About this Story:

When trying to choose what team I wanted to make a story with then I thought I should try a new challenge. Almost all of my saves have been in England and I wanted something different. While I was searching I looked at teams that I played in the past I looked at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Last time I played them was probably in 2001-02 while I had so many great stars like Ballack, Zé Roberto and Lucio. The year after that I was going to make another Leverkusen save but was shocked to find out that they had lost two of my best players the year before. So I decided to play something else. So many years later I stumble on them again and I see that they have still not won the Bundesliga. I want to change that and hopefully make them the new German giant.

The Manager:

I will assume role of Sami Hyypiä. I have decided to disable first window transfer so I can play with Leverkusen in a more realistic way.

Updates:

Pre-Season 2013
August 2013

Pre-Season:

Over this period I have been trying out different types of tactics because I am still not sure what would be the best for my team. But after this period I have decided to go with 4-4-2 when I will be expecting a win or trying to score, 4-4-1-1 when playing against tougher teams or away, and then 4-2-2-2 which is more like 4-4-2 but I am going to drop the 2 MC to DMC because I am going to try and contain the score.

My top three players I would think are:
Lars Bender:

Emir Spahic:

Stefan Kießling:

Results from friendlies:

I am happy with all of these games and especially with the game against Inter. I believe I got a little bit cocky after that game and Parma really put me in my place and I believe that was a must. After these results I believe I can achieve the goals I have put myself this season with the board.

My boards expectation:
German First Division: Qualify for continental place.
German Cup: Reach Semi-Finals
European Championship Cup: Reach the Group Stages

My own:
German First Division: I want to win but looking at the quality of FC Bayern and Dortmund I am hoping for 2-3 place.
German Cup: I am going to try and reach the Semi-Finals but I will try to win of course.
European Championship Cup: Since Leverkusen starts in the Group stages then I don't see any challenge. Of course we could lend in a monster of a group but I will be aiming at reaching the First Knockout Round.

Stay tuned for more German action!

P.s. Any recommendation or tips about my team and the German division is greatly appreciated

August 2013:

August has started better than I thought it would.

German Cup, 1st Round: SC Victoria Hamburg (0) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (7)

Great start to the season! I was a little bit uncertain at the beginning of the match if I should play Robbie Kruse or if I should play Gonzalo Castro so this was a really good surprise.

First Division: Bayer 04 Leverkusen (4) – Eintracht Frankfurt (1)

My team seems to be gelling pretty well together. But there still seem to be some problems because I played this game in Control the whole match but still my players could not keep the possession. I think raising match preparation for the next games might make them able to keep the ball better.

First Division: FC Augsburg (1) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2)

My team did not really perform well here. We were making a lot of shots but not creating any chances while Augsburg created 3 CC but we were lucky that they did not finish them.

First Division: Bayer 04 Leverkusen (0) – Borussia Dortmund (0)

So lucky not to lose here but we did not create any chances so I am going to start focusing more on attacking preparations for future games. Still this is a very good result against the second toughest team in the league.

First Division: Hertha BSC (2) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (4)

Had some great moments in this match but unfortunately my team simply stopped playing and those two goals I got were from lack of concentration. I think I need to maybe shift from Control to another strategy when I am leading and going into an end of a half. Also trying to figure out the best way to limit all of the shots I take from unrealistic lengths. I don’t want my team to try and pass the ball into the net but there can still be some improvements.

Other:

Great start to my save and if I can avoid some serious injuries to my key players then I can really compete for the title. There still seems to be a little lack of depth in my squad because Kostas Stafylidis got injured for 8-9 months from a viral infection. That only leaves me with Sebastian Boenisch as a full back on my left side except for Gonzalo Castro but he is really a MC.
Other than that I had a great draw in the European Championship Cup! I was drawn into group E with SLB from Portugal, CSKA Moscow from Russia and Olympiakos from Greece. I believe I can qualify easily but I might be a little bit hopeful because of a great start in the German First Division.
1st. Borussia Dortmund – 10 points +10
2nd. SC Freiburg – 10 points +8
3rd. Bayer 04 Leverkusen – 10 points +6
4th. VFL Wolfsburg – 9 points +7
5th. FC Bayern München – 8 points +4

Good start! I love any German story so I certainly will follow this

Does Bayer give you free aspirin when you get headaches from the stresses of management? Seriously, though, good luck!

2013-12-08 07:28#148301 ebEliminator : Does Bayer give you free aspirin when you get headaches from the stresses of management? Seriously, though, good luck!

I could do with some

2013-12-08 07:28#148301 ebEliminator : Does Bayer give you free aspirin when you get headaches from the stresses of management? Seriously, though, good luck!

I wish they would! I guess I just have to start drinking so I can handle it!

September 2013:

Another month has passed! Another month without losing a match!

First Division: Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2) – VfB Stuttgart (1)

After the international break my team comes back strong and we are able to finish out Stuttgart. I got a lot of praise for Philipp Wollscheid who was simply playing fantastically.

Champions Cup, Group E: Bayer 04 Leverkusen (4) – Olympiakos SF Piraeus (0)

Sidney Sam completely ruled this game. But this is also the first month where I don’t get a seven day rest between matches and I can see that I might need to start rotating players a bit. Other result in my group was that SLB won CSKA Moscow as expected so I believe that I and SLB will be going through this group. They have the strongest team and I believe I can manage to defeat Olympiakos again easily along with CSKA Moscow in the next games.

First Division: Braunschweiger TSV Eintracht (1) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2)

I decided to rest some players in this match so I can go all out in the German Cup in the next match. I did not fear Braunschweiger that much and my team was strong enough to see me through.

German Cup, 2nd Round: Borussia Mönchengladbach (0) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (1)

This was a brutal match but Sidney Sam managed to sneak one goal past Marc-André ter Stegen who was my main GK in FM13.

First Division: Borussia Mönchengladbach (0) – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (0)

Well my team did not manage to create anything from this match. Marc-André ter Stegen showed some quality along with my very own Bernd Leno who even got the player of the match. Poor finishing and great goalkeeping kept me from getting 3 points here and really making statement and the end of the month.

Other:

So my team did not lose a single match this month. I am very pleased with their performance and I want to single out Sidney Sam who has been great. For the German Cup 3rd round I got HSV at Home and I think I will be able to win that match. The next month looks simple and I think I can take every point from the matched. There are going to be two rounds in the European Championship Cup against CSKA and then SLB.

German First Division:
1st. Borussia Dortmund – 17 points +18
2nd. SC Freiburg – 17 points +11
3rd. Bayer 04 Leverkusen – 17 points +8
4th. FC Schalke 04 – 16 points +8
5th. FC Bayern München – 14 points +9