Football Season Guide

Bayer Leverkusen secured their best finish in the last six years by ending the last season third in the league table, comfortably achieving their aim of Champions League football though they were once again poor in the cup competitions. Bayer will be heading into the new campaign largely with the same set of players with coach Seoane holding on to his key players so far this summer. They have refurbished their attack with Adam Hlozek's arrival from Sparta Prague and the attacker will be replacing Lucas Alario who has been sold to Eintracht Frankfurt. Mitchell Weiser is the only other major departure after converting his loan move to Werder Bremen into a free transfer. Both Nadiem Amiri and Joel Pohjanpalo have returned from their loan spells and will be boosting the numbers though there may well be further departures before the transfer window shuts. Scoring goals was not a problem for Bayer last season, the club ended with the third best scoring record but they had the worst defensive record in the top six and Seoane will be expecting an improvement at the back as he aims for another comfortable finish in the top four.