Is 4 League wins in the last 29 games Good enough?

Pantani said:

There were only 5 games remaining in the season. So Lewandowski was caretaker until the end of the season, with a new manager (Roger Schmidt) appointed before the start of this season.

Leverkusen won four and drew one of the remaining five games of the 2013/14 season.

Doesn't look good for Sami, does it?

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Blimey, looks pretty conclusive to me

For a bit of tactical analysis I had a look at what Lewandowski changed once he took over from Hyypia. Obviously without watching a whole series of games from that time I can only get impressions from what information is available.

Lewandowski did not change the formation, Bayer Leverkusen carried on playing 4-2-3-1. What is interesting is the players average positions in the match. This is Sami's last game in charge, the 2-1 defeat to Hamburg:



A lay out we are all familiar with! Full backs providing the width and pushed well up the pitch, forward players particularly narrow. In fact all four forwards are basically on top of each other (it is worth pointing out that the wider forwards may have stayed wide and swapped sides repeatedly to make their average position appear to be in the middle).

Here is the average position of the players in the first game under Lewandowski, the 2-1 victory over Hertha Berlin:



Here the full backs are still providing the width, though seem to be further back, especially the right back. There is also much more width further up the pitch, especially number 19 Brandt who has stayed much further out to the right than in the previous game.

It looks quite a lot like the changes we have made for the last two home games to me. For me now the question is whether Sami is learning from his mistakes quickly enough and whether he can improve our performances after this international break. The last two breaks were followed by our worst performances of the season in my opinion, Brentford and Middlesbrough. If this break is followed by another poor performance then for me Hyypia's position is untenable.

Green Cross Code Man said:

Mile Bailey was dour.

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He was and so was his football, you're right.

tommynockers said:

It has everything to do with it! It was his first proper managerial post . So no I'm not saying anyone with a failure on their cv is not to be considered. I'm saying he has no credentials to manage. He has won 4 games out of 29 as a single manager in his career. If before that he had taken a side from bottom to top then that would be a completely different thing.

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Hyypia's managerial record at Leverkusen, if you're going to use this, then you should use the whole record and not just the very end of it.
Club From To p w d l win %
Bayer Leverkusen1 1 April 2012[35] 24 June 2013[41] 51 29 11 11 56.86
Bayer Leverkusen2 24 June 2013[41] 5 April 2014[42] 41 21 4 16 51.22

1.^ Sami Hyypiä and Sascha Lewandowski were both in-charge of the first team.[35]
2.^ Sascha Lewandowski left the first team to go back to work with the youth team.[40] Hyypiä's first training session was on 12 March 2013.[41]


So again, what purpose does looking at just the last few games serve, apart from being a means to undermine our manager?

stevie17 said:

hyypia will stay (for the time being).he can count himself very lucky that bloom and the albion board are patient.at another club (blackpool,leeds,birmingham he would have been gone by now).think the board see it as a long term project,hyypia will be given time (possibly 2 or 3 years).,unless it goes terribly wrong and we look like getting relegated.think we have enough in the tank to stave off relegation,would say it looks like a finish of mid-table/lower mid-table (somewhere like 12th to 16th).

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and wigan

Guy Fawkes said:

Hyypia's managerial record at Leverkusen, if you're going to use this, then you should use the whole record and not just the very end of it.
Club From To p w d l win %
Bayer Leverkusen1 1 April 2012[35] 24 June 2013[41] 51 29 11 11 56.86
Bayer Leverkusen2 24 June 2013[41] 5 April 2014[42] 41 21 4 16 51.22

1.^ Sami Hyypiä and Sascha Lewandowski were both in-charge of the first team.[35]
2.^ Sascha Lewandowski left the first team to go back to work with the youth team.[40] Hyypiä's first training session was on 12 March 2013.[41]


So again, what purpose does looking at just the last few games serve, apart from being a means to undermine our manager?

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ok I agree with you? He is doing an amazing job and the fact he has won 3 games this season is top banana. The fact he got sacked from his previous club for the same issue is irrelevant. How stupid of me! Carry on as you are SAMI!