With the unplanned departure of Robert Lewandowski before the start of the 2022/23 season, as the legendary Polish striker forced his way out of the club a year prior to the end of his contract and the lack of a suitable replacement on the transfer market that summer, Bayern Munich were left without a world-class number nine in their squad.
They naively thought that they could divide the goal-scoring load across many shoulders, without having that one natural-born finisher. They started the year without any clear number nine, which clearly did not work. Later on, then-coach Julian Nagelsmann finally put his trust in the only centre-forward in the first team, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. To be fair to the veteran Cameroon international, this arrangement worked quite well. Yet, as great a servant as Choupo-Moting was (and still is) to the side, especially around the middle of that term, he simply was not used to the workload of playing so many competitive minutes, causing several minor injuries as well as inconsistencies in his play.
The end result was that Bayern only narrowly won the Bundesliga on goal difference (more by default than on merit) while crashing out at the quarterfinal stage of both the UEFA Champions League and the German Cup. Despite losing to Manchester City by a heavy 4-1 aggregate score in Europe, the Bavarians were not so clearly second-best to the eventual winners. City were simply ruthless in taking their chances in the first leg in particular, while the opposition were toothless up front.
That forced the Bayern board (which had built the club to a global powerhouse largely on the basis of solid financing and resisting the temptation to overspend on the transfer market) to rethink. Thus, in the summer of 2023, they went all in and signed England national team captain Harry Kane from Tottenham.
The Kane Effect
Watch: The Bundesliga’s best new striker is not Harry Kane
Statistics
As of this writing, early in the striker’s first season as it still may be, the signing has improved the team’s play by leaps and bounds. Apart from the fact that Kane makes all of the players around him better, let us quantify his impact. First of all, Bayern as a team have scored 42 goals in their first 11 Bundesliga outings. That is the highest total of any side at this point in the term in the history of the German top-flight.
The new striker has scored 17 of those goals himself (also a record after 11 rounds) and added five assists. In the Champions League, Bayern Munich have already secured the top spot albeit in a uniquely weak section with Manchester United, Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen. Nevertheless, the results still all count the same needless to say. In the four group matches played thus far, Kane recorded four strikes and set up two.
Early elimination from the German Cup demonstrated a possible over-dependence on their new number nine, as they failed to break down third tier 1. FC Saarbrücken with the Englishman rested on the bench that day. Despite that minor slip-up and the fact that Bayern have not been nearly as dominant as most would expect, in terms of results, it was the best start to a season in years. Only the fact that league leaders Bayer Leverkusen have had a near-flawless start keeps Bayern in second place in the Bundesliga table.
Final Thoughts
The team’s fans are proud of the fact that the club do not spend exorbitant amounts of money to the tune of those of most of their European rivals, to say nothing of the teams in Saudi Arabia. Yet, supporters also love Harry Kane. Sometimes it may be necessary to go against one’s beliefs in order to ensure success. It is just important that that does not become the new norm. Bayern needed a new number nine and that kind of quality simply does not come cheap.
