Rolfes: Leverkusen must “gain defensive stability to play dominant football” for attackers to flourish

The Argentine talent has yet to fully impose himself in coach Hjulmand’s plans.

Bayer Leverkusen managed to loan Claudio Echeverri this summer, but the Manchester City talent has failed to make his mark so far. 

Speaking to Kicker.de, Simon Rolfes discussed why Echeverri has only played 75 minutes so far this season.

“The team must first gain defensive stability in order to play dominant football,” the club’s managing director of sport said.

“The more we manage to do this, the more Claudio and other attacking players will benefit from it,” he added. 

Echeverri’s problem is that he does not always play as positionally accurate as coach Kasper Hjulmand would like. 

As things stand, Hjulmand is therefore instead placing his trust in tactically reliable players such as Jonas Hofmann.

Other players like Malik Tillman have also had a slow start to the season since arriving from PSV Eindhoven in summer.