As we covered in the first post in this series, Xabi Alonso's Bayer Leverkusen play in a very unique way by today's soccer standards, and this is no coincidence. The coach manages to get the most out of his players, and in the 23/24 season, almost all of them can be considered individual highlights in their respective roles.
In this post, we'll talk about the most important players for the Bundesliga champion's functioning.
The wingbacks, Grimaldo and Frimpong:
One of the most interesting and unique features of this team is the presence of two extremely attacking wing-backs, who play a big part in the build-up play and are often in the final third of the pitch to complete plays.
The man in charge on the left side of the pitch is Alejandro Grimaldo. The 28-year-old Spaniard was bought from Benfica this season and has quickly become a key part of Xabi's style of play, and can even be considered, alongside Florian Wirtz, the most important player in the team. As well as being an excellent passer and playmaker, Grimaldo has two other attributes worth mentioning: his long-range shot and his free-kick. This season alone, the Spaniard has scored 3 goals from outside the box, 2 of them from free-kicks.
After such impressive performances during the season, Grimaldo was called up to play for his national team for the first time.
In the Bundesliga, Grimaldo was the 6th player with the most goals scored, but above him, there are only the center forwards, such as Bayern Munich's Harry Kane and RB Leipzig's Loïs Openda. The Bayer Leverkusen wingback was also the competition's leader in assists and second in chances created.
On the right wingback is Dutchman Jeremie Frimpong. The 23-year-old was signed from Bayer Leverkusen in the 20/21 season, but only established himself as a first-team regular the following season. Since then, it's been possible to see a big improvement in Frimpong's performance, which has become even clearer with the arrival of Xabi Alonso at the helm.
The evolution in performance is clearly linked to the change in the player's role, which became more attacking with the arrival of the Spanish coach. We can see that, comparing Frimpong's first season as a starter at Leverkusen (the only one managed entirely by Gerardo Seoane) and the following two seasons, the Dutchman's number of goal-scoring involvements has doubled.
It's important to note that Seoane was in charge of Leverkusen until the 8th round of the 22/23 Bundesliga season. In those 8 games, Frimpong scored two goals (an average of 0.25 goals per game). From matchday 9 onwards, with Xabi Alonso taking over as coach, Frimpong's number of goals per game rose to 0.5, showing that the period with the new coach had a much greater impact on his total number of goals and assists that season.
Looking at Frimpong's numbers pre-Xabi and post-Xabi, it's clear how much the coach was a determining factor in the development of the Dutchman's offensive potential. To show this more clearly, we looked at the heatmaps of all Frimpong's games from the 21/22 season to the current one, and grouped them into time intervals with data from 7 to 9 different games. In this way, we can better visualize the process of the Dutchman moving away from the defensive sector and towards the offensive sector, especially after Xabi Alonso's debut as coach on October 8, 2022. It's interesting to see, in the 23/24 season, an intense occupation of the right side of the opponent's penalty area.
Analyzing the statistics of these two players in the Bundesliga made it even clearer what we meant when we said that this team is marked by its extremely attacking wingbacks.
The midfielder, Xhaka:
The silent highlights of Xabi Alonso's team are in the more defensive part of midfield. In this area of the pitch, there are players who, despite their great importance to the team's functioning, are little remembered because they don't have inflated offensive numbers.
In one of the positions, there is a kind of relay, as on several occasions Argentinian Exequiel Palacios gives way to German Robert Andrich and, more often than not, the two perform very well.
On the other hand, one midfielder is unquestionable in the line-up. Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka has made 32 Bundesliga appearances as a starter (33 including the one game he came on from the bench), and averages 86 minutes per game, showing that on the rare occasions he is substituted, it is only at the end of matches. As a result, Xhaka is Bayer Leverkusen's second most-used player in the Bundesliga, only behind goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký.
As well as his regularity in terms of playing time, it's important to highlight the player's incredible regularity in passing. Xhaka is the Bundesliga's leader in accurate passes, and has made an impressive 15 appearances with more than 100 passes and 90% accuracy.
Next, we'll show the “sonar map” of Granit Xhaka's passes. The graph was created using data on the player's position, final position and the distance of the pass. From this, we were able to find out at which angle each pass comes from and, assuming 0º as the direction of the opponent's goal, group the passes by these angles. The number above each bar corresponds to the number of passes that occurred in that direction.
The star, Florian Wirtz:
You can't talk about Bayer Leverkusen without mentioning Florian Wirtz. Alongside Grimaldo, the 20-year-old German is considered the team's main player. The young attacking midfielder is almost impeccable in all offensive aspects: finishing, passing, dribbling, game vision, high pressing, etc.
Since his arrival at Bayer Leverkusen in 2020, Wirtz has been considered one of the great promises of German soccer, and every season he shows more of his potential. But, like many others in this team, it was Xabi Alonso who was responsible for getting the most out of Wirtz, who is having his best season in 23/24.
Looking at the league as a whole, Wirtz is a standout in several statistics. The German is 8th in the ranking of goals scored (behind only center forwards, except for teammate Alejandro Grimaldo) and 4th in right dribbles per game.
The striker, Boniface:
Finally, let's talk about the team's center forward: 23-year-old Nigerian Victor Okoh Boniface. Unfortunately, Boniface was out from round 17 to round 27 due to a serious injury he suffered in January. Despite this factor reducing the sample size, it is important to talk about the striker, as he is essential to the model of play that has enchanted Europe since the start of the season.
Even though he is now seen as fundamental, Boniface's arrival at Leverkusen for 20 million euros seemed a risk, given that he came from the Belgian league and that, despite having had a good season, he wasn't that impressive. Fortunately for Xabi Alonso, the price quickly became too small for the excellent player he received. The Bayer Leverkusen striker's speed, physical strength, understanding of the game and repertoire have even led to him being called up to the Nigerian national team for the first time.
It's also important to note the difference felt by Bayer Leverkusen in the period without Boniface. In the table below, we show the difference in the team's average goals per game in two different time intervals: the first 16 rounds, with Boniface available, and between rounds 17 and 27 (while Boniface was injured). We chose not to include the end of the championship in the comparison since, even if the player was available, his average minutes were much lower, a factor related to the period of greater caution with the player's health after injury.
Despite almost 3 months out of the league, Boniface was the 7th player with the most goal participations in Bundesliga 23/24.
Conclusion
In the last post in our series on Bayer Leverkusen, we analyzed the data relating to some of the most important players in the undefeated Bundesliga champions. The intention was to show the impact that the young but already winning coach Xabi Alonso has had on his players, especially during this very special season for the squad. It's safe to say that the Spaniard has been responsible for “revealing” several of the team's players to the world, including getting several of them, like Grimaldo and Boniface, called up to their national teams for the first time. We can also say that the world is looking forward to seeing more of Bayer Leverkusen next season, which will put the club to the test in the Champions League and in the defense of the national title.
