Bayer eventually improved. Loïc Badé headed narrowly wide and Aleix Garcia hit the crossbar with a deflected free-kick. But at half-time we were still 2–0 down, and in truth even that scoreline felt rather generous.

Anyone hoping Martínez would wake the team up during the interval had exactly 25 seconds to enjoy that thought. Then it was 3–0. David Mokwa got in front of Badé and finished from close range, and at that point even the most optimistic Bayer supporter probably had to check whether this really was matchday one or some particularly unpleasant dream. Martínez had surprisingly sent the same team back out after the break and only reacted with a triple substitution after the third goal. Even then, the changes had little immediate impact. Bayer saw more of the ball, but against a compact Elversberg defence there was not enough invention, precision or urgency to create serious danger. 

Then, finally, something changed. Schick produced a technically excellent finish in the 77th minute to make it 3–1. Suddenly Bayer played with more speed and conviction. In stoppage time, Kofane added a second after Boniface had hit the bar, and one minute later Jonas Hofmann nearly equalised, only to be denied by goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof. The fact that Bayer came so close to rescuing a point from 3–0 down at least shows that the team did not completely give up. But I am not going to turn that into some heroic comeback story. If you only begin playing proper Bundesliga football in the final quarter of an hour, then you have already made far too many mistakes. The late rally was encouraging, but it cannot be allowed to hide the first 75 minutes. 

That is why I do not want to brush this defeat aside with the usual line about there being 34 matchdays in a season. Of course there are. One 3–2 defeat in Elversberg will not decide the next nine months. But opening day still tells you something, and right now Bayer lack stability, composure and, above all, defensive reliability. We had already seen in pre-season that this team can dominate possession without creating enough danger. In Elversberg, we added another problem: for long periods we had no control at all without the ball. That is an uncomfortable combination. If you need time to become dangerous in attack, you cannot simultaneously hand out presents at the back.

Martínez therefore faces his first proper test much earlier than he would have liked. Union Berlin are next in the first home game of the season. I do not need some tactical revolution. I would settle for something much simpler: a Bayer side that is switched on from the first whistle, competes in every challenge, treats the opponent seriously and does not wait until three goals have gone in before remembering that Bundesliga points are actually being awarded. 

I am not going to write off the season after one defeat. I have supported Bayer far too long for that, and probably suffered enough along the way as well. But I am not going to dress this up either. A promoted side is allowed to beat us. What should not happen is that they outplay us for an hour and make it look as though they are the experienced Bundesliga team while we are the nervous newcomers.

The season is only 90 minutes old. Good.

Because after those 90 minutes, there is already plenty to fix.

4–0 in Wiesbaden – First a Test of Patience, Then Pretty Comfortable After All

Cup football, first round, away to a third-tier side – I have been following Bayer 04 for long enough to know that this is usually the wrong moment to start discussing how many goals we might score. This competition has its own sense of humour. In the end, though, Bayer won 4–0 at Wehen Wiesbaden, Carles Martínez celebrated victory in his first competitive match as head coach, and we moved comfortably into the second round. On paper, that sounds like a very relaxed Saturday afternoon. In reality, the first half was rather less comfortable. Bayer had plenty of the ball but struggled for long periods to break down a compact Wiesbaden defence. Lots of possession, not enough penetration – a pattern we have already seen a few times during pre-season. The final numbers were dominant: 71 per cent possession, 19 shots and an xG figure of 1.93. But even those statistics do not tell the full story of how awkward the opening 45 minutes felt. 

