After Bayern Munich’s difficult victory over Augsburg FC, who stood out? Let’s see:
Jersey Swap: Kristijan Jakić
The Augsburg midfielder put in a big performance, running around and constantly pressing Bayern, fouling, getting fouled, intercepting passes and proving to be a pain to Bayern. Though, of course, the main reason he gets the award is the goal and assist he provided as Augsburg somehow managed to nearly come back from a 3-0 deficit. There were questions about how well Jakić would adapt to new head coach Sandro Wagner’s
demands for a possession based style of play. Is he really good enough on the ball? A starring performance against Bayern, where the Bavarians dominated the ball, will not help alleviate those specific concerns but putting in these kinds of performances regularly will surely still make him undroppable.
Der Kaiser: Josip Stanišić
This is not supposed t0 be the Croat’s best position. He is a right-back, or a center-back in a pinch. Not a left-back, right? But his role on the left has seen him hit new heights. Instead of playing as a standard left-back, Stanišić has been given the freedom of the pitch by Vincent Kompany, who knows the Bayern youth academy graduate will use it well. This role helped open up RB Leipzig last week but it caused even more devastation here. Whether it is underlapping runs, overlapping runs, drifting into midfield or even making runs into the No. 10 role, Augsburg had no idea how to deal with Bayern’s makeshift left back and it tore open holes that Bayern’s offense could exploit. He faded in the second half as Augsburg attacked more and in turn forced Stanišić to defend more, but the damage had already been done.
Der Fußballgott: Serge Gnabry
None of Bayern’s midfielders truly shined. Leon Goretzka did little of note and gave up on marking anybody for the first goal, Aleksandar Pavlović came in only to deliver an error prone performance and Kimmich did not quite hit his stratospherically high standards. So, while Serge Gnabry may only barely qualify as a midfielder, he gets the award. The makeshift attacking midfielder is clearly a confidence player and is currently in a rich vein of form. After dismantling RB Leipzig last weekend, he shrugged off being benched for the midweek DFB Pokal match and kept on playing well. Obviously, he scored the opening goal but he tracked back well, demonstrated some intelligent movement and facilitated a lot of attacking play. Germany national team manager Julian Nagelsmann recently spoke of how Gnabry has become more of a central forward rather than a wide forward and this early form is certainly proving him right.
Der Bomber: Michael Olise
Michael Olise has certainly played better in the past. He missed some sitters, he played some poor passes, he collected a silly yellow and he should have finished off the game with an easy 1-on-1 chance he hit straight at the goalkeeper after Augbsurg had just scored their second goal. Simultaneously, he had some typically brilliant moments as well. He created some massive chances through some typically fantastic passes, scored the match winner with an incredibly clinical finish and ran his socks off for the team. All in all, it was a good performance.
Meister of the Match: Harry Kane
Who else could it be? Every time Harry Kane touched the ball, there was the chance something special would happen. On his 100th appearance for the Bavarians, the England captain may not have scored a goal but he ran the game. The first goal owed everything to his peach of a cross, he claimed an assist for the third goal and he pinged one unbelievable pass after another all game. Kane is and remains an absolutely world class player.
