Bayern Munich’s form in the Bundesliga has dipped slightly in the past month, much to the surprise of pretty much everybody in the footballing world. Astonishingly they have not won in the last three games with a 3-3 draw against Hoffenheim followed by two defeats, 1-0 and 3-0 to Augsburg and Borussia Dortmund respectively.
However it’s not been all that bad for Bayern Munich recently. After all they did win the Bundesliga with a few games to spare and they are in the Champions League semi-finals as well as the final of the DFB Pokal. They still managed a 4-2 aggregate win over Manchester United in the Champions League and a 5-1 victory over Kaiserslautern in the DFB Pokal semi-finals. Bayern are definitely in a bad run of form.
Sarcasm aside and there is a simple and obvious explanation that could explain the sudden drop in form for the Bavarian giants. ESPN’s Susie Schaff claimed that Bayern’s manager Pep Guardiola has been tinkering with the tactics in Bundesliga games such as “Der Klassiker” last weekend.
Whilst Schaff criticised Guardiola for experimenting with tactics in the game against Borussia Dortmund, she brought up one point that almost counters her own argument. The game didn’t exactly matter to either side. Bayern has already won the title, whilst even Jurgen Klopp was forced to admit that the game was essentially meaningless.
Yes, Dortmund wanted to send a message to their biggest rivals in the game. And yes they were successful in sending that message. And yes, the 3-0 win will be brought up when these two sides meet again next month in the final of the DFB Pokal. But again, I doubt the message will be too damning for Bayern considering that they didn’t exactly feel the need to win.
And why should they? After all a match with Kaiserslautern, which they won comfortably, is more important at this stage. An aggregate win over Real Madrid would be very important at this stage too. Guardiola recognises that Bayern could make history and be the first team to win the European treble in consecutive seasons. This would be an unprecedented feat that could very well make them the best team in the history of club football.
And all it would take for that to happen is to stop trying in the Bundesliga which sounds wonderful in theory. Except that we all know that this Bayern team hates to lose and they would love to have a significant margin in terms of points against their nearest rivals at the end of the season.
Therefore Guardiola will attempt to find a middle ground and try to keep Bayern focused and competitive even in the games that don’t matter. And judging by what has happened over the past month, Guardiola is recognising that there are some chances to experiment with his side a little. It is a prime opportunity to see what works and give some players some much needed game time.
Bayern Munich set out with an unorthodox 3-3-3-1 formation according to Schaaf’s report. Quite clearly the formation did not work as much as Guardiola would have hoped for. A back three is quite uncommon in modern football with very few teams implementing three centre-backs for a defence. Juventus and Napoli used to play a back three quite a bit in recent seasons and the Greek national team played a back three in the European Championships two years ago but that’s about it.
There are some positives to the experiment though. Guardiola decided to rest Manuel Neuer in their match against Kaiserslautern in order for him to be fully fit for their upcoming tie with Real Madrid. With that being said, Lukas Raeder only came in when Germany’s number one had a calf strain; one has to ask the question that if Neuer was not injured then would Raeder get game time.
The bottom line is that Guardiola has an exciting opportunity to see what else he could do with his Bayern side considering he has all these expendable games in the Bundesliga. I would not be surprised if I see another loss or two towards the end of the season for Bayern and if they do the unthinkable and win consecutive trebles— then well it’s worth it.
On the next edition of the “Hand of Brod”, Broderick Sutherland will be looking into the financial fair play and how it will affect teams like Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain.
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