Flekken's open words: "As if I were talking about youth football"

During and after the game with clear actions: Leverkusen goalkeeper Mark Flekken acted with clarity on and off the pitch. IMAGO/Team 2

Mentality beats quality, goes an old football saying. If one team is significantly ahead of another in terms of fighting spirit, willpower, and commitment, it can compensate for its own problems and deficiencies, even against an overwhelming opponent, and emerge victorious.

Okay, it's certainly difficult to say that Leverkusen's squad lacks quality compared to Eintracht Frankfurt's when you look at the quality of the individual players. However, considering factors like familiarity, automatism, and confidence based on previous results, Bayer 04 , having picked up only one point from their matches against Hoffenheim (1-2) and Bremen (3-3), already faced a handicap against the Hessian team, who had also started with six points against the same opponents.

In the end, however, it was as always at the BayArena when these two teams faced each other: Leverkusen won – and deservedly so, in Kasper Hjulmand 's debut as Werkself coach. After just two days of training, Hjulmand had n't prepared his team with gourmet football, but rather with home-style cooking made from simple ingredients uncharacteristic of Bayer 04.

Mark Flekken , who had been horrified after the Hoffenheim match, was also very pleased with the preparation after the match. He was now extremely pleased with the results of Leverkusen's relatively simple recipe. Hjulmand "set a few priorities, which is very important for him as a basis. If I just briefly go through the list, we actually implemented them very well," the goalkeeper concluded.

Flekken's words were unequivocal when he described the requirements. They also represented the list of deficiencies under Hjulmand's predecessor, Ertik ten Hag. "Doing every backward sprint you're supposed to do, playing as a team, going full throttle, the basics," the Dutch international enumerated, "but those were missing in the first two games. And you can see that in the energy on the pitch. And today, there was a clear difference."

When the basics are laid out on the pitch like that, then you can also talk about structures and tactics and I don't know what else.

Indeed. A much more team-like approach isn't possible. Bayer 04 have rarely been seen defending so consistently and compactly. When Flekken also mentioned this virtue, the 32-year-old felt strange about himself. "That was one of the things on the list: staying together as a team, standing compactly. This all sounds like I'm talking about youth football," the goalkeeper almost apologized, "but that's just how it is: if the basics aren't right, then it gets difficult. The basics have to be there. And when the basics are laid out on the pitch like that, then you can also talk about structures and tactics and I don't know what else."

Despite his joy at the revitalized fundamentals of the game, Flekken was also aware that the Werkself, under Kasper Hjulmand, are not yet the possession-based machine the new coach desired, which they were in their prime under Xabi Alonso. "That's the mentality we should demonstrate as a foundation here," the goalkeeper praised the work ethic, before naming the playing element as the next goal: "If we can then continue to incorporate the club's DNA into our game over the next few weeks, as the coach wants. Then we'll keep going."

Against Frankfurt, "only" a lot of passion and two skillful free-kick shots from free-kick specialist Alejandro Grimaldo added spice to Leverkusen's tasty stew. A fact Flekken was well aware of, but after the dismal start to the league, he didn't care. "Well, today we won the game with two free kicks and a penalty," the Dutchman concluded, "but we deserved it." However, the runners-up still have a few courses to complete under chef Hjulmand before they can reach Michelin-starred cuisine.