How Gerardo Seoane took the Bundesliga by storm

Gerardo Seoane made a strong start to the season with Bayer Leverkusen. In the first ten games under the Swiss coach, the team lost only once and is tied with leader Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga before the direct duel.

Gerardo Seoane sits on the podium in the media room of the SchücoArena in Bielefeld on Sunday evening. He praises his team, but also says that in one situation or another they had to claim luck. The result, this 4-0, which is on the scoreboard at the end of Bayer Leverkusen’s game against Arminia Bielefeld, could have been different.

The sobriety with which the 42-year-old answers questions from media professionals after a game is in from his time Switzerland is just as well known as the ability to be self-critical and to always see potential for improvement in success. So it is not surprising that after the game in Bielefeld, Seoane is not a paragon of euphoria.

She comes in fan circles of the Werkself but slowly, the euphoria, or at least an expectant ignorance of what could be possible for Bayer 04 this season. Seoane has played ten competitive games since he took office in Leverkusen. He lost only one thing. The spectacular 3: 4 against Dortmund on September 11th, in which Leverkusen took the lead three times, but BVB turned the game in the last 20 minutes with goals from Raphaël Guerreiro and Erling Haaland.

Otherwise there are eight wins and one draw across all competitions, which was 1: 1 at the start of the season at Union Berlin. This corresponds to an average of 2.5 points per game.

Of course it is a number game, but about the steep, successful one To classify the course of Seoane’s coaching career, this serves as an illustration. In the half season after his promotion from junior coach to head coach of the first team of FC Luzern in May 2018, Seoane scored an average of two points in 17 games, after that in the three seasons with the Young Boys, the Spanish-Swiss dual citizen was not only three times champion and once a cup winner, but won 2.15 points with his team in 148 games.

Seoane does not seem to know any teething problems. And neither do result crises. In Germany, this also impressed the German record international player and Sky expert Lothar Matthäus, who recently gave the Swiss a good report in a column. He wrote: “I’m pretty surprised by Seoane. He understood and accepted the league in an urgent procedure and gave Bayer Leverkusen a really great handwriting. ” This includes fast, attractive football over the wings and a defensive structure that is almost better than in the past.

Sports director Simon Rolfes is also full of praise for the new coach, whom he brought to Leverkusen together with managing director Rudi Völler: “Gerry has created a new performance culture. He challenges and encourages everyone to develop individually and so that we develop further as a team, ”he said in the Bild newspaper.

The best example of this development is the German national player Florian Wirtz. The 18-year-old, youngest goalscorer in Bundesliga history, has already scored four goals and five assists this season. But others like the French wing Moussa Diaby, the Czech striker Patrik Schick or the German midfield strategist Kerem Demirbay flourish under Seoane.

The offensive machinery is running. Leverkusen have already scored 29 goals in the competitive games under Seoane and recently won 4-0 twice within three days (Celtic Glasgow in the Europa League, Bielefeld). Three times in a row Bayer remained without conceding a goal. It is a development that makes you wonder whether Leverkusen could finally be ripe for a title again this year.

The last one dates from 1993, when Bayer won the Cup. This lack of title has earned the Leverkusen residents the name “Vizekusen”, the reputation of the eternal runner-up. Like in 2002, when the Werkself had to be content with second place in three competitions (championship, cup, champions league).

Thanks to the victory in Bielefeld and the simultaneous defeat of Bayern against Frankfurt (1: 2), Leverkusen has caught up with the Munich team on points, and as luck would have it, after the two-week national team break in Leverkusen there will be a direct duel between the top and bottom of the table -Second. An affiche with the potential to be a spectacle. Regardless of the outcome, this will hardly change the sobriety in Gerardo Seoane’s analysis afterwards.

SDA / mar