RB Leipzig vs. Bayer Leverkusen: How do the two Bundesliga title challengers compare?
Will RB Leipzig's Dayot Upamecano stand firm or can Leverkusen's front line break through? Will wonderkid Florian Wirtz give Marcel Sabitzer the runaround? Can USMNT star Tyler Adams keep Moussa Diaby quiet? Or will Leon Bailey outshine Angelino? bundesliga.com weighs up the heavyweight title challengers ahead of Saturday's Matchday 19 encounter.
The key individual battle
"His reliability. He offers a consistent level of performance with exceptional moments. He's fundamental for us, because he always delivers a good performance and is totally stable." That's Julian Nagelsmann on Sabitzer, and if you were wondering why the Austria international wears the Leipzig armband, now you have the explanation from the man who made that decision.
Last season, Sabitzer was given free rein to roam forward and collected a career-high nine goals and eight assists in the Bundesliga; this season, Nagelsmann has opted to exploit his captain's inner midfield general to underpin his side.
Less of a goal threat perhaps - Sabitzer still has three goals and an assist - the 26-year-old's high-octane engine has him covering 5.6 miles per 90 minutes this season as he provides one of the most secure links between defence and attack in the German top flight.
Leipzig will need all those qualities if they are to keep Wirtz from dictating the game for Leverkusen.
To say the 17-year-old is a phenomenon is an understatement. When Kai Havertz emerged only a couple of seasons ago, surely no-one imagined that when the Germany international left for Chelsea last summer, Leverkusen already had a ready-made replacement. And Wirtz has already surpassed some of Havertz's incredible achievements at the club.
"Florian is one of the most impressive talents in Germany," said Germany U21 coach Stefan Kuntz, who handed Wirtz his debut at that level with the teenager aged just 17 years and 159 days, a national record at U21 level.
"The lad has a lot of potential, and if he keeps his feet on the ground, he could become a second Kai Havertz," noted Aleksandar Dragovic.
If Wirtz keeps his feet on the ground at the weekend, then Leipzig should be worried. The teenager, who only turns 18 in May, has already done significant damage with his twinkling toes this season, scoring three times and teeing up a further four strikes.
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And if there are any doubts about his big-game mentality, his first Bundesliga goal was a beauty against treble-winning Bayern Munich and Manuel Neuer last season, while he netted the decisive strike for Leverkusen in their Matchday 17 victory over Dortmund.
"We've seen again that the boy can handle the ball," said veteran Lars Bender. "He plays with a freshness, life, carefree. He does the whole club good."
The attacks
The pair have been quite well matched this season, and their goal tallies tell that story: Leverkusen 32, Leipzig 31.
By no means the biggest goals totals in the division - seven teams have found the net more times ahead of Matchday 19 - but there is nonetheless a wide range of attacking talent on show.
Leverkusen's front three - most likely Bailey, Patrik Schick and Diaby - have contributed 12 goals of the team's 32, and have clearly developed a healthy understanding.
Watch: Bailey wins December Goal of the Month
Bailey is back to something like the form that made him such an exciting prospect in the 2017/18 season - his first full campaign in Germany - and he is still only 23. While the 21-year-old Diaby - now in his second year at Leverkusen following his move from Paris Saint-Germain - is revelling in life in the Bundesliga.
"I'm well suited to the Bundesliga. It's a league with a lot of good teams, who play good football and always look to attack," Diaby, who has three goals and four assists so far, told bundesliga.com recently. "We also have an attacking philosophy at Bayer. So, it's great for an attacker like myself. I like high-intensity games with lots of chances and lots of space. I'm very happy playing here."
The great thing for Leverkusen coach Peter Bosz is that in Lucas Alario, who is actually the team's top league scorer with eight, is that he has a like-for-like, premium-grade replacement for Schick to lead the line. With 11 different league scorers this season, Leverkusen's goal threat can come from almost anywhere; Leipzig's literally does come from anywhere.
When Adams netted his first Bundesliga goal in the shock 3-2 loss to Mainz on Matchday 18, he became Leipzig's 15th different name on the scoresheet this season - a league-high.
Leipzig's leading Bundesliga scorers are Emil Forsberg, who's played as a 'false nine', Denmark international striker Yussuf Poulsen and left wing-back - yes, left wing-back - Angelino with four. Centre-back Willi Orban and left-back Marcel Halstenberg have two league strikes, that's as many as attacking midfielders Christopher Nkunku and Dani Olmo.
That sharing of the burden provides part of the answer to the question of how the squad was going to replace the goals lost when Timo Werner joined Havertz at Chelsea last summer.
"You can't clone a player," said Nagelsmann when faced with the prospect of losing Werner, who struck 28 times in the Bundesliga last term, a total bettered only by Robert Lewandowski. "Perhaps you can't solve it with just one player." His squad, as a whole, have heard him.
The defences
While they had scored 20 more goals at the same stage of last season, Leipzig have made sure every strike has counted this term.
They have recorded five victories by a single goal margin, including three 1-0 triumphs, and goalkeeper Peter Gulasci boasts eight clean sheets this term. By contrast, opposite number Lukas Hradecky has five while even Bayern's peerless Neuer - now the league's all-time leader in the category - only has four.
