Football Season Guide

Last season proved to be a difficult one for Bayer Leverkusen and coach Roger Schmidt as they only just managed to meet their minimum aim of Champions League qualification. Bayer started the season in terrific form but inconsistencies and poor defense saw them stay out of the top four for much of the season and only a return to form in the final games saw them reclaim fourth place. While there were some positives last season, Schmidt will not be happy with their overall performance and will be expecting an improvement this campaign. Schmidt has managed to hold on to almost all of the players that he wanted, with Gonzalo Castro and Josip Drmic the only exceptions after completing moves to Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach respectively. The Bayer coach has managed to make a couple of quality additions to the squad, with Admir Mehmedi providing a quality backup to Stefan Kiessling in the attack while Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Jonathan Tah will provide some young legs to what was an ageing defense last season. However it will be one of their returning players will may prove to be key to Bayer's prospects this season with Christoph Kramer returning from a two-year loan spell at Borussia Monchengladbach where he has developed into one of the best emerging midfielders in Germany and will provide a ready made replacement for Castro. Rudi Voller revealed that Bayer are not yet done in the transfer window and are looking to bring in a couple more players, though the names will depend on whether they are able to progress to the group stages of the Champions League. Regardless of the potential arrivals, Bayer do have the quality to finish in the top four once again this season though Schmidt will be aware that his side has an excellent chance to challenge for the title with Borussia Dortmund undergoing a transition process while Gladbach are likely to be distracted by the Champions League