ESPN Soccernet - Correspondents - FC Bayern Munich

Posted by Susie Schaaf on 01/25/2012

"We started extremely s***tily. In stages, it was OK, then it was s***t again. Then we tried again and then it was s***t once more." - Thomas Mueller rather neatly sums it up.

Ah, and we all had such high hopes for this match, now, didn't we? Coming off a stellar winter training camp, all the Bayern players happy, all the bosses exuberant and Schweinstieger fit... What could possibly go wrong?

If you listen to Jupp Heynckes, it's Neuer's fault. After he let one bogey goal through in the first match of the year against this very same team, it happened again 11 minutes in, when he directed a wayward pass at Marcos Reus who promptly directed it back in to Munich's empty net. "That's Neuer's problem, he wants to make the game too fast. He needs to play more calmly and be more focused. That was the invitation to defeat," opined Jupp.

And if you listen to der Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer, he says that Jerome Boateng and Arjen Robben don't play well together. (Of which I'm inclined to agree.) "The two of them really can't play together. Boateng always passes the ball in the other direction. This upsets Robben, though, as he always wants the ball. They're not a good combination in my opinion. I think that Rafinha and Robben would suit each other much better." So do we all, Kaiser, so do we all.

Despite everyone's recriminations (some misplaced, some not), it boils down to Jupp Heynckes committing the team too far forward and allowing Lucien Favre's Foals to do what they do best: Defend and counter-attack. Neither Daniel van Buyten nor Holger Badstuber have the pace to play so far up-field. Bayern Munich played tactically perfectly in to 'Gladbach's hands. And the slaughter was only saved by a Schweinsteiger goal late in the second half.

So, what now? Not that an injury is a bright spot, but DvB's broken metatarsal forces Heynckes in to a situation many of us think was the right move in the first place. The injury puts Boateng squarely in center-back and gives Rafinha his spot on the wing, and gives both of them a chance to shine. Of which I have no doubt will happen.

Christian Nerlinger has stated, that even with the DvB injury, that Munich will get no new players in the January transfer window. "We have in Jerome Boateng a player who was in the first place meant to play in this position," he said. "In addition, Luiz Gustavo and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk can play [there]." Fair enough. But where did that Ajax's "Jan Vertonghen to Bayern for 15 million" rumour come from? Ah, fussball.de.

We still sit atop a very tight Bundesliga table in a three-way tie with Borrusia Dortmund and Schalke 04, although we're +4 in goal differential over BvB and substantially more over the Blues. And our bogey team,'Gladbach, sits just one-point behind in second place. It's gonna be a tight ride for the Rueckrunde, and much different than originally thought. It does make for much more passionate, entertaining football, doesn't it?

And won't we all be happy to have Franck Ribery back?

You can follow Susie on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/fussballsusie

Comments

Posted by Phil on 01/25/2012

Heynckes really doesn't seem to trust Rafinha for whatever reason. I think the kid has been great in the 6 months he's been on board, but obviously there could be more to the situation that I see.

Either way, as you say, his hand is forced now - Badstuber and Boateng as the two CBs. Once Ribery returns and Bastian gets back to full strength, we still have the best hand at the table.

Posted by Kenny on 01/25/2012

I enjoy your comments keep up the good work and making it like the saying I learned in Germany years ago. Arbeit macht spass aber wer kann spass ertragen. Ich Wuench Sie Alles Gute

Posted by Susie on 01/25/2012

Phil, for those of you that don't know, runs a very excellent Bayern blog at bayern.theoffside.com.

Phil---

The last Brazilians any manager liked were Ze and Lucio. And look what happened to them both... I personally think Rafinha is quality as well. And I'm glad he'll get a regular starting berth now.

Kenny---

That's a little different than the statement I was thinking of when I saw "Arbeit macht..." Don't know why my head went there. But, it did.

And, thank you for the lovely compliments.

Posted by Ralph on 01/25/2012

Thank you very much Susie for your efforts with this column. The writings are very much appreciated. I have to say that I was completely embarrassed by this latest performance, and am very concerned about the team's recent performances. BM are in first place only because of the torrid start to the season where they held a monstrous goal differential. They have lost 4 of their last 6 Bundesliga games and given away almost all of their goal differential. I see a team that is playing too old and too slow compared to the youngsters of the competition. BM's build up is too slow, their first touch is rather poor, they do not possess well under pressure, and are unable to play one touch ball because most of the team is not moving well off of the ball. The competition is running through BM's defense like a hot knife through butter, and BM's all world keeper is making really stupid mistakes. That does not bode well for any trophies let alone the three that we strive. I am disappointed.

