Jupp Heynckes has instilled the characteristics of their midfield maestro into a team that is now hammering away at the imperfections
As the son of two teachers, Simon Rolfes was perhaps destined to be a model pupil. Growing up in the small north-western town of Ibbenbüren, he excelled at school – physics was one of his A' level majors – but it took him a long time getting discovered as a football prodigy.
His older brother Tobias, who doubled as his youth coach at TuS Recke, organised trials at Hannover and Bremen. After three sessions at Werder, Rolfes was in. "I was too slender for professional football, though," he remembers, "I underestimated the physical demands." Still in his teens, Rolfes employed a personal coach to build up stamina, muscle and stability. He knew all the extra-curricular work would pay off eventually when he prevailed in a tough bet against his brother Michael: aged 16, Simon was able to keep up the ball 3,000 times to win himself a new France 98 World Cup ball.
The Bayer Leverkusen captain still tries harder than most players today. On days off, you can find him running in parks and pumping iron in the gym. "I know I've got a long way to go," he says. Along with Thomas Hitzlsperger, the 27-year-old exemplifies a new generation of German footballers: thoughtful, agreeable young men who make up for a lack of god-given genius with extra effort on and off the pitch. These guys are sometimes belittled as "perfect sons-in-law" by football writers who long for the good old days of Matthäus or Effenberg, when mean, egotistical bas**rds roamed the Bundesliga.
To be fair, if Rolfes was any more low-profile, the needle would skip straight to the label. Sometimes you feel that German football specifically invented this type of player to lull the competition into a false sense of security before a tournament ("They've got who in midfield? Ha, ha, ha. Oh bugger, they're in the semis again").
Rolfes, a classic No6 who brings structure and balance to his side with unassuming expediency, was one of the most consistent performers in the 2007‑08 season. Experts demanded his inclusion in the Euro 2008 squad, but Rolfes was never going to make any public demands. Instead, he was buying up dozens of Duplo chocolate bars, secretly hoping that one of them would contain a Simon Rolfes Euro 2008 sticker. Even when he found one, he wasn't quite sure about his prospects. "I don't know who picked the players for these stickers, maybe it wasn't the German FA," he told a newspaper in May 2008. Jogi Löw soon outed himself as a Rolfes fan, though. He played well in Germany's 3-2 wins over Portugal and Turkey on the way to the final.
Last season, Rolfes seemed on course for even greater things. Leverkusen finished 2008 three points off the top before crashing to ninth place after the winter break. Naturally, they lost the German FA Cup final against Bremen as well. Not once were they able to turn a game around after going behind. Bayer perfectly corresponded to the "Neverkusen" stereotype and were dismissed as too soft, even by their own sporting director. "We're lacking a dirtbag," said Rudi Völler.
Rolfes' squeaky-clean style was seen as part of the problem. He received only two cautions in the whole campaign, and none at all in the one before. He simply doesn't believe in strategic brutality and looks at Spanish midfielders for an alternative way of playing. "We're trying to win the ball back collectively, so there's no need to commit a foul," he says, adding that relying on "the German virtues" is no longer enough in the modern game.
With two yellow cards in eight games Rolfes is firmly set for a career-worst disciplinary record, but that's certainly not the only reason why Leverkusen are top of the tree after a 4‑0 destruction of sorry Nürnberg. They're not necessarily meaner, either. On the contrary, you'll be hard pressed to find a more cultured side in the league.
What they do have now is a bit of experience at the back, courtesy of Sami Hyypia. The 35-year-old Finn impressed from the first day of training with his cool demeanour (and his Ferrari). He's not going to outrun opponents but he can compensate by standing in the right place at the right time, most of the time. "We are learning to be compact and keep clean sheets," the manager Jupp Heynckes said on Saturday. Talk of a championship challenge won't be easily dismissed – "it's only October," said Hyypia – for much longer if they keep performing at this sort of level.
Bayern's on-loan talent Toni Kroos, outstanding in attacking midfield, reminded everybody about last season's fall from grace but doesn't believe history will repeat itself. "This is the most mature Bayer in the last few years," said striker Stefan Kießling. "You could see the potential and possibilities today."
A lot of credit must go to Heynckes. The 64-year-old has abolished Bruno Labbadia's kamikaze style and replaced it with more sustainable strategy. "You can't play pressing for 90 minutes, it's too tiring," he said before the season. In the corridors of the BayArena, they also point to better man-management. Labbadia, the players hint, was too demanding; apparently he pushed them too far on the last day of the winter training camp, when everybody expected a nice warm-down kickaround. Consequently, a distinct loss of trust affected the mood.
Heynckes' style is far less confrontational. In fact, his gentle way of doing business was seen as a recipe for disaster by some critics in Leverkusen, who wanted a more authoritarian coach for their ensemble of fragile, sometimes lethargic technicians. Twenty points from eight games, the best ever start for Bayer in the Bundesliga, have changed this view, however. Their success is even more remarkable when you consider that their best striker, Patrick Helmes, is currently out of commission (cruciate ligament).
Kroos' dramatic improvement can perhaps best explain their great run. "I told him that he needs to work harder at his game, especially at changing tack from defensive to offensive," said Heynckes. "Today, you saw the result."
Bayer, in other words, haven't actually changed that much at all. If anything, they're even more of a "Simon Rolfes team" now: humble, intelligent, ready to take a look in the mirror and hammer away at their imperfections.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/05/bundesligafootball-bayerleverkusen
