Pre-Season Preview: Bayer Leverkusen

Lev­erkusen May Strug­gle To Repeat A Top-Four Fin­ish This Season.

Lev­erkusen man­ager Jupp Heynckes has quite the task ahead of him if he has any chance of fin­ish­ing 4th this sea­son in the Bun­desliga. Heynckes, who is known as ‘Osram’ by some in Ger­many, for the way his face goes red while under stress on the side­lines, will be look­ing to con­tinue his suc­cess with Lev­erkusen this sea­son. After join­ing in 2009, Heynckes imme­di­ately took Lev­erkusen from 9th in the league to an impres­sive 4th. Build­ing on that suc­cess, how­ever, will be a tor­ren­tial task.

Key Play­ers

Goal­keeper Rene Adler is piv­otal to Lev­erkusen suc­cess, and will be again this sea­son. Many in Ger­many believed that if it were not for his injury just pre­vi­ous to World Cup 2010, he would have been Joachim Loew’s num­ber one choice between the sticks for the national team. The young goal­keeper has been at Lev­erkusen since 2000, but broke into the first-team when he was just 22.

Cap­tain Simon Rolfes will also be impos­si­ble to replace for Lev­erkusen this sea­son. Due to being quite injury prone, Heynckes has secured the sig­na­ture of Hanno Bal­itsch, who will act as backup for the cap­tain. Many in Ger­many touted Rolfes as Ballack’s suc­ces­sor for World Cup 2010, but an injury ruled him out as well. His tack­ling abil­ity and his posi­tional sense as well as his lead­er­ship qual­i­ties will be crit­i­cal in the spine of this Lev­erkusen side.

New­com­ers

Enter Michael Bal­lack. Germany’s tal­is­manic mid­fielder has com­pleted a move from Chelsea back to Lev­erkusen where he began his senior career. Ballack’s pres­ence beside Rolfes will be fan­tas­tic to see for Bun­desliga fans this sea­son, as the two will look to take con­trol of games and dom­i­nate pos­ses­sion. Bal­lack will also be look­ing to impress at Lev­erkusen so that he can once again secure his place in Joachim Loew’s national team. With Sami Khedira doing so much to impress, it will be a lot harder than many first thought for Bal­lack to break his way back into the national team. But, if any­one can do it, he can.

Expec­ta­tions

While Lev­erkusen made a dra­matic improve­ment on their stand­ing last sea­son by mov­ing from a 9th-placed fin­ish in 2008 to a 4th-placed fin­ish in 2009, things may not be so smooth this term. Jupp Heynckes does have a won­der­ful squad at hand, but it still may not be good enough to beat off the likes of Schalke, Werder Bre­men, Wolfs­burg, Stuttgart and Ham­burg for a top four spot. Secur­ing Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion would be a great fin­ish for Heynckes’ side, and a good DFB Pokal run will please the fans. Unfor­tu­nately, Lev­erkusen may have a much harder time this sea­son than they did last time around.