It is always lovely to start a season with silverware and Bayern Munich has done it.
The erstwhile-DFL Supercup, now known as the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup in honour of the late Beckenbauer, is always a lovely start to Bayern’s season. It has been a while since they won it, having lost to Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2023, and having not played it at all in 2024. Now that order is restored and Bayern are back to their winning ways. Bayern faced VfB Stuttgart, the DFB Pokal winners for the prestigious trophy.
The game mostly ran in Bayern’s favour despite the shambolic refereeing and there were several talking points from it. Let’s look at them.
This game could have easily gone Stuttgart’s way…
… if it weren’t for the fact that we have an incredible defense.
The defense does not just refer to the glorious center-back pairing in Dayot Upamecano and Jonathan Tah, it also refers to the greatest goalkeeper in human history, Manuel Neuer.
Upamecano and Tah might as well be amongst Bayern’s best in-league purchases in recent history. It is not just that they are both incredibly composed and intelligent players, they also have a keen attacking mindset. It is noteworthy that Tah, though very new to the club, has already begun expressing his passion. Their off-ball movements are fantastic and particularly their tackling is extremely clean. They communicate extremely well with each other, which is why it comes as no surprise that Nick Woltemade spent a majority of the game locked by the duo.
The CB pairing effectively shut down a majority of Stuttgart’s attacking chances and gave them virtually no way of winning.
Manuel Peter Neuer. Every time there is concerns of him being too old to still be starting, he shuts down all avenue for criticism by performing extraordinarily. One cannot simply still be criticizing the man who came out of injury at his age and still performs like a 20-something goalkeeper. He singlehandedly squashed every attempt on target barring the one in the 93rd minute. He handled the collateral damage of Sacha Boey’s performance with such ease and grace.
Speaking of Sacha Boey, the French defender returned to his usual form of looking lost and woefully miserable at right-back. He was also singlehandedly responsible for the goal scored by Jamie Lewelling, and squashed the team’s efforts at a clean sheet. Perhaps he is exhibiting selective retrograde amnesia, having forgotten how to defend after he had just shown he could in the preseason. However, he is not the only one, for there are other parties who have forgotten the preseason too, more on them later.
Blessing the starved with competence
Luis Diaz’s performance at left-wing has proven one thing. Bayern were clearly starved for a competent left-winger for far too long.
The right predominance from last season was a direct result of unsatisfactory options at left wing, and the phenomenal chemistry from the duo of Michael Olise and Konrad Laimer. However, with Díaz, Bayern are looking at a winger who is willing to run and fight all game-long. They no longer are stuck with players who dribble and lose the ball — Díaz dribbles, makes dangerous chances and passes to the best of options he has available in front of him.
Preferably this option should be Harry Kane, but that’s an argument for another day when we have an actual attacking midfielder.
Unfortunately, for now, his option is mostly just Serge Gnabry who put everything but the right foot forward. Barring his assist in the 77th minute when he struck a beautiful cross in Díaz’s direction, and the Portuguese star converted it into a fantastic goall.
Diaz unfortunately, was forced to perform a reverse Alphonso Davies as he performed both for the left wing and left back positions. The day Davies returns, he might cry tears of joy realizing he has an actual left winger to play with, and Díaz would sob, rejoicing never having to defend ever again. The entire Bayern fanbase waits for that day to come…and hopefully it is at the soonest.
Michael Olise is working late…
Not because he’s a singer, but because he’s doing Serge Gnabry’s job as well.
It is unfortunate that we had to witness Olise play both attacking midfield and right-wing today. Gnabry, who was supposed to play AM, looked so lost and out-of-touch the whole time (and yet was not subbed off for the longest). Olise working overtime is not a good look, as not only did he do two jobs at once partially, but also left Laimer looking more clueless than ever. Neither did the Frenchman do justice to the wing, nor did he fill the lacuna in AM. Laimer, who did not look his best even individually, also was hit massively as he could not correspond with Olise regularly enough to initiate attacks from the flank.
It is high time Bayern bring in an AM like Lennart Karl or even Tom Bischof until Musiala can return. This is the need of the hour because clearly, overworking Olise causes more problems than the team is capable of solving.
A certain Leon Goretzka took over the attacking side of things and moved forward, as Kimmich fed him from the back and far right. Of course, this was a partial solution to an otherwise threatening problem. But…
Leon Goretzka might be back at his best.
Vincent Kompany has somehow overnight solved the Goretzka puzzle. After a season of subpar performances, Goretzka finally looked incredibly well-utilized and sharp.
How long has it been since he made his late runs into the box? Far too long for the team’s good.
Kimmich won battles, identified Goretzka who’d already made the run by this point to a strong position, and sent some fantastic long balls which were then either turned into potent chances by Goretzka himself or passed to another better positioned player. Utilising Goretzka’s attacking strengths and placing him in positions from where he is comfortable scoring is clearly a Vincent Kompany masterclass.
The fact is, learning how to use the duo at midfield is the only way to dominate and win games.
But clearly, Vincent Kompany is back to being himself.
How else can one justify the overnight change in personality?
The manager went from fielding youngsters against major European teams days ago, to playing Gnabry to 80 minutes despite his mostly subpar game. Gnabry was replaced by Raphaël Guerreiro, and not either of Lennart Karl or Tom Bischof made it on before the 90th minute.
It is unfortunate that Kompany had made that much progress, in learning that he could field youngsters against strong teams and win convincingly, only to forget it as the shine of silverware blinded him.