Martínez stuck with the back four he had used regularly during pre-season. Janis Blaswich started in goal, with new captain Edmond Tapsoba in defence. Ezequiel Fernández and Aleix Garcia formed the midfield base, Malik Tillman played centrally ahead of them, Ibrahim Maza started on the right, while Miguel Gutiérrez and Afonso Moreira made their competitive Bayer debuts on the left. Patrik Schick led the line. There were early signs that the left flank could become important. Gutiérrez found Schick with a precise cross after 14 minutes, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Bayer had around three quarters of the possession in the opening phase and still created surprisingly little. Wiesbaden sat deep, defended with discipline and reminded us that a third-tier team in the first round of the cup is generally not interested in laying out a red carpet for Bundesliga visitors. Bayer’s passing was not always clean enough either, and I could already feel the familiar cup arithmetic beginning in my head: 0–0 at half-time, the underdog grows in confidence, and somewhere around the 83rd minute a deflected free-kick disappears into the far corner. Fortunately, Schick had no interest in that particular script. After a Maza effort was blocked, he was exactly where a striker should be and bundled home the opener in the 43rd minute. 

After the break, the match changed very quickly from a test of patience into a fairly straightforward affair. Gutiérrez again delivered from the left, Schick’s header was saved, and Lucas Vázquez was perfectly placed to score the rebound for 2–0 in the 47th minute. From that point, the tension was largely gone. Bayer controlled the game, Wiesbaden struggled to get near our penalty area, and Martínez was able to spread the minutes around. I actually liked that almost more than some chaotic attacking show. Not every cup win has to be a masterpiece. Sometimes it is perfectly acceptable for the Bundesliga side to impose its greater quality and then make sure the opponent never really gets back into the contest. The substitutes also made an immediate impact. Nathan Tella made it 3–0 in the 69th minute after a clever backheel from Maza, and ten minutes later Christian Kofane added the fourth after Moreira powered down the left and provided a precise cut-back. Jarell Quansah and Exequiel Palacios also got their first minutes of the season, while Facundo Medina made his Bayer debut. 

So what do I take from the first competitive match of the season? First of all, the most important thing: we are through. No extra time, no penalties and, most importantly, none of that special kind of cup panic where you suddenly realise in the 83rd minute against a third-tier opponent that your pulse has reached Champions League final levels. We also had four different goalscorers, useful contributions from the bench and several new signings collecting important competitive minutes. Moreira continues to impress me because there is something very direct about his game. He wants to take defenders on, accelerate and make things happen rather than turning every attack into a research project on the perfect passing sequence. Gutiérrez also showed with his delivery what he can add on the left. And Schick? He is simply continuing where he left off in pre-season: scoring goals. I would be perfectly happy if that habit lasts for a few more months.

Still, the 4–0 scoreline should not disguise everything. Before half-time, Bayer once again had problems turning possession into enough clear chances. That was already an issue in the friendlies and it will matter even more against Bundesliga opposition. When teams defend deep, we need more speed in our combinations and more conviction in the final third. Against Wiesbaden, individual quality eventually made the difference. Against stronger opponents, we will not always be able to wait for Schick to appear in exactly the right place just before half-time.

But for the first competitive match of the season, I will take a 4–0 away win without any argument. Martínez has started with a victory, the new players have made encouraging first impressions and Bayer are safely into round two without unnecessary drama. Next comes Elversberg and the beginning of the Bundesliga season, which is when the excuses really disappear.  Until then, I am taking one reassuring lesson from Wiesbaden: if our new cup strategy is to make me slightly nervous for one half and then win comfortably, I can probably live with that.

2–1 in Newcastle – Boniface Scores, Maza Strikes and the Dress Rehearsal Offers Encouragement

When pre-season ends with six wins from seven matches, it is tempting to decide that everything is going rather well. As a long-time Bayer 04 supporter, I know exactly how dangerous thoughts like that can be. Football has a nasty habit of punishing excessive optimism at the first possible opportunity. Still, the 2–1 win at Newcastle United was a dress rehearsal I can live with far more comfortably than the rather sluggish 2–1 defeat at Nottingham a few days earlier. Not simply because of the result, but because Bayer looked composed for long spells, controlled significant phases of the match and had two goalscorers in Ibrahim Maza and Victor Boniface whose contributions were interesting for very different reasons. It took less than a minute for Bayer to make an impression. Christian Kofane and Maza combined around the edge of the box before Maza took aim from roughly 20 metres and absolutely smashed the ball under the crossbar. That is one way to start your final friendly. Newcastle barely had time to settle before finding themselves behind. For me, the goal was more than just a lovely strike in a pre-season game. Maza keeps showing glimpses of the technical quality and imagination that could become very useful for this team. There is no need to turn a young player into the next superstar after a handful of summer appearances – football tends to do that quickly enough on its own – but moments like this certainly make me curious to see more.

