Frustrating Night In Birmingham
October 2, 2024 Vincent Kompany continued his rotation policies giving Jamal Musiala a break lining up with Manuel Neuer, Konrad Laimer, Dayot Upamecano, Kim MinJae, Alphonso Davies, Joshua Kimmich, Aleksander Pavlovic, Serge Gnabry, Michael Olise, Kingsley Coman and Harry Kane.
Bayern would come out the gate with confidence and creating multiple chances in the first 15 minutes. However at that point the match shifted.
Villa’s Ollie Watkins started to really give Upamecano trouble at the back and as a result mistakes started to be made. Those mistakes were not limited to Upa, though he arguably had the worst, but the entire team seemed to have lost confidence.
Villa had by far the better of the majority of the first half after this point and Bayern had to feel lucky to make it to half time 0-0.
The second half started more evenly with Bayern having decent spurts and Villa occasionally opening up the defense. However it would be Villa who would find the back of the net in the 79th minute as Jhon Duran took advantage of Neuer inexplicably leaving his net and chipping over to make it 1-0. Bayern would attempt to level things and came close a couple of times but ultimately were unable to find the net.
Three Things We Noticed
Confidence
This match certainly proved that there are still lingering scars in the psyche’s of the Munich players. Once again, we unfortunately have to highlight Upamecano who seemed to completely lose his head early in the first half.
But it clearly went beyond that. Pavlovic made several passes that were no where near another Bayern player and one that nearly cost Bayern a goal again. Several other players similarly sent wayward passes around the pitch, though none of them were as costly.
Still the whole team seemed to suffer to a certain degree. The cracks started to show and they never really recovered. When Villa’s goal came, it was unsurprisingly at the cost of another mistake, this time by Neuer.
Kompany and the players will need to regroup and use this as a learning experience. They cannot allow adversity and a few mistakes to affect them so much in the future. While this will take time, they have to learn to shrug those things off and remain confident in their play and abilities.
Just a Hiccup?
In fairness Unai Emery almost always has his teams set up in a way that will pose a tough challenge for Bayern. I think we all knew this would be a tough match and low scoring. When those are the circumstances, both teams have a nearly equal opportunity at victory.
However, it also exposed some of the weaknesses we all knew the team would likely have. The high line and possession is going to face teams that make it difficult to find space and burn the defense with speed and long balls.
Mistakes aside, these types of matches will be the real challenge this year, especially against better sides that are very comfortable playing against the ball.
Whether Kompany can find ways to make his system safe enough, while continuing with his overall philosophy is maybe the biggest question when it comes to big games.
But for now, I would like to think that this is just a bump along the road. Overall, they’ve had a good start to the season. This result doesn’t change that. They simply need to make their adjustments, put in the work and ignore the outside noise that is likely to come their way over the next few days.
Rotation
While I have overall praised Kompany’s penchant for rotation this season, there does need to be a question asked in this match.
Given how Emery likes to play, it was very curious to insert Coman and give Musiala rest. Coman is the type of player that likes to run into space and create chances by driving past defenders. Those are things he was very unlikely to have many opportunities to do today with a compact and well organized team.
On the other hand, Musiala’s dribbling and ability to work and create in tight spaces are traits that theoretically are ideal against such a team.
Whether that would ultimately have made a difference on the day is certainly questionable and to Kompany’s credit, he did bring on Musiala at the half for Coman. However, there is also a question as to whether João Palhinha should have come into this match sooner or even started it.
The Portuguese midfielder’s presence might have calmed things down earlier in the match, especially when it became obvious that the back line was struggling with the counter attack.
Bayern will have an extra day to get ready for their next Bundesliga match against Frankfurt on Sunday. This has been a very tough match for Bayern over recent seasons and will be against another team plays similarly to their opponents today. It will be a good test to see how they might respond this season.
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