<b>Bundesliga Matchday 33 Preview: Bayern against Freiburg</b>
There are just two more matches to go in this Bundesliga season before FC Bayern will be officially handed the <em>Meisterschale</em>, having already sealed the title mathematically against Bremen in midweek. The first of these matches will be at home against SC Freiburg today. With a view to the packed football schedule after the season entailed by the unplanned coronavirus break, Hansi Flick in his pre-match press conference on Friday voiced concerns about the workload of the players who he thinks will need a proper rest after the end of the season to refuel their energy tanks again. It is fair to say that first signs of mental tiredness and physical wear have already crept in at Bayern now. With several players out before the Freiburg game, the title already in the bag, and Freiburg still fighting for a Europa League place, how will they cope? Our preview.<a href="#worn-out-champions"></a>Worn-out championsThere was not the usual exuberant party with <em>Weißbier</em> showers, loud music booming from the stadium PA, and prolonged processions in front of their fans after Bayern had finally secured their eight consecutive Bundesliga title against Bremen on Tuesday with a narrow 0-1 victory. The players celebrated in the changing room among themselves, and in this reduced form, the celebrations were somehow befitting their prior performance on the pitch. Bayern was unusually sloppy in their passing and pressing. They lost many balls in situations in which in the weeks before they would have comfortably and composedly found a way to outplay their opponents. They did not use their chances and were miles off their usual clinical shape in front of goal. But perhaps most telling of all was their somewhat unorganized rearguard action during the final 10 minutes of the game, which almost allowed Bremen to level the score at the last minute.<a href="#the-mental-and-physical-toll-tells"></a>The mental and physical toll tellsThe match against Bremen continued a trend that had already become apparent in the two prior matches against Gladbach and Frankfurt. In the last few weeks, Bayern have lost a bit of their usual dominance and almost casual command of a game. In the second half against Frankfurt in the DFB-Pokal, this was still more than understandable. They had played a stellar first half and were a goal up at half time, they had already cut Frankfurt to ribbons two weeks earlier, the league match against Gladbach was looming large, and it was an ‘out of order’ game, a cup contest which Flick later said was ill-timed given the density of league games on the season’s final stretch. Certainly, several of the players will have felt similarly and will have been more concerned with saving energy and not getting injured in the second half.Against Gladbach a few days later, Flick for the first time in a long time, partly by volition and partly by necessity, chose to rotate his squad quite a bit. With Müller and Lewandowski having to be replaced and Davies and Coman getting a rest, Hernandez, Cuisance, Perisic and Zirkzee made the starting lineup. Later in the game, even second team player Wriedt got a look in for the final 15 minutes of the game. Add to that a competitor in Gladbach for whom every point counts in their fight for the Champions League, and an unusually mixed and inconsistent performance against a no-nonsene and highly vertical Gladbach should not come as a great surprise. Bayern lacked their customary composure and control in midfield as well as the creative spark of Thomas Müller in attack and was caught out out time and again by Gladbach’s vertical forward play. Yet against Bremen with Müller and Lewandowski back in the starting lineup and Bremen featuring as somewhat of a whipping boy anyway when Bayern comes to town, one could have reasonably expected more than a narrow 0-1 away win on the back of a thoroughly disjointed performance against a side who has looked…
There are just two more matches to go in this Bundesliga season before FC Bayern will be officially handed the <em>Meisterschale</em>, having already sealed the title mathematically against Bremen in midweek. The first of these matches will be at home against SC Freiburg today. With a view to the packed football schedule after the season entailed by the unplanned coronavirus break, Hansi Flick in his pre-match press conference on Friday voiced concerns about the workload of the players who he thinks will need a proper rest after the end of the season to refuel their energy tanks again. It is fair to say that first signs of mental tiredness and physical wear have already crept in at Bayern now. With several players out before the Freiburg game, the title already in the bag, and Freiburg still fighting for a Europa League place, how will they cope? Our preview.<a href="#worn-out-champions"></a>Worn-out championsThere was not the usual exuberant party with <em>Weißbier</em> showers, loud music booming from the stadium PA, and prolonged processions in front of their fans after Bayern had finally secured their eight consecutive Bundesliga title against Bremen on Tuesday with a narrow 0-1 victory. The players celebrated in the changing room among themselves, and in this reduced form, the celebrations were somehow befitting their prior performance on the pitch. Bayern was unusually sloppy in their passing and pressing. They lost many balls in situations in which in the weeks before they would have comfortably and composedly found a way to outplay their opponents. They did not use their chances and were miles off their usual clinical shape in front of goal. But perhaps most telling of all was their somewhat unorganized rearguard action during the final 10 minutes of the game, which almost allowed Bremen to level the score at the last minute.<a href="#the-mental-and-physical-toll-tells"></a>The mental and physical toll tellsThe match against Bremen continued a trend that had already become apparent in the two prior matches against Gladbach and Frankfurt. In the last few weeks, Bayern have lost a bit of their usual dominance and almost casual command of a game. In the second half against Frankfurt in the DFB-Pokal, this was still more than understandable. They had played a stellar first half and were a goal up at half time, they had already cut Frankfurt to ribbons two weeks earlier, the league match against Gladbach was looming large, and it was an ‘out of order’ game, a cup contest which Flick later said was ill-timed given the density of league games on the season’s final stretch. Certainly, several of the players will have felt similarly and will have been more concerned with saving energy and not getting injured in the second half.Against Gladbach a few days later, Flick for the first time in a long time, partly by volition and partly by necessity, chose to rotate his squad quite a bit. With Müller and Lewandowski having to be replaced and Davies and Coman getting a rest, Hernandez, Cuisance, Perisic and Zirkzee made the starting lineup. Later in the game, even second team player Wriedt got a look in for the final 15 minutes of the game. Add to that a competitor in Gladbach for whom every point counts in their fight for the Champions League, and an unusually mixed and inconsistent performance against a no-nonsene and highly vertical Gladbach should not come as a great surprise. Bayern lacked their customary composure and control in midfield as well as the creative spark of Thomas Müller in attack and was caught out out time and again by Gladbach’s vertical forward play. Yet against Bremen with Müller and Lewandowski back in the starting lineup and Bremen featuring as somewhat of a whipping boy anyway when Bayern comes to town, one could have reasonably expected more than a narrow 0-1 away win on the back of a thoroughly disjointed performance against a side who has looked…