Three observations from Bayern Munich’s low-key 2-0 win over SC Freiburg

Bayern Munich huffed, puffed and blew SC Freiburg’s house down with a pair of goals and a lot more chances in a game that was very one-sided other than a 15-minute period in the second half where Bayern looked to be ceding control. Let’s look at some of the primary talking points from this game.

We get some rules to follow: More is less

That and this, these and those… no one knows.

Vincent Kompany is undoubtedly a talented coach at constructing build-up structures, and the Bayern players are undoubtedly skilled at executing said structures, but did Bayern really need to approach the game this many ways? Bayern did not have one or two presets for build-up, but rather it seemed like every time Bayern had a major spell of possession, the shape was completely different. Having free-flowing structures is fine, but when the team is unable to progress the ball because players are just not in the right spaces to receive and release, instead being caught halfway between, what’s the point?

There were discussions in both the BFW staff slack and the Discord available to all our Patrons in the hour leading up to the game about the ways Kompany could be approaching this game given the starting XI. Turns out everyone was right, and that’s not a good thing. There’s a reason no one goes to restaurants that have a menu the size of the Grapes of Wrath.

You’re getting cynical, and that won’t do: Isolating the wings

Photo by Franz Kirchmayr/SEPA.Media /Getty Images

I’d throw the rose tint back on the exploded view.

The shifting build-up structures pretty much had only one thing in common, and it was that neither full-back advanced up their respective side down the touchline, instead staying deep or inverting before advancing. This often meant that the wingers were isolated into their corners of the pitch, unable to link the different parts of the team together. Exacerbating this was the fact that the ‘dual attacking midfielders’ were often dropping back as extra men in build-up (particularly Jamal Musiala), and as a result were unable to be available as a one-touch option in the half-space for Mathys Tel and Serge Gnabry. Tel and Gnabry often ended up taking the ball wide and lost it near the byline or even before that while trying to cut in as they had no other option really, although this did change after a certain record-holder came on.

All that I am, all that I ever was: Thomas Müller.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

Is here in your perfect eyes, they’re all that I can see.

There are now multiple generations of football fans that have never known a Bayern Munich without Thomas Müller. I am one of them. He stands now, uncontested, as Bayern’s record appearance holder, applauded today in the stadium by the very men he surpassed.

Müller offered what Bayern were missing for large parts, a half-space option for the wingers to move play to without taking a big risk. This, combined with the introduction of a runner in Konrad Laimer, caused complete havoc in Freiburg’s half, allowing Bayern to re-establish the control they had lost in the 15 minutes or so prior. This momentum-shifting performance was of course capped by Müller breaking not just one, but a second record by scoring his 150th Bundesliga goal, a typical Müller finish — not aesthetically pleasing, just brutally efficient.

He might be entering the twilight of his career, but make no mistake: Müller is just as dangerous as he used to be. It doesn’t matter if he’s 25 or 35, he was never reliant on his physical traits. Here’s to appreciating every minute we have left.