The players in Black and Red have already surpassed the goals return from last season after 21 matchdays: The Werkself have netted 54 times (last season: 53). Ten of those strikes from the team under head coach Gerardo Seoane came in the past two weeks – with five against FC Augsburg (5-1) and Borussia Dortmund (5-2).
"Confidence always plays a role," explained coach Seoane. And his players certainly have that at the moment: The team have clocked up three wins and one draw in 2022 – putting them top of the form table in the second half of the season. The 43-year-old boss primarily sees the reason for the upturn, after a brief drop in points just before Christmas (one point from three games), as the work in training over recent weeks.
Compared with the months in late autumn, where the Werkself consistently had a busy run of fixtures, Jonathan Tah and Co., have spent considerably more time on the training grounds at the BayArena since the start of the year. Seoane: "We’ve used these weeks to work on certain things – such as transition after winning the ball or learning certain runs. It's all a process and requires a lot of training." Training that is now paying off.
The Werkself are currently clearly top of the table in terms of converting chances: 54 goals from 367 shots provide an impressive rate of 14.7% (In second: BVB with 13.8%; In third: Bayern Munich with 11.6%).
Seoane and his fellow coaches have also fine-tuned the approach to defending. One really important element in the development for the Werkself in the defensive area are previous experiences – which were not always positive. The late 2-1 defeat at Freiburg or the 2-2 draw after leading 2-0 in the derby against FC Köln were "negative experiences at that moment." But Seoane has processed those games with his players in detail and worked out solutions together. The Swiss coach makes it clear: “We first have to go through situations like that to be able to draw conclusions for our game."
The Werkself need a win in their penultimate match of the season at RB Leipzig on Monday evening (18:00 CEST) to keep their hopes of third place alive until the final day. After Eintracht Frankfurt lost on Saturday, Roberto Pätzold's side can close the gap on their rivals to two points and leave it all to play for next Sunday.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-3 loss at VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 33 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Down to fifth from fourth place despite taking an early lead: in the head-to-head for a Champions League spot, Bayer 04 were 1-0 up at VfB Stuttgart with just a minute played thanks to an Aleix Garcia strike, but ultimately lost 3-1 (2-1) to the more determined hosts. It meant the Swabians leapfrogged the Werkself in the Bundesliga table on the penultimate matchday.
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Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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