<b>Bundesliga Matchday 31 Preview: Bayern against Gladbach</b>
Will Bayern be able to seal the title this weekend already? Without Lewandowski and Müller, the side from Munich will host Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday evening at 6:30 pm.In the first half of their DFB-Pokal semifinal against Frankfurt, Bayern were able to seamlessly build upon their previous performances since the resumption of play: Full control, lots of variability, maximum pressure on the opponent – Flick’s football is a feast for the eyes in such moments. In this form, the team does not have to fear any competition in Europe. And this is not diminished by the fact that even in such a strong first half, one or two mistakes crept in.Yet such mistakes are less important when the players are positioned close to the ball, are able to launch their gegenpressing immediately and win the ball back. Frankfurt were second best in almost all situations, were hardly able to conjure a situation in front of goal, and in the rare cases when they were able to initiate a counterattack, they always had to cover too much distance to Manuel Neuer’s goal because Bayern were pinning them back ceaselessly at their own penalty area.In the second half, this picture changed completely. Frankfurt pushed up much more aggressively and caught Bayern out several times. The record champions let themselves be infected by a completely different rhythm of the game. Frankfurt were the ones who set the pace. At the beginning of the second half, the game went back and forth and it was only Adi Hütter’s team that profited from that. Instead of letting the ball and the opponent run after regaining possession, Bayern tried again and again to force the issue and score the second goal. The result: Unnecessary turnovers, more possession for Frankfurt and a loss of control.<a href="#not-enough-squad-depth"></a>Not enough squad depth?At least Flick cannot be blamed for not reacting. With the substitution of Lucas Hernández and Thiago, he wanted to gain more control of the game and pacify the wild back and forth the game had become. The idea was the right one. Even though he had to sacrifice both wingers, it was now more important to stabilize the centre. A set of Thiago, Kimmich, Goretzka, and Müller should be more than equal to this task.Fortunately, reality proved Flick right not much later. Bayern were now playing with a little bit more composure, but had sacrificed some of their pressure going forward as well. However, it was precisely in this phase of gradually regaining command that Frankfurt scored the equaliser and everything was back to square one.In the end, Bayern managed to eke out a victory. Müller said in front of the cameras that fatigue had played a role. And it was obvious, too. Even with the reconfigured midfield and a better positioning, Bayern did not manage to outplay Frankfurt’s high pressing as straightforwardly as could have been expected. The players’ movements simply did not harmonize any more. Pavard, for example, when he was under pressure on the right no longer immediately found a passing option in the half spaces in attack. Frankfurt’s players managed to challenge their opponents and recover the ball much faster. Especially but not only Kohr and Hinteregger demonstrated how unpleasant an opponent Frankfurt can be once they start fighting for every quarter. If you let this team get close to you, it will become painful.Müller’s statement indicates that Bayern simply lacked the physical and mental freshness to maintain their command of the game over the full 90 minutes and let Frankfurt do the running. The fact that Frankfurt was able to turn the game into a much more open affair in the second half also prevented Bayern from having longer spells of recovery while circulating the ball in possession.But can Flick be blamed that after the long virus induced break he was keen to get his team into a rhythm and thus has been making very few changes over the past few weeks? Only…
Will Bayern be able to seal the title this weekend already? Without Lewandowski and Müller, the side from Munich will host Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday evening at 6:30 pm.In the first half of their DFB-Pokal semifinal against Frankfurt, Bayern were able to seamlessly build upon their previous performances since the resumption of play: Full control, lots of variability, maximum pressure on the opponent – Flick’s football is a feast for the eyes in such moments. In this form, the team does not have to fear any competition in Europe. And this is not diminished by the fact that even in such a strong first half, one or two mistakes crept in.Yet such mistakes are less important when the players are positioned close to the ball, are able to launch their gegenpressing immediately and win the ball back. Frankfurt were second best in almost all situations, were hardly able to conjure a situation in front of goal, and in the rare cases when they were able to initiate a counterattack, they always had to cover too much distance to Manuel Neuer’s goal because Bayern were pinning them back ceaselessly at their own penalty area.In the second half, this picture changed completely. Frankfurt pushed up much more aggressively and caught Bayern out several times. The record champions let themselves be infected by a completely different rhythm of the game. Frankfurt were the ones who set the pace. At the beginning of the second half, the game went back and forth and it was only Adi Hütter’s team that profited from that. Instead of letting the ball and the opponent run after regaining possession, Bayern tried again and again to force the issue and score the second goal. The result: Unnecessary turnovers, more possession for Frankfurt and a loss of control.