Newcastle gradually worked their way into the game, although the most unusual moment of the first half initially had nothing to do with football. During the first drinks break, the home side changed their shirts because their black-and-white kit was apparently too similar visually to Bayer’s blue-and-beige away strip. You do not see an entire team change outfits halfway through a half very often, even in pre-season. The new look seemed to suit Newcastle, though, because they became increasingly influential and equalised shortly before the break. Following a corner, Malick Thiaw rose highest at the far post and headed home for 1–1. That was frustrating because Bayer had made a good impression overall, but it was also another small reminder that set pieces are not merely decorative interruptions to a football match. In tight games, they can decide everything. Better to receive the reminder now than in a cup tie. After the break, I liked Bayer again. The Werkself had more possession, moved the ball well and at times pinned Newcastle around their own penalty area. The obvious qualification is that clear-cut chances were still too rare. That is the issue I had already noticed in Nottingham: parts of the football look tidy, but tidy is not the same as dangerous. Afonso Moreira was particularly lively down the left, repeatedly creating trouble through his direct running and individual actions. He brings pace, courage and a willingness to attack defenders rather than simply offer another safe passing option. That kind of player can be extremely useful when a match becomes static.

And then Victor Boniface arrived. His physical condition has been one of the major storylines of Bayer’s preparation, along with the question of whether he can rediscover the level that once made him such an important player for us. Against Newcastle, he needed less than two minutes. Starting from the left, he drove into the penalty area, beat his man with a feint and curled the ball into the far corner. 2–1. A very good goal, and probably an even more important one for Boniface himself. One strike in a friendly does not answer every question after a difficult spell, of course. But sometimes a forward needs exactly that kind of moment, when everything suddenly looks instinctive again. No hesitation, no overthinking, just a confident move and a finish. I very much hope that this goal gives him more than simply a nice line in the statistics of a summer friendly. Bayer’s options up front could look very different if Boniface begins to rediscover his confidence, and competition in attack is hardly something I am going to complain about.

Newcastle did have a good opportunity to equalise near the end, so this was certainly not a flawless performance. But Bayer deserved the win, completed pre-season with six victories and only one defeat, and produced several encouraging signs immediately before competitive football begins. Maza scored a superb goal, Moreira again caught the eye, Boniface delivered a moment that could be significant for him personally, and the team is gradually beginning to show more clearly what Carles Martínez wants it to become. Not everything is working yet. Bayer still need to turn possession into genuine chances more consistently, and defensively there are moments that develop a little too easily for my liking. But at some point pre-season has to end. Next weekend Wehen Wiesbaden await in the DFB-Pokal, and from then on nobody gets to say afterwards that it was only a friendly. That is why I like this 2–1 win in Newcastle. Not because it answered every question, but because Bayer showed immediately before the real start that there is quality, there are ideas and there are options. Now those ingredients have to produce results.

And if Boniface has decided that this is the perfect moment to start enjoying scoring goals again, I really have no objection to the timing.

Forest 2–1 Bayer: A Late Defeat, a Familiar Schick Goal and Plenty Still to Fix

Pre-season has finally delivered the one thing it had somehow avoided so far: a defeat. Bayer 04 lost 2–1 at Nottingham Forest, our first loss in the sixth friendly of the summer, and I am not going to pretend that a defeat in mid-August has ruined my week. At the same time, this was the sort of game that reminds you very quickly that preparation results may not matter much, but performances still tell you something. And what this one told me is that Carles Martínez still has quite a bit of work ahead of him before the serious business begins. Bayer went behind after only four minutes, levelled through Patrik Schick just after the half-hour mark and then looked set to leave the City Ground with a draw before Arnaud Kalimuendo headed in the winner in the 90th minute. Losing with virtually the last action always feels slightly more annoying than it probably deserves to in a friendly. You spend half the match telling yourself the result is irrelevant, only to discover in the final minute that apparently it is not quite as irrelevant as you thought.

