Bayern vs Bayer

Some would call this scrappy to me the 2:1 win for us at the Bayarena was an outright arrogant performance. Bayern never seemed to really care with the exception of Shaqiri and perhaps Gomez. They made several changes compared to the game against Arsenal in midweek. Müller, Lahm, Mandzukic Kroos and Ribery weren't even in the stadium with only the latter two being injured. Shaqiri started on the left, Robben moved to the right, and Schweinsteiger started in the middle of the offensive line with Gomez being the forefront of the offensive. Rafinha started as full back on the right side.

Bayerns tactic was different from most other games in that they played wider and didn't overload one side as much. This made gegenpressing much more difficult, since there weren't enough Bayern players in the area to prevent passes and pressure the opponent with the ball. With the very defensive midfield pair Gustavo and Martinez this wasn't a problem though. Just like in the Arsenal game both should good defending but failed ot make anything happen on the offense.

Additionally, Leverkusen played very, very timidly during the first half and every time they had the chance to make something happen their passing failed them. The tactic was obviously to play defensively, conquer the ball with the three defensive midfielder and play the ball upfront to the fast Schürrle or Kießling as a target man.But it is hard to tell what the precise plan was because in the first half they failed at it mostly due to inaccurate passes.

So it was up to Bayern to make something happen. And they tried. in the 11th minute Shaqiri played the Ball to Alaba who was sprinting past him. The Austrian international flanked into the box right back to the winger who will sadly never become a "Kopfballungeheuer" ("heading-beast").

14 minutes later it was again Shaqiri who passed the ball to Robben who turned and fired away. Sadly Schweinsteiger barely missed the ball with his heel, so the shot went by the far post. 7 minutes before halftime Shaqiri got the ball on the left side of the pitch. He tried to cross and in my opinion in the middle Gomez intercepted that attempt and could after a heavy first touch control it very well and with his second and third touch he got past the last two defenders brining him into position to score which he did.

At that point Bayern basically quit playing football. In the second half Leverkusen looked somewhat more dangerous primarily due to Sam coming on for the disappointing Schürrle. Still they mostly only created corners which did not yield anything dangerous until the 75th minute. One of the 15 corners reached Boenisch at the short post who headed it on to Rolfes. Left alone at the 6 yard box he converted it easily. With Buyten having come on only a few minutes earlier for Robben, wo failed to show that he should be on the pitch instead of Müller in the remaining games, the chances for Bayern going back infront didn't seem that high.

Schweinsteiger, who didn't play a good game as central attacking midfielder and in last 15 minutes went back to give Alaba the chance to attack, brought a freekick into the box in the 87th minute which was deflected by Wollscheid and went into the goal in a form of poetic justice for the unlucky defeat through a own goal by Boateng in the first half of the season. In the end Carvajal who had a pretty good game for Leverkusen was lucky to not get his second yellow card of the game.

Conclusion

This time it was Bayern who needed only two shots on goal to score twice and one of them was an own goal. Bayerns performance was disappointing. They lacked aggression and at no point the team seemed to do more than was necessary. This almost lead to a draw for the home team who did their part to make this a very boring game. Rafinha showed why Lahm usually plays and Robben also disappointed.

What I don't get about football

So Bayern had a pretty bad game, not a horrible, but a unconcentrated and complacent perfomance against Arsenal. Today reading through a few comments, I see many people claiming that Bayern does not have a shot at the Champions league. This is the same that happened to the other FCB after their loss at Milan.

True Bayern failed to create a lot of chances and both Ribery and Schweinsteiger should - from now on - be on the pitch in every game, still it wasn't as bad as people seem to believe. The defensive work was decent as always. Arsenal had exactly two shots on goal and scored both times. Sh.. It happens. But now everybody sounds like this was the end of the world.

Let's get this straight: after the first leg Bayern was the favorite for the title since Barca had no chance of coming back, they weren't the best club in the world anymore, really should get a different coach, and today, Bayern has shown that they are a mediocre team and just about to be knocked out of the competition?

Of course on this performance Bayern would stand no chance against a better side. Bayern have played really well in most games this season. Is everybody commenting new to football? Some people seem to remember only the last 90 minutes. At best. Some even seem to have watched a totally different game.

Name dropping - Lewandowski

 

Lewandowski; (C) Christopher Neundorf

Robert Lewandowski is the most likely transfer target for Bayern in 2013. The Dortmund stiker scored 17 league goals and assisted 6 times in 22 league appearances. Lewandowski's playing style is similar to Mandzukic's. I think he is better in many respects. Most importantly he is faster and his technique is somewhat better. Judge for yourself.

Lewandowski's contract ends in 2014 and he has already made it clear that he is not seeking an extension. Dortmund will therefore most likely sell him this summer. The question is: will they sell him to the fiercest opposition? He has been linked with several Premier League teams in the past. Manchester Utd. tried to get him last summer together with Kagawa and should Rooney leave  they would have both the money and the need for another striker. Lewandowski is probably the best value for money available currently.

