Who Is More Important to Bayern Munich: Arjen Robben or Franck Ribery?

Bayern Munich will welcome Shakhtar Donetsk to the Allianz Arena on March 11 with every intention of progressing through to the next round of the UEFA Champions League.

Although Pep Guardiola's side was far from convincing in the first leg in deepest Ukraine, the Spanish coach will be confident in his team's ability to grab a deserving win. Not only do Bayern have home advantage, but they also have Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery back in the same team and raring to go.

Watching both players at the top of their game in Munich is truly a sight to behold, but the question that often comes up when each plays alongside one another is a fascinating one. 

Who is more important to Bayern Munich and Guardiola: Robben or Ribery?

One of the most important things to consider for two players in the twilight of their careers is the simply physical ability of each athlete to compete over the course of a season. 

Despite being outstanding players in their own right, both Robben and Ribery have spent their entire careers playing between one injury to the next. It's a factor that has cost both players their positions at former clubs, and it's one that they've had to battle with in Munich. 

Yet when we take a look at the graphic below, which shows how many games each player has missed through injury over the past three seasons, we can see that both players seem to be getting over the worst of their delicate past: 

Datawrapper.de

However, there is a clear disparity between Robben and Ribery's ability to keep fit after hitting 30 years of age. According to Transfermarkt, Ribery missed 33 games over the course of last season, while Robben did almost twice as well, having missed just 17 (via Transfermarkt). 

Similarly, we can also see that despite only being in February of this current season, Ribery has already missed twice as many games as Robben. Just looking at the graph, we can see that the Dutchman's time injured seems to be naturally decreasing over time while Ribery's still seems erratic. 

From the data available, it would seem as though Robben has now become the more durable of the two and therefore offers more to this team at this moment in time. 

Another aspect of each player's value to Bayern is the manner in which the club could replace them should either decide to leave in the summer or indeed get injured for the remainder of the season. This is, again, where Robben pulls ahead of his French counterpart. 

Although Ribery may be the most technically gifted player at Bayern and undoubtedly one of the club's key playmakers, his skill set and position in the team does seem to be much more replaceable than the pure pace and direct nature of Robben's play on the wing

Just looking at the Bavarian's squad for this season, we can already see players capable of playing Ribery's role effectively. 

Thomas Muller is a player who can play out wide and drift inside, offering a range of goals and assists from one game to the next, yet the most notable forward to fit into any Ribery-shaped hole in this team is undoubtedly Mario Gotze.

Although the young German prodigy is still a fair way off reaching the consistency and iconic status of Ribery, Gotze does possesses the unquestionable skill and talent to play on the left and create goals just like his senior colleague.

When we then turn to Robben and what he brings as an attacking player, it becomes abundantly clear that few forwards in the world can dribble at speed and consistently skip past opponents to shoot on goal, let alone anyone at Bayern.

Although both players may bring a similar amount of goals and assists to Guardiola's squad over the course of a season, the unique manner in which Robben does it makes him far harder to replace once he finally hangs up his boots.

Ultimately, football is a sport played in the moment, and although it may be all well and good making predictions about what each player can and will offer Bayern for years to come, we have to consider what each is doing on the pitch right now. 

Player	Goals	Assists	Goals/Assist per Game
Arjen Robben	18	7	1.04
Franck Ribery	7	8	0.78

Looking at the stats above, provided by Transfermarkt for both Robben and Ribery, we can see that each player has an exceptional ratio of either scoring or making assists in each game he features in, yet Robben once again just pips Ribery to first place. 

In truth, we've yet to see the very best of the French international this season—perhaps next week's game will offer a perfect stage for his return—but in comparison to Robben's incredible season, there can only be one winner. 

Right now, nobody at Bayern is more important than the Dutch international, and come May, he might just prove to be the most important player in Europe too. 

@Sbienkowski