Der Klassiker: Bayern Munich's post-break performances assessed ahead of Borussia Dortmund clash
Bayern Munich have made a convincing start to the resumed season. They’ve enjoyed two comfortable victories, scoring seven goals and generally looking an imperious force in the Bundesliga.
Their passing has been slick, with Joshua Kimmich controlling things brilliantly from the base of midfield. Thomas Muller has been at his space-interpreting best, while Hansi Flick enjoyed the luxury of swapping out Serge Gnabry for Kingsley Coman on Saturday. Robert Lewandowski routinely has a couple of goals already, and Alphonso Davies has been tearing down the left wing in style.
But Bayern’s victories and dominant displays do come with the slight caveat of having faced some fairly feeble opposition.
Union Berlin have surprised many this season, giving themselves a comfortable cushion above the relegation zone. However, they have struggled in their first two games back, their defeat to Bayern being followed by a 4-0 derby hammering against Hertha Berlin.
Their first 15 minutes against the reigning champions saw some encouragement for Union, sitting off Bayern’s defence then pouncing on Kimmich and Thiago Alcantara as soon as the ball hit midfield.
But Union’s energy from that early spell soon dissipated, with Bayern’s quality on the ball telling as they eased into control of the game. Ultimately, the Bavarian side never really had to shift up through their gears.
Eintracht Frankfurt were their opponents on Saturday, who conceded after 37 seconds against Borussia Monchengladbach before eventually slipping to a disappointing 3-1 defeat in their previous outing.
They held out a little longer against Bayern until the 17th minute but in the end put in another disappointing display, conceding five goals including some calamitous defending.
But while it’s easy to point the finger at the lacklustre performances from Bayern’s opponents so far, the reigning champions must be given credit for their suffocating displays.
The skilfulness of the players and pin point passing grabs the eye, but what has arguably been more key is Bayern’s dominant pressing.
Over the past two rounds of the season, Bayern have come out on top in the PPDA rankings (Passes allowed Per Defensive Action) - defined by Wyscout as the ‘metric that can quantify the extent and aggression of high presses employed by teams’. It measures, on average, in how many passes a team allows the opposition in possession before a defensive action such as a tackle or interception.
Against Union this number was just 4.6, and was a similarly low level against Frankfurt at 5.4. The closest another team came over the two weekends was Wolfsburg in their match against Ausburg with 7.18.
Bayern have not only been imperious in possession, but dogged and determined out of it. For Union and Frankfurt, attempting to play against this intense pressing would have been nightmarish, and was no doubt a big factor behind both side’s disappointing displays.
However, there were moments against Frankfurt where Bayern’s mask of invincibility slipped. Two set piece goals from Martin Hinteregger in quick succession to bring the score back to 3-2 clearly rattled them - that brace was a 200/1 shot pre-game.
Bayern would get two more to claim victory, but both goals were results of comical defending and a little bit of a let off for the champions considering how much more open the game became after Hinteregger’s quick fire brace.
At 4-2, Mijat Glacinovic spurned a glorious chance to make it 4-3 and potentially set up a far more tense final 20 minutes. And even at 5-2, Filip Kostic came within a whisker of grabbing a third goal for Frankfurt with a long range effort that rebounded off the post.
While Bayern were comfortable winners, Hinteregger’s goals rattled them and showed that they can be got at. It will have given hope to Tuesday’s opponents and main title rivals Borussia Dortmund, who have enjoyed a similarly impressive start with a 4-0 victory over a sub-par Schalke side before overcoming more sturdy opposition in Wolfsburg 2-0.
It will be a fascinating encounter in Der Klassiker, in what could well be the defining game in this season’s race for the Bundesliga title.
Bayern have been imperious and dominant and while they have faced some weaker opposition, their pressing and intensity has served to crush their opponents further. But the sudden openness of their contest against Frankfurt after conceding twice in three minutes showed some weakness, and they were pretty much gifted their fourth and fifth goals which gave gloss to the scoreline.
It is yet to be seen how they will fair against a Dortmund side who have also enjoyed excellent form since the restart.
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