This is extremely uncharacteristic of the great German champions. Bayern Munich have suffered two consecutive draws in their return to league action after the Winter and World Cup breaks, cutting their lead to only 3 points atop the Bundesliga.
Okay, this blip in form really isn’t too much to worry about for a Bayern Munich squad that has overseen 10 straight Bundesliga titles head to Bavaria. Still, the goalkeeper chaos and lack of goalscoring threats is something to worry about in the Champions League.
Ever since Manuel Neuer foolishly got his leg broken in a vacation skiing accident that may end his legendary career prematurely, Bayern have been relentless in the transfer market in trying to sign a new goalkeeper to fill the mantel.
Now, they were able to sign Yann Sommer from Borussia Mönchengladbach a week ago, though the hastiness behind the deal and the controversy surrounding loanee goalkeeper Alex Nubel (who is on loan at Monaco) has cast a cloud of aspersion over the club that hasn’t been there in decades.
Namely, Bayern Munich might have a serious goaltending problem on its hands.
Yes, Yann Sommer has been a really good keeper throughout his career and is more than capable of tending the Bayern net, but what happens to him if Manuel Neuer comes back from his injury? And what about Alex Nubel, who is 12 years younger than Sommer and the presumptive “understudy” to Neuer? Is he now out of the picture completely?
Nubel’s situation may be unclear, but Neuer’s is looking more and more resolved by the day as not only has Sommer been brought in to replace him, but the German legend’s longtime goalkeeping coach, Toni Tapalovic, has also been fired for leaking staff talks to players.
With Tapalovic being one of Neuer’s closest friends at the club and even the Best Man at his wedding, it certainly seems like Bayern is making the initial steps to replace their all-time great keeper.
As for the offense, I guess losing the 40-50 goals that Robert Lewandowski brought each year had a pretty big impact. It’s not like EVERYONE and their sister could have predicted Bayern’s terrible (by their lofty standards) goalscoring issues this season.
Sure, Bayern are averaging 3 goals/game and have a whopping 51 goals in the league so far, but a lot of those goals have come in blowout victories.
What do I mean? Out of the 51 goals Bayern Munich has scored in the Bundesliga this season, 34 of them have come in games where the 32X Bundesliga champions have beaten their opponents by 4 or more goals. So, in other words, Bayern Munich has scored 67% of their goals in blowouts. That’s rather high and telling of the true potency of the Bayern offense given the club’s 6 draws in the Bundesliga already.
It’s no secret that the gulf of quality between the best teams in the Bundesliga versus the relegation fodder is wider than the Atlantic Ocean, which explains why Bayern Munich has been able to tally so many goals against these opponents.
Moreover, Bayern has yet to beat RB Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Union Berlin (their closest title rivals this season), or Borussia Dortmund this season, even though the club has faced off against each one of its rivals at least once in the league so far.
So, do I think Bayern will finally come up short in the title race? Uh…no.
I think the offense of Sadio Mane, Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala will get their acts together in the big games, while the defense will continue to be the best unit in all of Germany. It might just take a little while longer for everything to click under new manager Julian Nagelsmann .
The Champions League will be a different story as teams like Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, PSG, Milan, Inter, and their own German rivals will be difficult to bring down without a world class striker core.
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