Posted by jacob on 01/25/2012

remember two years ago when bayern won the double, practically every other game, bayern would come out sluggish, then they'd let in a cheap goal, and then they'd wake up and score two goals?

i think it's troubling that this year, though i am sure bayern is a better team, man-for-man, than two years ago, bayern has not had a single come from behind win (am i wrong?). every single game we've lost, we give up a goal and we just can't come back. as soon as neuer made his gaffe in last weekend's game, i had a bad feeling we had already lost. bayern played like they thought so too. i don't know why that is, but it is something that jupp should notice. where is the grit? this is a team that can score three goals in five minutes on their day. why can't we seem to score any once we've gone down a goal?? It is extraordinary that we have only tied one game this season -- if bayern had scored a goal in just a couple of our losses and tied, we'd still be sitting pretty in the BL.

Posted by John on 01/25/2012

I agree that Rahina and Robben work well together.
Getting Bastain back will calm things also.

I'd rather see Tymo in MidField than CB

Ribery's stupid red card is a big factor in this loss.

It is a shame that Daniel was injured. He was very fit and playing some of his best soccer this year.

Posted by Tony on 01/26/2012

A note on Gladbach's tactics would be nice. The best counter attacking team on the league, our match against them was not an exception. We are not ourselves to blame for the loss; having played with arguably ONE untried player position so far this year: Kroos at LW. Not that he hasn't played there quite a few times before, while loaned that is.
If anything we played a team that parked the bus back and countered. With Neuer's goal, we had an uphill battle to start with. The loss has nothing to do with Ribe'ry, it has to do with us having our full backs way up front (2nd and 3rd goals) trying to make a hole in a team that had 9 players on their own turf...

Posted by Muhammad Amin on 01/26/2012

Am i the only one that thought that Badstuber played like s**t. I blame him for the first goal cause he should have booted the ball out of play. But i have a good feeling about the game v wolfsburg cause most definetly raf and ribery are going to play and they give us width no team in europe has.
PS Lahm played like s**t also.

Posted by Stevavo on 01/26/2012

Well I have been commenting on Bayern's defence for ages and certain individuals which are obviously favored but do not have the ability to match. I think Jupp has to take the blame for this result, his tactics were poor. Bayern's slow possession build up play is waaaayyyy too predictable and allows comfortable defensive teams to easily regroup and counter. The German NT and BVB have an explosive element to their tactics and this is severely lacking at Bayern. Gustavo I think shd def play at DM, he is a man shield and can compensate for our defenders inability to, well, defend. He may nto offer too mcuh going forward but he that is not necessary with the weatlh of attackimg talent. Lahm has looked well below par at LB and Robben seems unsure after his injury. Im glad Boateng has his chance as he has been solid when deployed at CB, and Rafinha,finally can make RB his own, bout time. I just find it odd that fans can clearly see these clear issues but the coaching staff remain ignorant

Posted by grudnik on 01/26/2012

Well, so much for the assurance that they are not getting anyone in the transfer period. Bayern have a press conference set for 2pm local time (8am eastern) to announce a signing for the offense.

Apparently, it's somebody who can back up Gomez, in case he gets hurt. Is it Luca Toni (he's been out of favor at his current club for a while)?

Posted by grudnik on 01/26/2012

Muhammed,
How was the 1st goal Badstuber's fault?

It is standard tactic to pass it back to the keeper when there aren't any other options, and Neuer boots it down the field. They've done that thousands of times, even before Neuer joined.

That was all on Neuer for trying to do too much.

Posted by grudnik on 01/26/2012

Apparently, somebody at Bayern got their calendar mixed up, because they thought it was April Fool's Day.

The big announcement about a new offensive player turned out to be a hoax, and was a way of launching a Facebook fan app.

Lame!

Posted by KennethH on 01/26/2012

I certainly agree that Rafi will produce more at right back. Never been a fan of Boateng (or his brother). Nice article, Sue.

Posted by Susie on 01/26/2012

Ralph---

Doesn't it seem like every season, we all hem and haw about how crap Bayern is? Perhaps it's just one of those times, and everything will work out OK.

Just like the first start earlier this year, it's not a very auspicious beginning... But it ended up working out alright... Hopefully, it's just a small crappy phase.

Jacob---

There seems to be a bit of arrogance there, when they're down, that they can't even imagine how it's possible. Maybe everyone should stop telling them how good they are?

John---

We'll certainly miss DvB on set-pieces. But I've never been convinced of his pace.

Tony---

I think I mentioned both that Gladbach were a counter-attacking team and that our CB's were playing far too upfield... :)

Muhammad---

I'm with Grudnik on this one, the first goal was solely on Neuer. And I like Rafinha, I really do. His only knock is he lets his temper get the best of him at times, and make stupid fouls.

