Bayern continue to struggle
I will preface this with stating that having a few key players recently returning from injury may have a role in these struggles, but Bayern Munich have not played well for a considerable number of games. The return of Leon Goretzka and Alphonso Davies is very encouraging to see, but FC Bayern just continue to be entirely out of sorts. In the immediate aftermath of an abysmal performance against Villarreal, many though Bayern could right the ship vs. FC Augsburg but instead what we saw was…..another bad performance. It was not until the addition of Alphonso Davies and Marcel Sabitzer in the second half that Bayern started to pick up the tempo and energy.
And frankly, if it was not for the football gods giving Bayern a break with an unlucky handball for Augsburg, this might’ve ended as another scoreless game for FC Bayern. Thankfully, though, we have Robert Lewandowski taking the penalty kicks. This ultimately begs the question: Why is Julian Nagelsmann struggling so mightily for FC Bayern, and why are the players not adapting to Nagelsmann? We all know he was not going to immediately be Hansi Flick, but I don’t think any of us expected this much of a decline in the overall play and quality of FC Bayern given the individual talents this team is made of.
Bayern’s goal awakens the beast
FC Bayern played to a non-existent 0.2xG for the first half, and continued that trend into the second half. Then the most peculiar thing occurred. Once FC Bayern scored a penalty off of an unfortunate Augsburg handball which forced Augsburg to open up, Bayern started to look just like the Bayern of old.
Joshua Kimmich played incredible passes, Jamal Musiala exhibited his extraordinary skill set that (as we in the BFW Slack Chat think) is a combination of Thomas Müller’s body type and Franck Ribery’s ball-handling and elusiveness. There’s hardly a player we can think of outside of Ribery that can explain Musiala’s insane ability to move the ball in tight spaces, and it showed again.
If all it takes for Bayern to wake up is to score a goal, then why haven’t we just scored earlier? I kid, but in all actuality, it was quite peculiar seeing Bayern play like how we expected them in the immediate aftermath of Lewandowski’s penalty. It’s almost like a light switch flipped and turned them on. Nagelsmann has to figure that out immediately in preparation of Bayern’s win-or-go-home match against Villarreal at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.
The day of Dorsch
Man, talk about a spiteful performance. Niklas Dorsch was the clear Man of the Match by a mile. The dude was everywhere and he almost willed Augsburg to their second upset over Bayern Munich. Somehow, I feel like Bayern giving up on Dorsch might have led to a fire be lit where he sits. Dorsch outplayed and outwilled everyone on the pitch in basically every aspect, including a goal-saving clearance in the box towards the end of the game which gave Augsburg a glimmer of hope. It remains to be seen if Bayern made the correct decision moving on Dorsch so early, but Dorsch showed the quality he still has at the age of 24, so Augsburg has to hope he can perform like this for many games to come.
Müller breaks a record
As a final and quick blurb, Thomas Müller accomplished something only Oliver Kahn and Manuel Neuer have managed and that’s achieve his 300th win in the Bundesliga. Müller not only becomes the first outfield player in Bundesliga history to accomplish this feat, but the first to do so with the same team. As you may remember, Manuel Neuer earned a number of his wins with Schalke 04 and Kahn with Karlsruhe SC. Herzlich Glückwünche, Müller!
