Bayern Munich has fundamental systemic problems

Bayern Munich has started the season quite well despite their last three games.

There is no crisis at all for Bayern. But the last three games have shown fans that the club is still prone to losing while they are more than capable of winning. While it may seem like nothing now, these results will hit the club hard as the season progresses.

This article is in no way an attack on head coach Vincent Kompany. This is not a reactionary piece trying to attack everyone at the club with a pitchfork because of one loss and two draws. There may be a new coach at the helm with a refreshing style of football, but the issues are the same. Here are some factors to consider.

It’s time to start focusing on the players, not the coaches

When Thomas Tuchel crashed and burned last season, much of the blame was immediately placed on the coach and his tactics. Now is a good time to revisit this sentiment. Are fans also supposed to believe that all these players are flawless and Bayern-level?

By matchday four, Kompany seemed to have fixed all of the club’s problems from last season, but now watched as his side faltered on a run of three straight wins. It might be a hard pill to swallow, but maybe some of these players simply don’t have the same unshakable egos they did in the Champions League in 2020 – and until there’s a proper upheaval in the squad, that won’t be the case Change.

Fans were promised a rebuild after last season, only to be met with the controversial sale of two defenders. Meanwhile, the signing of Michael Ollis also caused a stir. He was far from the best winger in the world at the time of signing, but he immediately proved he was a level above Bayern’s other wingers. A clear conclusion can be drawn from this.

In fact, I wrote a very similar article after losing to Saarbrücken last season. A short excerpt from the article:

Tuchel’s performance may have been worse than initially expected, but the point still stands. Here we are – maybe, just maybe – players.

The mentality of mid-table clubs

A trend since the end of 2022 is that one bad result for Bayern will snowball into one after another. In the 2022/23 season, one bad game ended in a draw, leading to the conclusion of three more games. Last season, the bad results took longer and were harder to come by. This season, the trend continues despite the limited sample size. Three different coaches but the same inability to recover from draws/defeats.

It’s a matter of mentality at the club. Bayern are known to come out firing on all cylinders during any lackluster performance. Lately, they seem to be getting more and more frustrated with every game they don’t win.

After the 3-3 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt, some post-match quotes clearly stood out, showcasing the club’s new and clearly different Bayern mentality.

Contrast this with the comments after Matchday 6 of the 2022/23 season, where the situation was almost identical after the 2-2 draw with Stuttgart (via a late equalizer), also a draw in the last two league games.

They do not require elaboration. Simply put, praising a 3-3 draw in a game when Bayern had a chance to be two points ahead is unacceptable at this club, no matter how well they play. Since when did Eintracht Frankfurt (IMHO) play a game against Bayern and expect to win?

There is a mentality problem that has been around for too long. Bayern need to learn to bounce back from games again, because if the club lets one bad result get in the way of the next game… things can quickly go bad like they did last season.

Fascination with gaming style

Tying into the previous point – after last season, everyone at the club was understandably very excited to see attacking football. But the style under Kompany is not the iconic “Bayern” football that everyone thinks it is. There’s far less control and balance when balanced talent has always been Bayern’s hallmark. Latek, Hitzfeld and Jupp Heynckes – they all have distinct stylistic traits but also emphasize balance on the pitch.

This is not to condemn Kompany. Rather, it means that everyone around the club seems to enjoy high possession and presumed dominance every game, but fails to recognize that that alone is not enough to win – as last week was testament to that. Dominating the opposition and playing a “fearless” style of football is just an excuse when you make one mistake, not when you go three games in a row without winning.

Last season, Bayern defeated the powerful Stuttgart team 3-0 with 37% ball possession. This season, they lost to Villa 0-1 with a 70% winning rate. Both of these games could be classified as one-offs, but it goes to show that, ultimately, you get points for a win, not for the time you spent.