Earlier this month, Bayern Munich won the Club World Cup and entered the history books, comparing its number of titles in one year to Pep Guardiola’s mythical Barcelona from 2009. Naturally, the six-degree Enzyce Flick team has squeezed superlatives from Munich to Doha for exemplary professional management in the Corona era thanks to its formidable pressure game, ability to translate situations into goals in dizzying amounts and being blessed with World Player of the Year Robert Lewandowski.
After all, this is a historic team that only half a year ago bombed an eighth into Barcelona’s net and won the Champions League after winning all its games with an average of about 4 goals per game. Just before she meets Lazio in the quarter-finals 20/21, the betting agencies are still the big favorite to once again win the cup with the big ears. However, anyone who has been following her lately feels that the Bundesliga leader is far more vulnerable than her image shows. We will try to insist on this:
The cliché is that it is much harder to maintain a championship than to achieve it and in the Champions League the story is not entirely different. Since the factory was renamed in the early 1990s, with the exception of Real Madrid’s Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, who swung the title three times in a row between 2016 and 2018, no champion has retained its title the following year. Moreover, apart from Real there were only Milan in 1995, Ajax in 1996 and Manchester United in 2019 European champions who managed to reach the final 12 months later (and lost of course). The reasons for this are probably a combination of tough competition, a slightly cruel knockout method, mental ability to rise after a record, quite a bit of luck and of course the fact that over time, the rivals learn the champion on the best side.
Flick, who was appointed to the post 13 months ago, managed to base Bayern’s superiority on a high and uncompromising pressure game. The figures talked about the Bavarians pressing more than a third of the time in the front third and thus putting their rivalry in a deep and constant problem. There is no doubt that this style of play highlights the qualities of the European champion in attack. Bayern are the number one scorer in the big five leagues with 62 goals this season in 22 league rounds, a statistic that has never been issued at the same time in the past. Europe is also the top scorer with 18 goals in the home leg. Still, the pressure game has a price that Bayern are paying from behind.
Bayern Munich’s defense remains extremely exposed. The German champions took 31 balls from the net in the Bundesliga this year – a figure they have not seen in Bavaria since the 1991/2 season. To put it bluntly, there are six teams in Germany that have absorbed less of it. Bayern’s over-intensity in such a crowded season, with many trips, Corona injuries and injuries, are part of the explanation. On a practical level, the Bavarians found themselves behind this season in half of the league games, absorbing trio from Leipzig, Hertha Berlin, Arminia Bielefeld, Mönchengladbach and even relegated to Holstein Kiel from the domestic sub-league.
Bayern show vulnerability in three distinct parameters of the game: First, as noted above, the fact that it opens weak games, absorbs early and is forced to chase the opponent. The second point is its limited ability to deal with long balls that pass over the link that force the high Bavarian defensive line to deal one-on-one with the opponent’s attacking players. The third point is increased absorption of impact rates in funds and stationary situations. So alarming is the situation that commentators in Germany are beginning to doubt the pressure method that worked so well in the Final 8 in Lisbon. “Flick needs to think about whether it would not be better for him to lower the defensive line, instead of continuing with the high, intense and exhausting style of pressure,” Sky commentator wondered. Turban Hoffman.
Of course it’s a bit cheeky to drop everything on the method and the coach. In the end the majority is the result of the personal abilities and fitness of the players. One fact that stands out to all is that with the exception of Manuel Neuer, all of Bayern’s regular back four are below the acceptable level. Benjamin Favre had a weak start to the season and lost his confidence, Alfonso Davis who also gave an incredible season last year, has not fully recovered since the ankle injury. Nicklas Zola, Jerome Boateng, Lucas Hernandez and David Alaba also failed to maintain stability over the course of the season and made quite a few mistakes. Perhaps the fact that the latter has already publicly announced his departure will help him concentrate more on the grass.
Beyond that, great as it may be, Bayern are suffering from beatings of injuries (Corinthian Tolisso finished the season) and more recently also from Corona which has caused isolation and the absence of four positives in the last month: Leon Gorzka, Favar, Xabi Martinez and Thomas Muller. The best example of this is the fact that Bayern’s classic link center that includes Joshua Kimich (who suffered a knee injury in the middle of the season) and Gorzka has only been tried in 10 of 31 games this season. The disadvantage of Muller, the tireless “territorial explorer” who completes the middle trio, is very evident in the draw against Bielefeld (3: 3) and the loss to Frankfurt (2: 1) which reduced Bayern’s gap at the top to just 2 points from Leipzig.
In a season like this, Bayern, like any other team, need a deep squad to cover the many absences, but the management’s acquisition plan has not been successful to say the least. Douglas Costa, Mark Rocca, Buena Sar and Eric Maxim Shofo Mouting who arrived at the last minute of the season opener are very far from impressive and have had quite a few opportunities to prove otherwise. These are certainly not the additions Flick wanted after the departures of Thiago Alcantara, Ivan Prisic and Felipe Coutinho who were an active part in winning the treble. Already now it can be increased and said that the reinforcement, with the exception of Leroy Sana of course, has clearly failed.
Despite all the flaws mentioned, Bayern Munich is still the team to beat and if you managed to forget, then we will mention that the European champions have not lost in the Champions League for almost two years and have the finest offensive weapons on the continent. With all due respect to the Manchester City run and PSG’s tremendous talent, the strengths and traditions of the Bavarians should still place them at the top of the title race. Although it must be admitted that Bayern is reaching the quarter-finals with quite a few concerns and problems that it must solve, if it wants to swing the trophy with its big ears for the seventh time.
