Why Douglas Costa Will Be Bayern Munich's X-Factor in 2015/16

Football is a sport run entirely by money. Whether fans like that or not, it’s a fact. Yet as such that often means that the factors that can pull up unexpected results are tackled by a team of analytic specialists, physios, scouts and then the coaching staff themselves.

In truth, football games can often be defined and even predicted upon before a ball has even been kicked.

Yet on occasion there are players who can shake things up entirely and throw all caution to the wind. These are the special talents who can win games on their own. Bayern Munich have one in the form of Douglas Costa and he may well be the player who changes everything for the club this season.

From the very start the acquisition of Costa made a fair amount of sense. Not only did Bayern lack cover in genuine wingers—Thomas Muller and Mario Gotze aren’t wide forwards, no matter what anyone says—and more importantly, they needed the talent to complement the often-injured Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

This became painfully evident last season when Bayern lost their flying Dutchman to injury in early April. Despite all the money, all the players and all the tactics, Guardiola’s side simply couldn’t compete in the Champions League without this solitary player.

Unfortunately, any bid to replace the senior forward in the Champions League—Guardiola chose Gotze against Porto and Thiago Alcantara against Barcelona—ultimately proved futile. Bayern stumbled past the Portuguese side but then ultimately got knocked out by the Spanish giants. A replacement for Robben was vital.

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Fortunately that arrived in the form of the Brazilian forward. And not a moment too soon. The manner in which Costa has stepped into this side and immediately took to the task of becoming a key player is something that hasn’t been seen in Munich for quite some time.

Robert Lewandowski took a few months to settle into the Bavarian giants and he was only moving clubs within the Bundesliga, Costa has arrived from the Ukrainian top division—one that shares very few similarities to the German top flight—and took to the league like a duck to water.

The manner in which Wolfsburg were tormented by the winger for 90 minutes in the DFL Supercup was a surprise to most. Despite losing the game, most Bayern fans were ecstatic at what they had seen from their new signing. A new star had emerged in Munich and he was ready to do some damage.

Since then, Costa has scored just the one goal in five Bundesliga matches but has provided at least one assists in each and every game, according to Transfermarkt. That is exactly what he was signed to do.

Ribery and Robben may be scorers of great goals on a regular basis, but Guardiola is well aware of the fact that he doesn’t need another goalscorer. Lewandowski is the best striker in Germany, possibly the world, and Muller, Gotze and even Thiago all go direct for goal.

Instead, Bayern needed a selfless player who would rather run the line and stick a cross in rather than cut inside and make his way through an already crowded centre of the pitch. In this modern game, full of inside forwards and inverted wingers, there’s a refreshing change to see an old-fashioned winger simply beat his defender and stick in a inch-perfect cross.

It’s for this reason alone that Costa will undoubtedly go on to have an impressive season in Germany. One full of success, assists and the odd goal. But also one that may just prove the difference between a frustrating defeat in the semi-finals of the Champions League and a campaign that would see the club win the whole thing.

Players with that little bit of magic can offset the whole scale. And Bayern finally have a new one in Costa.