<a href="#not-enough-squad-depth"></a>Not enough squad depth?At least Flick cannot be blamed for not reacting. With the substitution of Lucas Hernández and Thiago, he wanted to gain more control of the game and pacify the wild back and forth the game had become. The idea was the right one. Even though he had to sacrifice both wingers, it was now more important to stabilize the centre. A set of Thiago, Kimmich, Goretzka, and Müller should be more than equal to this task.Fortunately, reality proved Flick right not much later. Bayern were now playing with a little bit more composure, but had sacrificed some of their pressure going forward as well. However, it was precisely in this phase of gradually regaining command that Frankfurt scored the equaliser and everything was back to square one.In the end, Bayern managed to eke out a victory. Müller said in front of the cameras that fatigue had played a role. And it was obvious, too. Even with the reconfigured midfield and a better positioning, Bayern did not manage to outplay Frankfurt’s high pressing as straightforwardly as could have been expected. The players’ movements simply did not harmonize any more. Pavard, for example, when he was under pressure on the right no longer immediately found a passing option in the half spaces in attack. Frankfurt’s players managed to challenge their opponents and recover the ball much faster. Especially but not only Kohr and Hinteregger demonstrated how unpleasant an opponent Frankfurt can be once they start fighting for every quarter. If you let this team get close to you, it will become painful.Müller’s statement indicates that Bayern simply lacked the physical and mental freshness to maintain their command of the game over the full 90 minutes and let Frankfurt do the running. The fact that Frankfurt was able to turn the game into a much more open affair in the second half also prevented Bayern from having longer spells of recovery while circulating the ball in possession.But can Flick be blamed that after the long virus induced break he was keen to get his team into a rhythm and thus has been making very few changes over the past few weeks? Only…
<b>Miasanrot Awards: Signing of the season 2019/20</b>
We have already presented our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/miasanrot-youth-player-of-the-season-angelo-stiller/">young player of the season</a>, our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/msr-awards-most-improved-player-of-the-season/">most improved player of the season</a>, and our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/miasanrot-player-of-the-season-robert-lewandowski/">player of the season</a>. In this article, well will reveal our new signing of the season. It proved to be no contest. Benjamin Pavard unanimously won our vote.Looking back, it is interesting to observe the buzz surrounding Bayern’s announcement of their signing Benjamin Pavard in January 2019. If you take yourself back to the time, the general mood then seems to have been from another century from today’s perspective. That Bayern would go on to win the Champions League just 18 months later seemed inconceivable.There was a great deal of criticism and doomsaying: Criticism of Hasan Salihamidžić, coach Niko Kovač, the club’s transfer policy – there was almost no thing at FC Bayern that was not thoroughly lambasted. After their later elimination from the Champions League against Liverpool and their befuddling transfer window in summer of that year, all of this criticism should become even more fierce.Initially, the signing of Benjamin Pavard did not attract much attention when the discussion came to Bayern’s decisive players in the squad for the new season. He was regarded as a relegated player. Bayern were considered very audacious, to say the least, to sign a player who was seen as an also-ran in France’s World Cup bid and had not shown much of anything since for €35 million. Not everyone held this view, but a lot of people did. Many considered Pavard to become Bayern’s next expensive bench warmer and they called for more expensive signings of the caliber of a Lucas Hernandéz.<a href="#not-much-expectation-substantial-return"></a>Not much expectation, substantial returnNow, many months later, many will have changed their view of Pavard, and some may even have deleted their Twitter or Facebook posts about him of early 2019. Even some journalists and pundits were under the spell of his relatively poor season following his World Cup success. They ignored or forgot that many a young player goes through a slump after an achievement like that. They ignored or forgot that VfB Stuttgart was swiftly declining into a shambles during the season and expected that the 22-year old would single-handedly plug the holes in their porous defense.