Why Dante Is the Most Disappointing Player for Bayern Munich So Far This Season

Bayern Munich are about as impeccable as a football team can be at any given point of a league season: eleven points clear, striving in the Champions League and well-coached by one of the best managers in the game. 

Yet as with every group of players, one can decipher which members of the squad are performing and which are not. The team as a whole may be firing on all cylinders but that doesn't mean every single player is at the top of his game. 

As Bayern continue preparation for their return to Bundesliga and European action in just a few weeks' time, now would be an appropriate opportunity to distinguish just which Bavarian star isn't cutting the mustard in Munich. 

With a squad jam-packed with well established stars, such a dishonour unfortunately falls upon a player who used to mean so much to this club, a defender who was at one point the best at his trade.

We are of course talking about Dante, Bayern's most disappointing player this season. 

Where the Brazilian defender was once the shot of adrenaline that turned Jupp Heynckes' defensive woes around and spurred Bayern on to their first league title in three years in that wonderful treble-winning campaign, Dante has since felt the cold hand of age affect his game. 

This isn't the same player who was once regarded as the best in the German top division—and it's all too notable under Pep Guardiola this season. 

This has become abundantly apparent through the manner in which the aforementioned coach has been forced to juggle his back line from one style to another just to compensate this season.

Michael Probst/Associated Press

Sure, the major reasoning behind this was the long-term injury to Javi Martinez, but Guardiola's low confidence in Dante became all too clear when Mehdi Benatia was quickly snapped up from Roma before the end of the summer transfer window. 

Instead of simply sticking with Dante and Jerome Boateng as his centre-back pairing, Guardiola and the club opted to make an expensive, rash transfer in the closing days of the transfer window for a player who has since played a relatively part-time role at the club. 

Similarly, whenever the former Barcelona manager has opted to go with a back three rather than the more traditional back four, we have often seen the likes of Philipp Lahm, David Alaba and Juan Bernat—all full-backs by trade—accompany Boateng at the back. 

Fortunately, the characteristics of the Bundesliga and Bayern's Champions League opponents this season have meant that such a lightweight defence hasn't exactly been exploited, but that doesn't pave over the simple fact that this manager simply doesn't trust Dante within this system. 

Pace has always been a troubling aspect of the central defender's game—one that didn't cause too much trouble under Heynckes' counter-attacking side that often played with a relatively deep line—and has been truly exposed under Guardiola's relentless desire to push his side further and further up the park. 

In most teams across Europe Dante would fit in excellently, playing in a relatively deep defensive line and keeping pace with play, but at Bayern he's expected to stand on the halfway line and be prepared to run down any slippery forwards who manage to overcome the Bayern offside trap. 

Similarly, Guardiola also demands the utmost ability to play with the ball on the ground and the necessity to pass at lightning speeds with true accuracy. Boateng has these attributes, which is why he has suddenly transformed from an average defender into one of Europe's best under Guardiola over the past 18 months. 

It's also why the Spanish coach has always opted for midfielders in his back line whenever he can. We saw this with Javier Mascherano at Barcelona and are now seeing it with the likes of Lahm and Martinez. Yet such a move naturally discriminates against old-fashioned, simplistic defenders such as Dante. 

As such, a certain degree of sympathy should be awarded on Dante's part. He's never been a quick defender and has always thrived on being strong in the air and hard in the tackle. Unfortunately for him, the new manager has brought with him a new regime and an entirely different philosophy of football. 

Guardiola wants quick, ball-playing defenders, and this Brazilian international just isn't that.

Dante may not be entirely at fault for the manner of his performances this season, but by and large he has still been the most disappointing player in a Bayern kit throughout this campaign.