Posted by Susie on 01/26/2012

Stevavo---

It's easy to be an armchair manager, innit? Hahaha.

I'm not opposed to Goose and Schweini as CM's, although then, who do you leave out? Kroos or Mueller? It's easy to say Mueller, but he does all the little things right off the ball that you don't see statistically.

Grudnik---

I'm glad I never saw the press announcement. I did know they were launching a Facebook app, though. I'll chalk it up to poor timing on the part of the media director. Getting everyone's hopes up after that loss? Yikes.

Did you see the interview where Luca said he'd play at Bayern for free?

Posted by latibaba on 01/27/2012

My major concern is that my team performance is still flunctuating,we are suppose to be growing stronger,we need a bit of stability in this team at this time.
Time for rotation should have being over(fisrt half of the season is enough)
lastly our response to goal deficit has being very poor,these are things we cannot do without in this game called soccer,we should pay attension to our comeback from goal deficit.
The present squad is enough to achieve the seaon objectives,proper management of the team is very key.but i think another CLASSY striker is CONSEQUENTIAL.
MIA SAN mia!

Posted by Ralph on 01/28/2012

Susie - I understand your point, but I try to take the emotion out of my analysis and look at performance objectively. The fact is BM has lost 4 of their last 6, are 1-3 against the top contenders, and have not looked good lately. I don't believe that to be a short down phase as opposed to more of a downward trend. The first half of the Wolfsburg game did nothing to dispel that concern. How about we start fighting for possession instead of just falling to the turf all of the time. This team is soft. At the risk of facing real persecution here let me be the one to say it out loud....Mueller doesn't provide any value to this team at all.

Posted by Susie on 01/28/2012

Ralph---

Wasn't directed at you in particular. But, as a fan base in general. And, I do understand your point... But, saying that, what did you think of today's match?

Scrappy. Not pretty, but I liked it.

And I think it's a good step forward.

Posted by grudnik on 01/28/2012

Bayern could have done more today, no doubt, but I blame Wolfsburg for the mostly boring game, for parking the bus, and waiting for counters.

Posted by Ralph on 01/30/2012

Hi Susie! Although I am happy with the points, we have to remember that Wolfsburg is a middle of the table team that has only won one away game all season and that was on the very first day of the season. That said, it took us an hour to score and that goal was fortunate that the ball landed at Gomez' feet after being headed off of the defenders back. The second goal was cleared off of the line and directed in off of Robben's forearm. It should have been a handball and no goal. I am very concerned about their attack. Playing the ball around the back line accomplishes nothing and even drew whistles from the home fans. It appears that there isn't any movement on the attack until the ball is passed to Robbery, and then they challenging 1v2 and losing possession. In my opinion, the midfield does not provide any assistance to BM's attack and therefore BM is much too predictable. Even as a BM fan, I am really unhappy with all of the flopping.

Posted by Anonymous on 01/30/2012

Robben had a potential 1v1 when he flopped to his knees from a slight tug on the shoulder from a chasing defender. He exchanged a potentially dangerous breakaway for a set piece that allowed the defense to get back and set. Not a smart exchange in my mind. I really struggle to understand Mueller's game also. He consistently flops to the ground losing possession, and then pleads to the ref for a foul. He received a perfectly placed pass splitting the defense at the top of the box, and only managed to comically fall to the ground without having been touched. Mueller plays very well in the uptempo NT attack, but really struggles with the low tempo BM attack. So maybe the BM attack just doesn't play to his strength. I really struggle to find where Mueller provides any value to BM at this time.

Posted by Ralph on 01/30/2012

Wolfburg's one touch combination down the wing resulting in a cross to unmarked attacker was a thing of beauty. Only a poor first touch by the attacker prevented a sure goal past Neuer. I don't understand why we do not play like that other than it would require proactive movement off of the ball that we do not exhibit. We supposedly have the speed and skill to do so if you listen to everyone else. The BM attack will suffer greatly as long as we continue to base our attack exclusively on Robbery. If BM allows its opponents to double Robbery, then Kroos and Mueller must be open and make them pay for that strategy. Right now there isn't any risk to the opponents because neither provides much reliable support to the attack. If I were coaching against BM, I would double Robbery all day and exert pressure high. I bet that I would win more than I would lose. BM needs better play out of its attacking mids and more consistent shots on goal, or this attack will be dull and ineffective.

Posted by Kiko on 02/24/2012

Hi, this is a cmmeont.To delete a cmmeont, just log in and view the post's cmmeonts. There you will have the option to edit or delete them.

Post your comment

Name:

Email Address:

Comments:

characters left