Bayern 3-1 Gladbach: Bogey Team no More?
February 3, 2024 This article written by Rainer Pompermayer
After some difficult matches in 2024, Bayern welcomed probably its worst team to play against in the Bundesliga in recent years. And, with the match against Leverkusen in just one week, it was super important that Tuchel’s team walked away with the three points on Saturday.
For that, even with the huge amount of injuries and some new players available, we saw a sober line up without any big surprises: Mazroui back on the right, De Ligt and Dier in the center of the defense and Davies at left back. Pavlovic and Goretzka in the midfield with Musiala, Müller, Sané and Kane up front.
THE COURSE OF THE MATCH:
Bayern started really well, not letting Gladbach have the ball and creating two great chances, both missed by Sané unfortunately, before the 15 minutes mark, when we needed to have a break due to fan protest by the Südkurve. Only after a couple minutes, and some cool down of the match mood due the break, Gladbach had his first real attacking movement of the match.
At the 30 minute mark, we had another good Bayern chance from a free kick hit by Kane which resulted in a beautiful save by the goalkeeper Nicolas, but even with that the signs that Bayern were starting to slow down were clear. After a dangerous chance for Gladbach at 32, the visitors finally managed to open the score in the 35th minute.
Elved scored after a bad play by Bayern, with Neuer making a misjudged pass to Müller, that lost the ball foolishly in the middle of the field followed by more loose defending by Goretzka, Dier and de Ligt, lead Die Fohlen to open the score at the Allianz Arena. But, just before the halftime whistle, Bayern equalized with Pavlović scoring his second professional goal, after a good pass combination on the right side of the field.
Bayern started the second half having total control of the ball, but with few clear chances. Finally at the 70 minute, Kane managed to scrap a goal, after some confusion between the Gladbach defense and Müller in the middle of the box. VAR double checked, no foul, and the Bavarians were finally ahead. In the end, we even had time for another goal with Sané assisting a nice header from De Ligt.
We also saw Boey make his debut in a Bayern jersey as Mazroui left the field, Tel coming in for Müller just after the second goal, and Davies leaving the field after an injury with Guerreiro coming in.
After Nagelsmann not managing a single win against Die Fohlen in five matches, Tuchel now has the first back to back wins against Gladbach since the 16/17 season, showing some clear improvement for the German coach.
Things We Noticed:
The first thing we can say is that Bayern is slowly getting better in 2024, even though the squad had its bumps and mistakes, we could see a more “controlled” display from Tuchel’s team during most of the match, especially through the midfield duo. Despite some continued mistakes coming from both Goretzka and Pavlović, it was good to see that the chemistry between them is getting better and better.
Dier also had a good match, probably surprising a lot of people in the stands, and could prove to be a great winter signing if he manages to continue this while de Ligt had a bit better performance this time around.
We also need to highlight Alphonso Davies’ performance, after some bad months (maybe seasons), the Canadian is improving again and put in a good performance, showing a lot of will and tracking back more than once to break Gladbach counterattacks.
Another important point: Harry Kane has scored his 24th Bundesliga goal, equaling Luca Toni’s record for the best debut season for the club since 07/08, we will see how many records he will break before the season is over.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: ALEKSANDAR PAVLOVIĆ
If last week we didn’t let Pavlović take the man of the match award, this week I couldn’t find any better option. The midfielder scored the most important goal, an equalizer, won most of his duels, got all his crosses right and had 97% of accuracy in his passes. Another strong performance from the young Serbian-German, showing that even when Kimmich and Laimer are back, he needs to be a contender for the starting eleven.
NEED IMPROVEMENT: JAMAL MUSIALA
A weird statement following last week’s match, but Jamal didn’t implement his style in this match. Maybe due his positioning on the left, but the German missed some important passes and lost possession more than once in good Bayern attacks. Even though none one of his forward colleagues had a good match, like Müller and Sané, he was the only who wasn’t involved directly in a goal, thus gets the dubious nomination this time.
Goals : 0:1 (Elvedi, 35), 1:1 (Pavlović, 45), 2:1 (Kane, 70), 3:1 (de Ligt, 86)
Yellow cards : Neuhaus (30.)FC Bayern Munich : Neuer – Mazraoui (Boey, 62), de Ligt, Dier, Davies (Guerreiro, 85) – Pavlović, Goretzka, L. Sané, T. Müller (Tel, 71), Musiala – Kane
Borussia Mönchengladbach : Nicolas – Scally, Friedrich, Elvedi, Netz (Netz, 62) – Weigl, Honorat (Ranos, 89), Reitz (Fukuda, 85), Neuhaus (Kone, 62), Ngoumou (Hack, 62) – Jordan
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Agree with your remarks Rainer. It’s good to see De Light, Davies in particular, and the whole team in general, is slowly getting back in to rhythm. Which is crucial considering the next 2 matches are decisive for the season. Mazraoui was also surprisingly good considering his recent lengthy injury, and an inconsistent first half.
I think Eric Dier, if not being exposed to high line and 1 vs 1 with fast runner (I mean who would be comfortable with that?) is a very good defender, he’s experienced, physically strong, and has a nice Hummels-ball-switch. In this sense, Tuchel’s tactics to cover the current centre-halfs’ lack of speed is spot on.