Respected German football journalist and author Raphael Honigstein believes the criticism of Bayern Munich’s attack from earlier this season was somewhat premature.
Honigstein, one of the leading English-language voices covering German football, has spent years analyzing Bayern Munich and the Bundesliga for outlets such as The Athletic and The Guardian. Speaking to Casino Guru, he explained why Bayern’s recent struggles were not necessarily cause for alarm.
“Yeah, it was an emphatic win [over RB Leipzig],
and one that really came at a good time, with the Arsenal game looming. A few people were criticizing the team and doubting the team after two draws, which, by Bayern’s standards, is sort of a mini-crisis,” Honigstein said.
According to Honigstein, Bayern Munich’s underlying performances had been strong despite the disappointing results. The problem was that defensive mistakes, particularly against FC Augsburg, made life unnecessarily difficult for the German champions.
Bayern Munich’s attacking quality has rarely been in question, and Honigstein believes the team remains one of the most dangerous in Europe when it combines that firepower with defensive discipline.
“They were much more on it, they were much more focused, and we know that this is a team that, if they’re defensively solid and if they’re on their game, is very, very difficult to stop,” Honigstein said.
He even suggested that only one team might rival FC Bayern’s attacking threat when everything clicks.
“I don’t think that, with the possible exception of PSG, there’s any attack in Europe that has quite the same potency, fluidity, and sort of sense of inevitability around them as this Bayern team have when they’re in full flow,” Honigstein said.
That should give Arsenal something to think about (well, maybe—depending on how Vincent Kompany aligns this unit):
Bayern Munich has the attacking firepower to trouble any opponent, but it cannot afford to repeat the defensive lapses that allowed FC Augsburg to punish it.
The emphatic victory offered a timely reminder of what Kompany’s team can accomplish when focused and firing on all cylinders. Now, Bayern Munich must carry that momentum into their European showdown and prove that the recent dropped points were merely a temporary stumble rather than a sign of deeper problems.
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