Wolfsburg Make Statement in Exposing Familiar Flaws for Bayern Munich
On Friday evening, Bayern Munich traveled to the Volkswagen Arena having conceded just four goals in the first half of the Bundesliga season, a record in the German top flight.
Just 45 minutes into their match against Wolfsburg, that figure rose by 50 percent thanks to a brilliant brace by Bas Dost. When the final whistle blew, the Bavarians lost for the first time in league play this season, the final score reading 4-1 to the hosts.
In the grand scheme of things, Friday's result may only be remembered as a false start for the Bavarians, just a blip in an otherwise outstanding and dominant domestic campaign. A midseason record 11-point Bayern lead atop the table was reduced to eight after Friday's result, but Pep Guardiola's side is still out of sight. The league decidedly remains theirs to lose.
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For Wolfsburg, however, the result is huge. On the one hand, it meant moving nine points clear as runners-up in the table, with their toughest match of the second round already behind them. But beyond that, it was a statement of their resolve as they look ahead to the bigger stage to come.
"Dost's insane strike https://t.co/vRkVlXfgu3
— Dare To Diego (@DareToDiego) January 30, 2015"
"It doesn't get any better than this," Dost said, per Bundesliga.com. "…We waited for our chances and struck at the right moments. I had a bit of luck with my second goal. In the second half we played brilliantly right until the end."
In the fall of 2009, just months after winning the Bundesliga title in stunning manner, Wolfsburg were eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage. As great as they'd been in their title-winning campaign, they just weren't ready for the European stage, and their success proved unsustainable.
Over the last year-and-a-half, however, Wolfsburg reinvented its team.
Kevin de Bruyne and Luiz Gustavo were proven, quality signings, and others like Ricardo Rodriguez and Robin Knoche have really come of age in the last 12 months.
Yet despite finishing second in the Bundesliga table through the first half of this year's campaign, the Lower Saxony side looked vulnerable against the stronger teams they faced. They not only lost to Bayern in their league opener, but were hammered by an aggregate 6-1 in two Europa League matches against Everton, the eventual winners of their group.
Friday's performance was a benchmark for this Wolfsburg team, proof that on their day, they can outplay even top clubs. They didn't get lucky against Bayern; they truly were the better team. The back four held firm. Their midfield, despite having only one truly defensive player in Gustavo, managed to close down space incredibly fast. Bayern had all of the possession but could do precious little with it.
On the counter, the hosts were simply magnificent.
Dost netted the first two goals, and his second was a work of art. But De Bruyne was simply sensational. The ex-Chelsea man was the Bundesliga's assist leader heading into the game and set up Dost's opener before scoring from two breakaways. The first was a brilliant display of pace, and the second came after he turned Dante inside-out before delivering a powerful strike with his weaker foot into the top-left corner.
He was without question the man of the match, making a real statement in proving to be the best player on a pitch he shared with the likes of Arjen Robben, Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer.
The most impressive aspect of Wolfsburg's performance on the counter was how quickly and efficiently they moved the ball forward. De Bruyne was a master of finding space between the Bayern midfield and defense, while Daniel Caligiuri, Ivan Perisic, Vieirinha and especially Maximilian Arnold were more than worthy as a supporting cast. That they and Dost clicked so well together bodes well for Wolfsburg's future.
From Bayern's perspective, of course, the result was rather humiliating. Their last defeat to Wolfsburg came in 2009 under similar circumstances, the eventual Bundesliga champions hammering the runners-up Bayern, 5-1.
The score wasn't quite as crushing this time, and the eight-point lead that remains in the table will be comforting as Bayern return home, but Guardiola will have some serious thinking to do.
"We wanted to pick up where we left off at the end of the Hinrunde, but that didn't happen," Robben said, per Bundesliga.com. "It's a wake-up call."
Even before kickoff, the Bayern manager put his team under unnecessary pressure.
By now, it's clear the Munich giants need either Franck Ribery or Mario Gotze on the pitch to attack as best they can. Both are creative midfielders who actively seek the ball from deeper players and look first to set up play, either through passing or dribbling. In selecting Robben, Muller and Lewandowski, Guardiola put three scorers in his starting lineup.
Their support in midfield consisted of three players (David Alaba, Xabi Alonso and Bastian Schweinsteiger) who are most comfortable in defensive areas. Replacing any of the above with Toni Kroos would have brought more balance, but three holding players spelled a big gap between midfield and attack.
Although Guardiola's selection was dubious, there's no way around the fact that Bayern were simply awful even when considering the team they used. With a lineup of almost exclusively world-class players, to concede four goals is unacceptable.
Yet familiar flaws were exposed.
It's been quite some time, but when Guardiola's Bayern have failed, it has typically been due to a suicidally forward-minded approach to the game and a complete disregard for how to react after conceding possession.
There simply wasn't any shape to Bayern once they lost possession on Friday, and their hosts again and again had the Bavarians chasing shadows. Although Dost's opener was hardly stoppable for Neuer, it came following a two-on-two breakaway in which he and De Bruyne simply outran Bayern's Jerome Boateng and Sebastian Rode.
The 3-0 for De Bruyne came when the Belgian didn't have to worry about being offside, with the visitors' entire back four approximately 10 yards inside the attacking half at the time the ball was lost.
For the fourth, Bayern finally had a man facing instead of chasing his opposite. However, it was still a one-on-one, and Dante fell victim to De Bruyne in a way that eerily brought back memories of Diego Milito freezing Daniel van Buyten in the 2010 Champions League final.
Bayern had problems going forward, as their goal came following a rather fortuitous bounce and their only real scoring opportunities came in the final 10 minutes. But playing from behind, they were at a disadvantage as Wolfsburg were able to sit back and absorb pressure. And the return of Ribery and/or Gotze in the starting lineup will bring a much-needed missing piece back into the team.
Defensively, though, Bayern will need to seriously rework their strategy. There were too many players masquerading as midfielders, creating a tactical nightmare that was never going to end well.
It's nothing from which the German record champions can't recover. They have world-class players on their bench, and tactical deficiencies can be coached away.
But they must act fast, lest they face a similar fate in the Champions League.
Wolfsburg, on the other hand, will be over the moon. In the first game of the second half of the Bundesliga season, they've made a stunning statement of their ability to compete against even the strongest of clubs. And the imminent arrival of Andre Schurrle from Chelsea will only bolster their hopes of developing into a real power.
The Bundesliga title may be all but Bayern's this season, but in the next few years, anything can happen.
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