Bayern Munich, Germany’s serial champions, got off their 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign to a fine start with a 4-0 win away at Werder Bremen on Saturday. However, the victory was far from straightforward, and had some interesting plots that deserve to be looked at deeper. Let’s get right to it.
HARRY KANE HAS ARRIVED
The last time an England football captain arrived in Germany to continue his career, he was shunned by most of his teammates. Kevin Keegan was 26 years old and nearing his peak as a striker when he joined Bundesliga club Hamburger SV. However, he soon realised that most of his new teammates resented him because the club’s president, Dr Peter Krohn, had made pronouncements in the German press about how the ‘superstar’ signing of Keegan would transform the fortunes of an ‘average team’. The players at Hamburger, who had just won the European Cup Winners Cup the previous season, naturally resented this and made sure Keegan knew where he stood when he arrived in Germany.
Keegan recalls in ‘My Life in Football’, his memoir, that there was also the question of money. “I had arrived as a £500,000 signing, almost doubling the German transfer record, and was being paid more than any player in the history of the Bundesliga,” he writes, recalling how jealousy also played its part in making his life difficult in the German first division.
Keegan would rise above such issues during his 3-year stay in the Bundesliga however, eventually winning the Ballon d’Or in 1978 and 1979. He also helped Hamburger win the Bundesliga in the 1978-79 season, after a gap of 19 years.
Harry Kane, it is safe to assume, is unlikely to contend with the issues faced by Keegan – though he will still be the highest paid player at Bayern, making around £400,000 a week.
Kane’s qualities are well-known, as is the need Bayern have had for a goal scoring machine since the departure of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona.
After failing to find the net in his competitive debut during the 0-3 German Super Cup loss against RB Leipzig last week, Kane arrived at the party in proper fashion on Saturday, in his first competitive start for Bayern.
He took only 4 minutes to remind everyone why he’s paid the big bucks when, after receiving a pass from Leroy Sane inside the Bayern half, he immediately put the winger clear on goal with a deft flick of the ball from near the halfway line. Sane went on to score, registering the opening goal for Bayern on the night.
Kane’s debut goal for Bayern took far longer to arrive, and when it did, there was nothing surprising about it. A pass from the excellent Alphonso Davies on the left flank to the Englishman in the middle, a surge into the penalty box, and a clinical strike to the left corner of the goal.
Bayern manager Thomas Tuchel spoke about Kane’s effect on his teammates after the Bavarian giants’ shock loss to Leipzig in the German Super Cup last week.
“The ‘Harry Kane Effect’ will not evaporate,” Tuchel said. “It works on so many levels that you cannot realise it because you do not witness it daily. In the changing room, on the pitch, his character, his professionalism. How hard he trains, how after the defeat he was first on the pitch for training with the reserves.”
Asked about the pressure the England captain may face at serial winners Bayern, Tuchel said, “This is not the first time in his career that he has faced that. For over a decade, he knows how to handle pressure. I have absolutely no concerns about that.”
On Friday, Kane showed that Tuchel’s faith in him could be repaid many times over.
LEROY SANE LOOKS IN THE MOOD
A fit, motivated Leroy Sane is a nightmare for any team to play against. Werder Bremen were reminded of this on Saturday, when Mane scored twice against them.
Sane hadn’t spared them last season either, scoring once and recording an assist in another during Bayern’s 2 league matches with Bremen during the last campaign.
After persistent injury troubles that initially threatened to derail his career, Sane has bounced back strongly in the past few seasons, playing more than 100 matches in the last three seasons combined and featuring prominently for Bayern on both wings. He has been deployed as an attacking midfielder less frequently.
Against Bremen on Saturday, Mane’s goals showed both his ruthlessness as a finisher as well as his intelligence as a footballer. During his first goal, after running on to the ball that was laid on by Kane, Mane entered the Bremen penalty box and dragged himself ever-so-slightly to the right. The Bremen goalkeeper, Jiri Pavlenka, nudged himself a couple of paces to the left to contend with Sane’s movement, when Sane suddenly clipped the ball to his left, towards the goal at the far post and utilising the space just vacated by Pavlenka. The 27-year-old had scored with his weaker foot.
During Sane’s second goal, Antony Davies passed the ball from near the ‘D’ into the Bremen penalty box. Sane, who was also inside the box, probably knew that he could not touch the ball because he was in an offside position. So the winger got out of the way and ran deeper towards the Bremen goal, when Thomas Muller rushed in from outside the box to tap the ball in Sane’s direction. Sane was not offside now – a Bremen player was playing him onside – and he steered the ball into the goal.
If Sane continues to stay fit, Bayern fans will be excited to contemplate the magic he’ll be able to perform on the pitch with such an intuitive player as Kane.
BAYERN NEED TO CLOSE OUT MATCHES BETTER
Bayern did not go 2-0 up over Bremen till the 74th minute on Saturday, despite being comfortably the better team for the majority of the match. Except for a brief spell at the start of the second half during which Bremen, through a forceful show of initiative rattled the champions and created a handful of chances, Bayern dominated the match. However, the champions struggled to close out the match till the final quarter of the game.
“We did our thing (in the end). There was a difficult phase at the beginning of the second half, but we got through it together,” maintained Tuchel when talking about the jittery period Bayern experienced early in the second half. “We stayed patient and didn’t do anything crazy. The all-important second goal was the deciding factor in taking home the three points.”
Unless Bayern improve going forward, against a better opponent who will be more ruthless in executing chances, the champions on current form are likely to suffer far more grievous consequences.
WATCH OUT FOR MATHYS TEL THIS SEASON
In the 94th minute of the match against Bremen, Thomas Muller was grappling with a Bremen midfielder for control of the ball when 18-year-old Mathys Tel, who had been on the pitch for around 10 minutes since replacing Harry Kane as centre forward, gestured to the Bayern veteran.
“Pass the ball to Alphonso Davies on the left flank!” the gesture seemed to say. In reply, Muller shook off the player marking him, passed the ball left to Davies, and turned to Tel, who himself was located further up the left flank.
Muller seemed to exasperatedly jerk one hand towards the goal, as if to say that the teenager should be hovering around the goalmouth instead of lurking on the flanks.
Seconds later, Tel had scored a stunning goal.
Receiving the ball from Davies on the left flank during a Bayern throw-in, Tel played a series of one-twos with the Canadian full-back till Tel arrived inside the Bremen penalty box. Upon receiving the ball from Davies one more time, Tel chanced upon a gap in front of the Bremen goal and unleashed a shot towards the left corner, which was closely guarded by Pavlenka. However, the ferocity of Tel’s shot offered the Czech goalkeeper few chances to stop Bayern’s fourth goal on the night. It was a strike of stunning precision.
Tel joined Bayern for a whopping €28.5 million in July 2022. Due to his pace and dribbling ability, the Frenchman has been compared to Kylian Mbappe. However, despite a prolific record at French youth level, Tel has understandably found games hard to come by at Bayern.
Tuchel spoke about Tel’s lack of starts at Bayern last month. “There are a few things (behind his lack of starts), it’s just not age. Age is relatively uninteresting,” said Tuchel.
“It is a question of whether you are doing him a favour by starting and putting him under pressure of being a saviour. There has to be a continuous path into the starting 11. From the last impressions, I am not sure he will walk straight into starting 11.”
As things stand, Tel will not find a place in the Bayern starting 11 at centre forward, where he has Harry Kane ahead of him, or in other offensive positions. However, the Frenchman is bound to learn by watching Kane up close, and will sooner than later stake his claim for a consistent run in the team.