Jamal Musiala has matured into a complete player

Jamal Musiala is a complete player – thanks to Thomas Müller and Harry Kane

Even without his golden goal, Jamal Musiala would have been the most noticeable player in Bayern’s offensive (SPOX rating: 2) and the best player on the pitch against Benfica.

As the only one of Bayern’s four offensive players, he tried extremely hard to push the game forward in the first 30 minutes. He also kept finding gaps in this multi-legged defense, sometimes even finding gaps that weren’t actually there were. If his teammates had had a little more trust in him and if they had run into the right spaces earlier and more vehemently, there should have been at least more scoring chances in the first 30 minutes.

Musiala’s goal was a rather untypical Musiala goal because it found its way into the goal over the technician’s head and was also scored from very close to the goal.

What does atypical mean? After all, Musiala is the only header scorer for FC Bayern this season; the goal against Benfica was his second with his head. Not so bad for someone who claims that he isn’t actually a good header player. After his debut header in the 5-0 win against VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, Musiala burst into laughter in front of the TV microphones after saying “Oh, my God.”

Of course, Musiala’s greatest strengths are and remain his enormous technical skills, his ball magnetism in his feet, the way he sets up his teammates and tears apart opposing defenses. But Musiala, who is still only 21 years old, is developing more and more into a complete player in the offensive. He has become more robust in duels and seems to be able to read the game even better – and now there is also his new found love for headers. “Jamal is actually not a bad header player. He just has to try it more often,” analyzed Thomas Müller and gave the 14-year-younger a piece of wisdom, so to speak from an out-of-the-box football thinker veteran to the younger one. “Goals usually come in the box. That’s why it’s important that Jamal goes closer to the goal more often. And then he enjoys it when he has the feeling that he can do that too,” said Müller.

Müller might also have said that Musiala would like to learn something from him, the great interpreter of space and master of timing. Of course he didn’t do that, coach Vincent Kompany did that instead. “This goal was all about him being in the right position. I think he has the right role models in the team. In training he really likes to watch how Thomas Muller and Harry Kane move in these areas , six, seven meters in front of the goal and then you’re in the right position.”