Erik ten Hag urged his new Bayer Leverkusen side to begin building a new era at the club following a busy summer that has seen players come and go. 

Ten Hag will take charge of his second competitive game since replacing Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen when they take on Hoffenheim in their Bundesliga opener on Saturday. 

The Dutchman oversaw a comfortable 4-0 triumph over Grossaspach in the DFB Pokal, though Leverkusen have experienced an overhaul to their 2024-25 squad. 

Leverkusen have seen Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong join Liverpool, while Granit Xhaka and Jonathan Tah moved to Sunderland and Bayern Munich, respectively. 

Ten Hag has welcomed 14 new faces to his ranks, with Leverkusen aiming to regain the Bundesliga crown they lost to Bayern by some margin last season. 

"We did everything to be optimally prepared," Ten Hag told a press conference. "It has a lot to do with the team spirit. In the changing room the players are growing together.

"A lot of players have stayed and they bring a specific culture. That remains. The new players have understood the club culture. I have had major overhauls in the past.

"That's the challenge. It is good because it needed it.

"An era comes to an end at some point and this has happened here and we now start building a new era and we all are working very hard towards that every day."

Leverkusen's summer business was headlined by the arrival of Malik Tillman from PSV Eindhoven in a €35m deal, which is a joint-club record fee for the Bundesliga side.

Jarell Quansah, Loic Bade and Ernest Poku have also joined the club, while Leverkusen also completed a loan move for Manchester City's Claudio Echeverri onThursday. 

Tillman made 34 appearances across all competitions for PSV in 2024-25, scoring 16 goals and registering five assists to help his team lift the Eredivisie title. 

Only Johan Bakayoko (47) completed more dribbles in the Dutch top flight for PSV than Tillman (42), while he also created 41 chances, the joint-fourth highest total in the team. 

Tillman ended his time at PSV having won 85.2% of his matches in the Eredivisie (W46 D4 L4), the highest win percentage of any player with 50+ games in the competition.

And the American is looking forward to getting going in Germany, saying: "My excitement at the season was massive when I saw and wore the jersey for the first time.

"I'm looking forward to finally being able to play here at the stadium too. Up to now, I feel very good and happy here in Leverkusen."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Bayer Leverkusen – Patrick Schick

Patrik Schick exceeded his expected goals (xG) by 8.3 goals (21 goals at 12.7 xG), the best difference in Europe's five major leagues. In those leagues, only Atletico Madrid's Alexander Sorloth had a lower minutes per goal (78) than Patrik Schick (80).

The striker has also scored his joint-most goals against Hoffenheim (six, the same as against Freiburg) in the top-flight.

Hoffenheim – Andrej Kramaric

Andrej Kramaric was Hoffenheim's biggest attacking threat last season, registering 11 goals and nine assists in 32 Bundesliga matches.

He enters the new season in fine form, scoring four goals across two World Cup qualifiers for Croatia while also providing an assist in Hoffenheim's 4-0 DFB Pokal win over Rostock.

MATCH PREDICTION – BAYER LEVERKUSEN WIN

In each of the last two Bundesliga campaigns, Leverkusen have won their first match of the season. Now, the Werkself could achieve this in three consecutive seasons for the first time from 2013 to 2015. On Matchday 1 of the 2015-16 season, Leverkusen won their third match in this run at home against Hoffenheim.

Leverkusen coach Ten Hag is about to manage his first Bundesliga game as a coach, and Hoffenheim should expect a very direct approach. During his tenure at Manchester United, the Red Devils recorded the most direct attacks in the league (222, an average of 2.6 per game) and also scored the most goals via this method (15, same as Liverpool).

Leverkusen are, however, winless in their last three Bundesliga matches (D2, L1). The last time they went more games in a row without a win was between April and May 2023 (five).

Hoffenheim are also without a win in five Bundesliga matches (D2, L3) and only Borussia Monchengladbach among current Bundesliga teams have gone longer without securing a win (seven).

Hoffenheim endured their second-worst Bundesliga season in 2024-25 with 32 points, only winning fewer in 2012-13 (31). Their 15th-place finish was also their lowest top-flight finish in nine years (2015-16, also 15th).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Bayer Leverkusen – 59.9%

Draw – 20.1%

Hoffenheim – 20.0%