Werkself review #TSGB04: ‘Every opportunity to be more effective’

Summary: Narrow defeat

The Werkself suffered an early setback when Wouter Burger scored from a free-kick on nine minutes to give TSG the lead. Despite great commitment, chances were in short supply for the Black and Reds - Alejandro Grimaldo came closest to equalising with another direct free-kick (69'). Instead, Bayer 04 were forced to make injury-related substitutions for Nathan Tella and Mark Flekken. The latter was replaced by Janis Blaswich making his competitive debut for the Werkself and he watched on as his team threw everything into the game once again with attempts on goal by Patrik Schick (81') and Jonas Hofmann (90+5’), but the absence of good fortune resulted in a second defeat in a row.

Reaction: "We know where we stand"

"It was a close game where we also had our chances," summed up Kasper Hjulmand before adding: "We didn't put in our best performance today and we need to improve." The Dane identified a high level of motivation in his team, "but we didn't find the right solutions, especially in the first 15 minutes." Nevertheless, Hjulmand is positive about the coming weeks: "We know where we stand. We've also played very well against direct rivals. We are looking ahead and have every opportunity to be more effective."

Captain Robert Andrich is also looking ahead and wants to "work on a lot of things", "for example, to stop having problems when opponents press us one-on-one." Commenting on the defeat against TSG, he said: "We didn't manage to cause them enough problems. We didn’t make the right decisions at the right moment. That's exactly what we’ve missed in the two games after the winter break."

Debutant Blaswich was delighted with his debut, but "would still have preferred the three points. A debut is always something special, but of course it was rather gloomy due to the circumstances." However, he doesn't really want to dwell on the game for too long: "We've got some tough games coming up and we've got a lot planned. That's why we now have to analyse what we can do better and then we'll move on."

What the papers say: "Bad luck for the German runners-up"

With regard to the defeat and the two injuries, kicker reports "bad luck for the German runners-up" and saw "hardly any goal threat" from Hjulmand's team. "Leverkusen lose game and two stars" is the headline in the Bild Zeitung and the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger says: "Bayer 04 owed a lot to the 3,000 Leverkusen fans who travelled with them."

Personnel: First minutes for Janis Blaswich

Mark Flekken, who started in goal, now has the third most shots saved in the league. Janis Blaswich, who made his first competitive appearance, cut a calm and confident figure between the Werkself posts after coming on as a substitute.

Despite a lack of fortune in finishing, Bayer 04 also endeavoured to control the game in Hoffenheim. In particular Aleix Garcia and Loïc Badé once again showed a high degree of precision in their passing game and together they are ahead of the currently injured Edmond Tapsoba (fourth place) as the second and third Bundesliga players with the highest numbers of completed passes.

Stats: Lots of possession with little reward

The Black and Red endeavour to control the game can easily be seen in the match stats. With almost 70 per cent and at times even over 73 per cent possession, Bayer 04 won almost 57 per cent of the duels, but even the pass completion rate of almost 82 per cent did not help to convert any of Leverkusen's eight attempts on goal.

Coming up: UCL followed by Werder Bremen

The Werkself are away to Greek champions Olympiacos on Tuesday, 20 January, on matchday 7 in the league phase in the UEFA Champions League. The game kicks off at 21:00 CET (22:00 local time). Bayer 04 fans can then look forward to another home game at the weekend: Werder Bremen visit the BayArena on Bundesliga matchday 19 on Saturday afternoon, 24 January (kick-off: 15:30 CET).