Martínez had changed seven positions from the 2–1 win over Sevilla, which obviously matters when judging the performance. Only Loïc Badé, Jeanuel Belocian, Ezequiel Fernández and Ibrahim Maza kept their places, while Miguel Gutiérrez made his first start after appearing from the bench against Sevilla. The opening was certainly not what Bayer had planned. Morgan Gibbs-White was allowed to deliver from the right and Dan Ndoye finished the move to put Forest ahead. Again, nobody needs to start searching for a crisis after four minutes of a pre-season game, but I would still prefer us not to make conceding early goals a summer tradition. Bayer eventually found a response. Ernest Poku had an effort blocked after good work from Malik Tillman, and Schick headed just wide from a Gutiérrez cross. Then came the equaliser. Badé stopped a Forest counter, Fernández played Schick through and the Czech striker finished beautifully with a lob. There is something reassuring about Schick at the moment. Against Sevilla he came off the bench and scored twice, and now he has delivered again. While other parts of the team are still searching for rhythm, Schick appears to have decided that his own preparation consists mainly of putting the ball in the net. I can live with that approach.

The problem was that after the equaliser, the game never really developed into a convincing Bayer performance. Martínez changed three players at half-time, bringing on Edmond Tapsoba, Tim Oermann and Afonso Moreira, while Forest replaced their entire eleven. That alone made the second half feel like what it was: a pre-season match in which rhythm was always going to be difficult to maintain. Still, from a Leverkusen point of view, it became rather flat. Forest created the clearest opportunity when Nicolás Domínguez forced Janis Blaswich into a very good fingertip save from a corner, while Martínez tried to inject more energy into Bayer’s attacking game with Christian Kofane, Jonas Hofmann, Aleix Garcia and eventually Victor Boniface. Yet it remained hard work. There were plenty of fresh legs but not enough fresh ideas. That is perhaps the biggest concern I take from the match. The issue was not a lack of attacking names on the pitch. Bayer had options. What was missing was the ability to turn possession and changes of personnel into sustained pressure and clear chances.

Then, just when the draw looked inevitable, Luca Netz sent in a free-kick and Kalimuendo got the decisive touch with his head. 2–1, 90th minute, game over. Annoying? Yes. A disaster? Obviously not. But I suspect Martínez will find more useful material in this defeat than he would have found in another comfortable win. We have now seen similar themes in consecutive games. Against Sevilla, Bayer needed time and substitutions before the attack really came alive. Against Forest, the breakthrough after going behind again came through Schick, but this time there was no second-half turnaround. That does not mean the team is going backwards. It does mean that the attacking structure is not yet functioning consistently enough. There are too many phases in which Bayer look tidy without looking threatening. Passing the ball around is not the same thing as controlling a football match, and having several talented attacking players on the pitch is not automatically the same thing as having an effective attack.

The final test at Newcastle United now becomes particularly interesting. Not because I desperately need Bayer to win a pre-season match in England, but because it is the last opportunity to sharpen things before the first competitive game at Wehen Wiesbaden. By then, the experimentation phase has to start turning into something more recognisable. Martínez does not need a finished masterpiece, but he does need clearer patterns, greater attacking fluency and a team that looks ready to punish mistakes rather than merely waiting for Schick to solve the problem. There are positives: Schick is scoring, Fernández again played an important part in the equaliser, Gutiérrez is getting minutes and Martínez is learning plenty about his squad. But this was also a useful little warning. The season is getting closer, and friendly excuses have an expiry date.

So I am not worried about losing 2–1 to Nottingham Forest. I am more interested in why we lost it. Right now, Bayer 04 still look like a team with plenty of quality but not yet enough certainty in how to use it. That is acceptable in pre-season. In a few weeks, it will not be. And if Patrik Schick could kindly continue scoring while everyone else works that out, I certainly would not object.

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.