Lucas Vazquez not yet a candidate to start for Leverkusen

Erik ten Hag has revealed that new Bayer Leverkusen signing Lucas Vazquez is not ready for the starting eleven yet.

Lucas Vázquez will not go straight into the starting XI for Bayer Leverkusen after his free transfer earlier this week.

“No, he’s not ready yet,” Bayer Leverkusen coach Erik ten Hag said at a press conference on Friday when asked if the former Real Madrid star could start against Werder Bremen on Saturday.

“He’s still building up his fitness. He played at the Club World Cup and then had a few weeks off. While he has trained individually and done a lot of work, he hasn’t trained with the team. Team training is a different matter,” added the Dutch coach.

Ten Hag also confirmed that Malik Tillman, Exequiel Palacios, Loïc Badé, and Jonas Hofmann are all back in full training and in contention for a squad place.

“The good news is that they were all on the training pitch. Not for the whole week, as they initially only participated partially in team training. But yesterday they were fully involved, and today as well. So we are making progress,” he said.