Keys for Mehdi Benatia Making the Grade at Bayern Munich

Moroccan international Mehdi Benatia arrived at Bayern last summer as a saviour to all of Pep Guardiola’s problems. Holger Badstuber was lost for another year, Javi Martinez had recently been ruled out for the season and the coach needed a new central defender. 

Enter stage left Benatia, straight off a flight from Roma. Bayern’s shiny, new defender and the man to rescue their season before it had even started. 

Yet that was the best part of a year ago, and there now stands a player who has lost his way at his new club and may end up on the raw end of a hasty transfer deal in the coming summer transfer window. 

But why aren’t things working for Benatia at Bayern?

Although Benatia is well known in the Italian top division for his talent on the ball and his ability to pass it around the back line, he has found himself alienated among the Bayern defence despite boasting many of the qualities Guardiola favours in his defenders. 

According to WhoScored, Benatia has an average passing accuracy of 90.3 percent, which is better than all but Holger Badstuber, David Alaba and Dante in the Bayern squad, so there’s little to suggest the Moroccan can’t pass as well as any other defender. 

What perhaps is the problem for the new defender is the fact he doesn’t pass the ball the way Guardiola wants from his central defenders. Which wouldn’t be uncommon in this squad. 

We’ve seen a number of players find themselves on the periphery of Bayern’s squad simply because they don’t fit into Guardiola’s perfectionist-like tactics and formations. 

Whether it be Robert Lewandowski being too selfish on the ball and playing too much like a classic No.9; Mario Gotze failing to fit into sync with the rest of his attacking comrades; or, indeed, the recently departed Toni Kroos’ constant inability to play the pendulum role at the foot of the midfield, stars have repeatedly failed to match Guardiola’s expectations and found themselves in and out of the team. 

Similarly—and it may seem like a rather obvious point to make—Benatia has to make himself a Guardiola player and force his new boss to trust him on the pitch for a series of games. 

Despite the injuries, the former Roma star has yet to complete more than two consecutive games for the club in the Bundesliga season—either getting subbed off or simply not playing at all in the third. 

Unlike most managers, Guardiola is a deeply personal coach and requires loyalty above all else. It’s why he so passionately defends and stands by players like Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm and why Benatia clearly hasn’t been given a fair run in the side yet. 

Only once he’s inside his manager’s circle of influence can he truly make a mark in Munich. 

The troubled defender may yet turn things around at Bayern and find his place, as Gotze, Lewandowski and others have done, but then again, he may not. 

Bayern are an intricate, detailed jigsaw in the eyes of their Catalan manager, and Benatia can only be one of two things; the missing piece that’s just waiting to make it all come together, or a spare, unshapely piece of cardboard. If he doesn’t work at becoming one, he’ll continue to remain the other.