For Bayern he would be the natural choice. He is fast, can hold the ball, and is lethal infront of the goal. Also Bayern and Dortmund play a similar "gegenpressing" style. Some say we "stole" that way of playing. It is the most important change in the Bayern game this season. Once the opposition gets the ball, all Bayern players position themselves in a way that cuts of all possible passes and one player - often the stirker - attacks the opponent who has the ball. The other team then often directly lose the ball, play back to the keeper or just shoot forward with no particular target in mind. Lewandowki like all Dortmund players excells at this.

Pro:

• Lewandowski is a lethal striker
• His playing style is similar to Mandzukic's 
• Excellent technique
• Very good target man who can often keep the ball even against two defenders
• Good heading (probably worse than Mandzukic though)
• Intelligent on the pitch
• He seems to want to play at Munich

Con:

• Dortmund probably don't want to sell to their fiercest opposition
• His playing style is similar to Mandzukic's (yeah, sometimes you just want someone who "tanks" his way through like Gomez)

Conclusion

Excellent striker who would IMO improve the Bayern game. Dortmund will be reluctant to sell to Bayern though. So I think the chance of this transfer materialising is about 50 %. The pricetag is said to be 28 million Euros. Since several English teams might be interested. Bayern won't get him much cheaper eventhough he will only have one year remaining on his contract in the summer. They will have to pay a premium over foreign teams.

Holy sh... FC Bayern vs Arsenal (0:2)

Wow what a game. And i don't mean that positively. Absolutely wierd. Bayern was clearly better but Arsenal got really close to the quarter final in the end. In the third minute while Bayern was still asleep Giroud scored the first goal for Arsenal from short distance after an excellent delivery by Walcott from the right side. Alaba lost his footing which gave Walcott the space needed. Nothing much else happened during the first half. Bayern did create a few chances but only Müller's shot from close distance in the 29th minute (which should have resulted in a corner)  was dangerous Other than that Bayern failed to appear dangerously in the box. Arsenal, on the other hand, was unable to make anything happen after the goal. Bayerns gegenpressing was top notch as usual. Making it all but impossible for the opposition to keep the ball among their ranks long enough to create chances.

Robben was in my opinion quite disapointing and I would have rather seen Shaqiri come on the pitch in the second half. But Heynckes decided not to change during halftime. The second half was similar in the respect, that Arsenal did not create many chances due to Bayerns defensive midfield pair Martinez and Gustavo. Still Schweinsteiger, who missed the game after getting his third yellow card in the first leg, is far better at creating chances for Bayern. Gustavo did not show any play maker ability so the Bayern game was quite slow.

The referees did not have the best of games and falsely stopped Walcott in his run at Neuer because of offside in the 56th minute. 11 minutes later it was Robben who should have scored after an excellent ball by Müller. 15 minutes before the end Arsenal started to take over and in the 79th minute Gervinho came really close after a one two with Cazorla he was in the 6 yard box and missed only barely.

And then came the 85th minute. Arsenal has their first corner of the game and just like Chelsea in the final last season they created a goal from it. Koscielny's header form the 6 yard box went in because Bayern decided to not put a man on the short post. Luckily Bayern was able to stop Arsenal from getting close to the goal afterwards. Still for me it was last years Final all over again for the remaining few minutes.The good performance in the first leg allowed Bayern to move to the quarter final on away goals.

tl;dr
 + Bayern better but not very dangerous infront of the goal
+ Arsenal had 5 attempts 2 of those were on and in the goal
+ For Bayern Müller, Martinez and Lahm played well + Disapointing were Alaba and Robben

Nothing more important than football

On German TV (ZDF) instead of the all important "pre-game-analysis" stuff they are showing the pope like on every other channel. It's not like it's not going to be some old guy. Well finally 5 min before the game they are cutting to football and of course the sream does not work properly. Oh I love you German state television.

FC Bayern vs Arsenal F.C. preview

FC Bayern will face of Arsenal today in the Allianz Arena. Who will have a mountain to climb after their 3:1 home defeat in which Bayern controlled most of the game. Still last year Arsenal almost came back from a heavy 4:0 defeat against AC Milan and the league game this Saturday aganist Düsseldorf didn't go as planned since Düsseldorf needed only two shots on goal to score twice, while Bayern who should have scored more than three goals in the end had to fight until the 86 th minute to finally score the winning goal. Most likely Bayern will only make two changes on their side: Schweinsteiger got his third yellow in the first leg and Ribery has recieved a minor injury (stretched ligament) in the game against Düsseldorf. So Robben has another chance to show his class on the pitch and Gustavo will play defensive midfielder next to Martinez. Hopefully Bayern will show the concentration of the last weeks or even months. The wierd thing about this game is, that one goal for Bayern will basically n´make no difference so I expect Arsenal to start quite agressively.