Bayer Leverkusen, one of the greatest German teams to have never previously won the Bundesliga, has successfully completed an unbeaten campaign, securing the championship. This report will delve into the key player profiles of this Leverkusen side and will look at their statistical and tactical insights/setups from this current season. First and foremost, I will examine the analytical and statistical attributes of the German side thus far, before delving into the tactical aspects of the team.

In terms of the attacking profile, the team excels in field tilt percentage and accurate passes per 90 minutes. Notably, the team shows no weaknesses in their attacking attributes; according to the radar chart, there is an even distribution across the board in attacking metrics.

Regarding the defensive profile, the team excels in counter-pressing actions and gegenpressing, and once again, exhibiting a balanced distribution across all defensive attributes.

Leverkusen is a remarkably balanced team, and under Xabi Alonso's management, it has become a German side that is efficient in both facets of the game: attacking and defensive strategies.

Tactical and Statistical Analysis of #Barcelona vs #PSG (3-2) 4/10/2024

What allowed Barcelona to score 3 goals away from home, tactical setups from both teams, individual brilliance from Barcelona and what to expect for the second leg. At the start of the match, it was clear to me what Xavi’s game plan was. It was to utilize the wide flanks of the pitch in order to simultaneously cover space on the wings where Mbappe/Dembele/Asensio will look to pick up the ball.

In the first 2 images below, we see how Barca bodies are spread vertically on the wing rather than horizontally through the center, this is so if PSG recover the ball in the press, they can’t penetrate the wide spaces of their wingers and will have to look to play centrally. The reason for this tactical setup is due to having FDJ/Cubarsi/Araujo in central zones to defend the transition.

This was a huge gamble in Barcelona’s set up as the central zones are open, but they are willing to back their key players to win in transition, but if they failed to do so then PSG would be through on goal. This setup worked in Barcelona's favor as they kept all PSG attackers quiet in the first half.

Below are the statistics for Barcelona's most defensive central players for tackles per 90 throughout the 23/24 season. FDJ has the lowest tackle win rate with 42.1%, followed by 69.2% for Arujo and 84.6% for Cubarsi. Cubarsi has also had a standout season, he averages 1.29 blocks per 90 with 1.09 blocks of these being shot blocks. When looking at tackles per 90, FDJ has the most with 2.37, followed by Araujo with 1.27 and Cubarsi with 1.88. Having these defensively strong players in transition was worth the gamble for Xavis side.

Below are the images of the first half set-ups for both teams which was a theme that carried throughout the first half.