Bayer Leverkusen was just finding itself. Now coach Kasper Hjulmand has to find out painfully how rocky the road will still be. But despite the lesson from Champions League winners Paris St. Germain – the newly formed Werkself have a future.
Aleix Garcia knew he was in for a “tough night.” The Spanish midfielder, who moved to Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2024, found it difficult to cope with the historic defeat. He had to “apologize to the fans,” he said after the 2:7 (1:4) against Paris St. Germain last Tuesday. Then he took his leave and announced that it would be better to go home in anticipation of a longer process of falling asleep.
The aftereffects of the second-heaviest defeat the factory club had ever suffered in the Champions League were still noticeable the day after. Kasper Hjulmand had scheduled a review: The debacle had to be analyzed – but above all, the Danish coach wanted to drive away the players’ dejection. They must have sat in front of him in the meeting room on Wednesday with their heads hanging down.
Hjulmand himself wasn’t feeling well after the demonstration by the Champions League winner. “We feel a lot of pain, this is a hard result. We are hurt,” were the words with which he opened the press conference after the memorable game.
The 53-year-old Dane – a quiet, emphatic guy who rarely speaks out – was already aware that it would be less important to discuss tactical mistakes than to somehow dispel the self-doubt that this gossip had triggered. If this does not succeed, there is a serious danger.
Kasper Hjulmand: “Give something back to the fans”
In the Bundesliga, however, the “new” Leverkusen team have every opportunity. Before the home game against SC Freiburg on Sunday (3:30 p.m./live DAZN), they have their sights set on the Champions League places. And the debt they feel towards their followers after Black Tuesday should be additional motivation. “I hope we can shake off our pain and give something back to the fans,” said Hjulmand.
There is nothing to sugarcoat, though. “But we also have to manage our expectations. We can’t fly too high when we win a game – and we can’t make ourselves too small when we lose a game,” said Hjulmand. The reasons why the team he only took over at the beginning of September is not yet really ready to defend at the absolute top level are obvious.
“We have a young team and, above all, we haven’t been together as a group for that long,” said the coach. Nobody could expect everything to run smoothly – just two months after the completion of one of the most radical changes ever in the history of the Bundesliga. Bayer lost almost all of its key players in the summer.
Since this week it has been clear: it remains an illusion that the reconstruction is already nearing completion. Even if it had already clearly taken shape in the past few weeks. After seven Bundesliga games, the team has the same record as last season: four wins, two draws and one defeat. And back then, Leverkusen was able to secure the runner-up title under Xabi Alonso.
Under Hjulmand, who was brought in after the fatal misunderstanding with Erik ten Hag, there was only one defeat in seven competitive games – against Paris. In the league, 13 points were taken from five games: only Bayern were more successful during this period.
Above all, however, thanks to Hjulmand it became clear that Bayer had also bought well after the bloodletting in the summer. Young players like Malik Tillmann, Jarell Quansah and especially the offensive talents Ernest Poku and Christian Kofane showed what they were made of. The team played aggressively, with a lot of speed – although not always stable.
But at the latest after the 4-3 win in Mainz last Saturday, they saw themselves confirmed under the Bayer Cross. It was clear that they wouldn’t be able to “buy together” a title team, but they could definitely “develop one,” said sports director Simon Rolfes. “Our quality is high.”
Hjulmand is also convinced of this. “There is even more potential in our players than many people think. The conditions for the team and the club are excellent,” he told “Sportbild”. This is very different from the gripes of his predecessor: Ten Hag constantly pointed out “weak spots” in the squad. That wasn’t well received by those in charge and didn’t help the players’ self-confidence grow.
However, Bayer is still paying a certain price for the short episode with ten Hag. At some point, it seemed, the players stopped listening to the unpopular Dutchman – and stopped working on tactical guidelines. They had let it slide in training. In any case, despite all the progress under Hjulmand, the automatisms still don’t work as well as they should. This leads to errors. They already existed in the Bundesliga – but they weren’t punished as brutally as by the PSG stars.
Leverkusen still lacks a significant amount of maturity and experience. And when supposed leaders like captain Robert Andrich lose their nerve and are thrown off the field after an attack, it becomes very difficult. “You can never lose your head. At this level you always have to maintain your stability,” said Rolfes.
However, Hjulmand’s team still has to master this fundamentally. It shouldn’t take much time: after two draws and Tuesday’s defeat, Bayer is already under pressure in the premier class.
Oliver Müller is a sports reporter for WORLD. He is also a podcaster and mainly reports on the clubs from western Germany.