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/signingoftheseason2020-650x650.png">Media</a>Sources: (Image by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) ; (Image by Christof Stache/Pool via Getty Images)Perhaps this generally low level of expectations helped Pavard to quietly further his development in the shadow of other, more prominent players around him. Public discussion often revolved around Lucas Hernandéz and his exorbitant transfer fee, <a href="https://miasanrot.com/leroy-sane-signs-for-fc-bayern/">Leroy Sané</a> and his endless transfer saga dominated the headlines even more often. But Pavard? Almost unnoticed, he evolved into a first team regular, continuously improving from game to game.The Frenchman became the team’s anchor in defense and, especially since the arrival of Hansi Flick, stabilized the whole team. Still, even towards the end of the season, as Bayern’s chances of winning the Champions League became more and more real, other players still garnered most of the attention.<a href="#pavard-should-win-the-unsung-hero-award"></a>Pavard should win the “unsung hero award”For this reason, Pavard is probably the player most qualified for the “unsung hero award”. He does not have Joshua Kimmich’s impact in attack, which will certainly play a big part in his relative anonymity. But he provides balance to the extremely risky playing style of his side.Despite…
We have already presented our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/miasanrot-youth-player-of-the-season-angelo-stiller/">young player of the season</a>, our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/msr-awards-most-improved-player-of-the-season/">most improved player of the season</a>, and our <a href="https://miasanrot.com/miasanrot-player-of-the-season-robert-lewandowski/">player of the season</a>. In this article, well will reveal our new signing of the season. It proved to be no contest. Benjamin Pavard unanimously won our vote.Looking back, it is interesting to observe the buzz surrounding Bayern’s announcement of their signing Benjamin Pavard in January 2019. If you take yourself back to the time, the general mood then seems to have been from another century from today’s perspective. That Bayern would go on to win the Champions League just 18 months later seemed inconceivable.There was a great deal of criticism and doomsaying: Criticism of Hasan Salihamidžić, coach Niko Kovač, the club’s transfer policy – there was almost no thing at FC Bayern that was not thoroughly lambasted. After their later elimination from the Champions League against Liverpool and their befuddling transfer window in summer of that year, all of this criticism should become even more fierce.Initially, the signing of Benjamin Pavard did not attract much attention when the discussion came to Bayern’s decisive players in the squad for the new season. He was regarded as a relegated player. Bayern were considered very audacious, to say the least, to sign a player who was seen as an also-ran in France’s World Cup bid and had not shown much of anything since for €35 million. Not everyone held this view, but a lot of people did. Many considered Pavard to become Bayern’s next expensive bench warmer and they called for more expensive signings of the caliber of a Lucas Hernandéz.<a href="#not-much-expectation-substantial-return"></a>Not much expectation, substantial returnNow, many months later, many will have changed their view of Pavard, and some may even have deleted their Twitter or Facebook posts about him of early 2019. Even some journalists and pundits were under the spell of his relatively poor season following his World Cup success. They ignored or forgot that many a young player goes through a slump after an achievement like that. They ignored or forgot that VfB Stuttgart was swiftly declining into a shambles during the season and expected that the 22-year old would single-handedly plug the holes in their porous defense.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/signingoftheseason2020-650x650.png">Media</a>Sources: (Image by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images) ; (Image by Christof Stache/Pool via Getty Images)Perhaps this generally low level of expectations helped Pavard to quietly further his development in the shadow of other, more prominent players around him. Public discussion often revolved around Lucas Hernandéz and his exorbitant transfer fee, <a href="https://miasanrot.com/leroy-sane-signs-for-fc-bayern/">Leroy Sané</a> and his endless transfer saga dominated the headlines even more often. But Pavard? Almost unnoticed, he evolved into a first team regular, continuously improving from game to game.The Frenchman became the team’s anchor in defense and, especially since the arrival of Hansi Flick, stabilized the whole team. Still, even towards the end of the season, as Bayern’s chances of winning the Champions League became more and more real, other players still garnered most of the attention.<a href="#pavard-should-win-the-unsung-hero-award"></a>Pavard should win the “unsung hero award”For this reason, Pavard is probably the player most qualified for the “unsung hero award”. He does not have Joshua Kimmich’s impact in attack, which will certainly play a big part in his relative anonymity. But he provides balance to the extremely risky playing style of his side.Despite…
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Miasanrot Awards: Youth player of the season 2019/20
Not only FC Bayern's first team finished their season on an historic high, but also their reserve team managed to achieve unprecedented success, winning the championship in the 3. Liga as the first reserve team in history. Key to this success was without…