Seven Games In 22 Days Will Show How Far Leverkusen Have Really Come

Bayer Leverkusen went into the international break with their best performance of the season. Now comes the difficult part: proving it was not an exception.

Saturday's trip to Mainz begins a run of seven games in only 22 days for Carles Martínez's side, a stretch that should provide a much clearer picture of where this rebuilt Leverkusen team actually stands.

Simon Rolfes knows there is still something missing from their start.

Seven points from four Bundesliga matches is hardly a crisis.

But the way Leverkusen arrived at that total explains Rolfes' caution.

Their season began with the 3-2 defeat at Elversberg. A convincing 4-0 response against Union Berlin followed, only for Die Werkself to lose control of the next game against Augsburg and draw 2-2.

Rolfes was particularly frustrated by that afternoon, saying afterwards that Leverkusen had played better but simply "stopped playing football" for a short period.

Martínez was equally clear.

Then came Leipzig.

After the 2-0 victory, Leverkusen finally looked like a team beginning to understand what Martínez wanted from them. They struggled during the opening half, adjusted, and then took control after the break.

The improvement was measurable.

Leverkusen won only around 30 percent of their duels during the first half. After the interval, that figure climbed above 45 percent. Patrik Schick scored for the fourth consecutive Bundesliga match before Miguel Gutiérrez completed the victory.

Rolfes, speaking to KSTA called it Die Werkself's "most concentrated and consistent game" of the season.

That is now the standard.

The three-week Bundesliga interruption gave Martínez valuable time with the players who remained in Leverkusen. Friday's 6-0 training match against Fortuna Köln brought further encouragement, with Moussa Diaby creating two goals, Martin Terrier scoring twice, and Nathan Tella marking his return from injury with a goal.

But training and friendlies can only do so much.

The schedule is about to become considerably less forgiving.

After Mainz come Bundesliga meetings with Freiburg, Hoffenheim, and Stuttgart. Lech Poznań and OFI Crete await in the Europa League, while Nürnberg stands between Leverkusen and the next round of the DFB Pokal.

Seven matches. Three competitions. Twenty-two days.

There will be little opportunity for Martínez to correct problems on the training ground once that sequence begins.

That makes the trip to Mainz particularly important.

Leverkusen are still searching for their first away victory of the Bundesliga season, while Mainz have also collected seven points from their opening four matches.

More than the result, however, Rolfes wants to see whether the Leipzig performance can become repeatable.

According to the sporting director, the team must show more and more of the work from preseason and the start of the season, and play with greater stability at an increasingly high level.

That has been the missing piece so far.

Leverkusen have already shown how good they can be under Martínez. Over the next 22 days, they have to show how often they can be that good.