One of the biggest reasons for that - literally and metaphorically - is 6'1" man-mountain centre-back Upamecano. The 22-year-old France international has missed just one league game this season, and has been the rock on which RBL's title challenge has been built.
Watch: Upamecano - Leipzig's defensive diamond
He has averaged 13 successful duels in each of his 17 league appearances this term, while his ability to haul his imposing 198lb-physique across the pitch at a breakneck 22 miles an hour has been a significant factor in Leipzig conceding just 17 goals - the league's best defensive record.
"He's now the best centre-back," said teammate Poulsen. "He's a top player, fast, clever, good in a challenge; it's just very hard to get past him."
"I've not seen a faster centre-back, and Dayot has an unbelievable physique," said Werner last season. "He can become as good as Jerome Boateng if he can keep improving."
If Upamecano is Leipzig's defensive linchpin, Edmond Tapsoba - just 21 - is Leverkusen's.
Bosz's side have let in just 18 goals this term, and the Burkina Faso international, who only moved to Germany less than a year ago, has played a central role in that solidity, building on the promise he showed last term.
While Upamecano is part of a three-man centre-back bloc, Tapsoba has developed a partnership with Jonathan Tah as a central pair in front of Hradecky and gives the impression he's actually a seasoned veteran of European football.
"I never expected to establish myself so quickly," Tapsoba, who had had only a handful of top-flight appearances for Portuguese side Vitoria Guimaraes before arriving at the BayArena, told bundesliga.com last season.
"It's always a pleasure to play because Leverkusen is a team that plays good football. We attack a lot, so the defenders are often left one-on-one on the counter-attack. It's difficult but I love it."
The battle out wide
Adams and Angelino vs. Bailey and Diaby. This could be where the game is won or lost: the wide, not-so-open spaces of the Red Bull Arena.
All four players have been crucial to their sides so far this season. The Leipzig pair along with Nordi Mukiele have offered width and - particularly in Angelino's case - a surprise goal threat as well as significant defensive reinforcement. Bailey and Diaby do not have as many defensive duties, but do their share of tracking back while attempting to terrorise opponents at the opposite end of the pitch.
Even though he himself admits "playing as a number 6 is still my favourite position", Adams' versatility has been a boon for Nagelsmann this term. The USMNT man has even played centre-back for Die Roten Bullen, and covering 5.5 miles on average across his 14 league appearances - only 10 of which have been starts - Adams' well-oiled engine gives him the legs to match Diaby.
The Frenchman's top speed of 21.9mph tops the American's, but only just, with Adams at 21.3. The duel down the Leipzig right/Leverkusen left could well be a blur.
On the opposite flank, Bailey might find himself needing to do more defending than he is used to with Angelino in heavenly form.
"He's the kind of player I love," said Nagelsmann of the Spain U21 international, who is on loan from Manchester City. "He's able to play in three or four different positions without needing much time to adapt to them. As a coach, that gives you the chance to change the system without needing to make a substitution."
"Nagelsmann lets me be very creative," Angelino told Süddeutsche Zeitung. "He doesn't limit me at all, but puts his trust in me and gives me the freedom to make decisions myself."
Both men's choices have proven good ones so far. Angelino's four goals and two assists have repaid the faith Nagelsmann has shown in allowing him to raid forward, while Leipzig's defensive record is sufficient proof the Spaniard has not neglected his day job.
Bailey's four goals and five assists show that he hasn't either, but the 23-year-old Jamaica international has done so much more than catch the eye with the ball. He averages nearly 11 successful duels per game, and covers a healthy 5.88 miles per match - a lot of that distance coming in the near-30 sprints he performs every 90 minutes - which suggests Angelino and he will be engaged in a titanic tussle.
Watch: Nagelsmann's tactical revolution at Leipzig
"I see that he gets better with every game - physically, but also in terms of his football," said Bosz of Bailey. "When you see how much he runs, but also how much he sprints and his football playing quality, that's always going up."
The coaches
For all the defensive quality their sides have shown, the two coaches pitting their wits against each other on Matchday 19 like their teams to play on the front foot.
"My approach is attacking football with a compact defence. With this playing style, I want to entertain the fans in the stadium. People should see a great game. When I go home, I should say: 'Wow, that was exciting.' But we also need to win matches; that is most important," explained Bosz, an ex-Netherlands international midfielder influenced by compatriots Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff.
"When we execute the proper playing style - play compact going forward and in defence - then we will concede very few shots on goal and therefore fewer goals."
It's a philosophy that fits Nagelsmann too, but the pair do set up their sides differently in order to achieve their goals.
The Leipzig boss opts for three at the back - as he did in his first senior job at Hoffenheim, relaunching a tactical set-up that is now en vogue Europe-wide - while Bosz goes for the back four. They are anything but 'flat', though, with full-backs Daley Sinkgraven or Wendell on the left and Lars Bender or new signing Timothy Fosu-Mensah being encouraged to scurry forward at every opportunity.
And while their tactics differ, the team bosses' philosophy and approach to their job is very similar with man-management their key function.
"Thirty per cent of coaching is tactics, 70 per cent social competence," Nagelsmann once told Süddeutsche Zeitung. "We have convinced the players that they can do it. Then the players also are having fun and stand behind [our philosophy]," said Bosz to explain his success at Leverkusen. "If the players are having fun, then most of the time they are successful, too."
The question now is: who'll have the most fun on Saturday night?
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