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FC Bayern is again clean: distance from the entertainment industry

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Joshua Kimmich showed a good performance against Frankfurt.

FC Bayern Munich kept a clean sheet in their 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt for the first time since mid-January. Was it the mentality? Or the system?

It was autumn and FC Bayern Munich had been in impressive form for weeks. The Munich team usually scored about five goals per game, sometimes seven. A few isolated goals didn’t really matter – apart from the inexplicable five against Borussia Mönchengladbach, which meant the end of the DFB Cup.

“I prefer a 5-2 win to a confident 1-0 or 2-0,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann at the time – appropriately after two 5-2 wins in a row. It’s February now – and now a few isolated goals conceded make quite a difference.

It all started so harmlessly, as a brief review shows. In the 4-1 win against Hertha at the end of January, Dayot Upamecano was responsible for the late goal with a bad pass. Then the Munich team wobbled acutely in the 3-2 win against Leipzig. So far so unproblematic, it was still won.

But then: overrun in the 2:4 in Bochum, the draw was saved late in the 1:1 in Salzburg and also fell behind in the 4:1 against Fürth. Suddenly FC Bayern had a real defensive problem. And what does 5:2 lover Nagelsmann say about it?

“Basically, I’m aware that football should be part of the entertainment industry. And a 1-0 win is usually not quite as entertaining as a 5-2 win,” explained the coach on Saturday evening. He thought of the spectators “who pay a lot of money for their tickets and want something to be offered”, and he also thought of himself: “I’m someone who likes to cheer a lot in the coaching zone.” But in the end he didn’t really care about the entertainment industry this time: “Today I’m very happy with the 1-0.”

It was a celebratory announcement: FC Bayern did not fall behind in the 1-0 away win against Eintracht Frankfurt! For the first time in three games. And above all: FC Bayern did not concede a goal! For the first time in five games.

FC Bayern: Convincing defensive work in Frankfurt

In fact, Nagelsmann’s team in Frankfurt was unusually stable defensively. Apart from Filip Kostic’s chance in the 7th minute, FC Bayern hardly allowed anything. As detailed as everyone involved then talked about the defensive work, the topic was evidently present in the team recently.

“We had the game under control and played very well defensively,” praised Robert Lewandowski. Otherwise chronically keen on goals, he now said succinctly: “You can’t always score three or four goals.” Leroy Sane scored the only goal of the game in the 71st minute, having come on as a substitute just four minutes earlier. Until then, FC Bayern had a field advantage and many deals, but there were hardly any top-class chances.

“I’m very happy with the performance. We have…” Nagelsmann began, but quickly corrected himself: “Hopefully we had a phase in which we weren’t always quite so confident in the games. Today we had a good one Control in the build-up, didn’t lose that many balls. The only thing that was a bit lacking were the goals. Keeping a clean sheet was important.”

But what was the reason? When it came to the many goals Munich conceded and even more shakiness, the buzzwords mentality and system came up again and again.

Bayern’s Kimmich: “The mentality was really good today”

Joshua Kimmich opened the mentality debate, traditionally held in Dortmund, after the bankruptcy in Bochum. In his opinion, the goals conceded there “didn’t have much to do with a plan or tactics, but with the way you approach a game like this. We definitely have to question ourselves and also have to ask ourselves whether that’s the mentality that FC Bayern embodies.”

That was a rhetorical question, the answer was of course: No! Mia san actually mia and mia san not like BVB, which probably because of the mentality, but almost certainly because of the significantly lower financial resources, mostly ends up behind FC Bayern and is now at least temporarily nine points behind again. Thanks to the victory in Frankfurt, which the outstanding Kimmich called a “battle victory” and meant only positively: “Today the mentality was really good. We pushed ourselves a lot in the last 15 minutes to not concede a goal. That’s what it is Fun.”

Unfortunately, mentality cannot be measured statistically, the duel rate may come closest. In the past games, the FC Bayern players have only ever won about half of their direct duels. This time it was a strong 66 percent. That was the best value for a team in the entire Bundesliga season. “Frankfurt are normally an aggressive team,” explained Nagelsmann. “But today we were the more aggressive.”

FC Bayern: Nagelsmann is trying out a new cast in Frankfurt

As the main person responsible for system decisions, Nagelsmann is certainly also one of the proponents of the thesis that the flood of goals conceded was ultimately more a matter of mentality, also out of self-protection. Even at the press conference before the game, he complained that there was “far too much discussion” about basic formations. After the win, he announced: “If I were to say now that it’s the system, it would be embarrassing. It’s always a question of manner.”

As is well known, Nagelsmann’s fundamental problem is the loss of left-back Alphonso Davies, which took the game from Bayern’s proven static from the fall. Since then, the coach has been happily experimenting. In Bochum he even tried a 4-1-4-1 with four central defenders, midfielder Kimmich and five attackers. It went so wrong that he even blamed it on the tactics and took it upon himself.

In Frankfurt, Nagelsmann relied on a back three with very different wingers. On the left was the offensive Kingsley Coman, on the right the defensive Benjamin Pavard. The balance seemed right. But probably most important: The central defenders Dayot Upamecano, Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernandez, who have recently been criticized a lot, did not make any individual mistakes.

The new defensive stability needs to be confirmed next Saturday against Bayer Leverkusen. Perhaps there will also be an approach to the entertainment industry again: Although Leverkusen is third in the table, the team conceded the sixth most goals in the league.

FC Bayern: The upcoming games

meeting competition opponent
Saturday, March 5th, 3:30 p.m Bundesliga Bayer Leverkusen (home)
Tuesday, March 8th, 9 p.m Champions League RB Salzburg (home)
Saturday, March 12, 3:30 p.m Bundesliga TSG Hoffenheim (Away)

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