Leverkusen‘s Gerardo Seoane plays direct and very offensive football in a 1-4-2-3-1 formation. He sets the team up very aggressively both in defense and with the ball in an attempt to get players as high up the pitch as possible, which is supposed to encourage quick ball-collection and fast transitions into attack.
He less often uses a 1-4-4-2 formation (or 1-3-4-1-2 in defense) in an attempt to balance and strengthen the wings when playing against opponents trying to attack wider. Nevertheless in his starting line-up he naturally directs play towards the centre, prompting his wingers to overload the centre in attack and to cover centre backs in play without the ball.
In defense all defenders press high and wide against the rivals pushing them inside. Maintains high and aggressive pressing avoiding the low block. Forced deeper in defense Seoane plays one of the central midfielders as a central defender creating a compact and narrow back three.
Attacking he tries to gain a numerical advantage in the centre with the simultaneous task of keeping options on the wings thanks to the offensively-minded wings backs. Leverkusen make use of long direct passes made from deep in the midfield, while the midfielders lines up four in a line looking for space to make vertical entries into the offensive third, made mostly through narrow channels.
With this specific positional play they exploit the space and a frequent scheme for moving the ball into the vicinity of the rival’s penalty area is long high passes played towards the forwards or wingers.
