The Munich team have to be content with a 3-3 draw in Frankfurt. Coach Vincent Kompany calls for calm. The player Thomas Müller says: “I really enjoy being in this crisis.”
Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller in a duel with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Tuta. The game ends in a draw.
Michael Probst / AP
How long will the honeymoon of FC Bayern and its new coach Vincent Kompany last? In any case, football aesthetes should like what the Munich team is currently offering, because it is unconditionally offensive. Acting like a home team was Bayern’s motto in Frankfurt against the former second-place team, who themselves have great ambitions.
In the end it was 3:3. A match in which the Munich team showed everything that sets them apart these weeks – in the positive, but also in the negative. Committed, robust and extremely dominant: these are the positive attributes. But the vulnerability that cost Bayern two wins within a week also became apparent.
The opponents are more efficient than Bayern
The weekend before, FC Bayern only played 1-1 against champions Leverkusen despite their overwhelming superiority; it was a high-level match that actually should have been won. In the Champions League, Munich lost 0-1 to Aston Villa. Here, too, they were overwhelmingly superior in terms of share of the game, but the opponent was simply more efficient.
In this respect, the match against Eintracht was much more than just routine. The Frankfurters are in brilliant shape, and this was also evident in the first half: the Munich team quickly took the lead through Kim Min-jae, which Omar Marmoush, currently the best center forward in the Bundesliga, promptly equalized.
Bayern were able to equalize a deficit caused by Hugo Ekitiké before the break through Dayot Upamecano. When Michael Olise took the lead to 3-2, Munich looked like the sure winners. They were still looking for the decisive fourth goal in stoppage time. Then Marmoush thwarted the plans again with a rapid counterattack in the 94th minute, which he executed in cold blood.
Two goals against Bayern: Omar Marmoush, Egyptian striker from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Christopher Neundorf / EPA
What was billed as a top game was more than just that: it was a spectacle. And it is precisely this circumstance that is likely to cause some concern for Bayern’s management team. Because what coach Vincent Kompany practices is unique in the league in its unconditionality. And the risk that Bayern is taking is just as high.
What speaks for the Belgian, however, is the mood within the team. When Thomas Müller stepped in front of the DAZN microphone after the game, he said undaunted: “Frankfurt can score a maximum of four goals. If we play it like this 15 times, we will win it 13 times. It was a pleasure to see how we restricted the opponent.”
The coach himself is equally convinced of the playing facility. Kompany exceeded Müller’s prediction: “I would say: even 14 times,” said Kompany. «Let’s just stay calm. What the players showed was a great performance.”
15 games, 14 wins?
The belief that things will work out is great in Munich. It goes without saying that experts find this style of play quite debatable. And opinions are quite volatile in football. Lothar Matthäus, Germany’s most renowned TV expert, recently praised Kompany’s football in the highest tones. Matthäus even went so far as to claim that Bayern’s game was better than in Pep Guardiola’s time.
But such judgments often come from an enthusiasm that is due to the moment. Because what Kompany is missing in order to bring his idea of football onto the pitch without major friction losses is simply defense at the highest level against opponents who are halfway equal.
Against Aston Villa, Bayern conceded a goal after a counterattack, similar to Marmoush’s 3-3 draw. The goal conceded in the Champions League was blamed on goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, but Bayern are essentially paying the price for their risky play. Kompany is ready to take this risk. When asked after the match against Aston Villa, he said that Munich football showed his personality.
Leverkusen are out of step
Kompany is still in the process of optimizing his team’s processes and creating a system in which this risk is largely eliminated. He is therefore on the opposite path to the competition that Bayern wants to challenge this year, which also includes champions Leverkusen.
Things are a bit difficult for the team around the Swiss leading player Granit Xhaka. What worked perfectly last season has lost some of its sovereignty. In the 2-2 draw against Holstein Kiel on Saturday, Leverkusen gave up a two-goal lead – and the reactions to the draw couldn’t have been more different from the performance of record champions FC Bayern.
While the defending champions have doubts, there is a conviction in Munich that they are doing everything right. “You interpret the results,” replied Thomas Müller to the TV analysts. «We just didn’t win. But I really enjoy being in this crisis.”
