Carlo Ancelotti Needs to Tweak Tactics Quicker to Avoid Darmstadt Dirge Repeat

"We are, of course, relieved, we have taken three very important points, "Manuel Neuer said, per Bayern Munich's official website, after Sunday's 1-0 win in Darmstadt. "What we saw in the first half, it was not FC Bayern. There was not the speed of the game and not the accuracy of passing, that was missing today."

Hard-fought is putting it mildly. It was a dirge for most of the 90 minutes, lit up by one moment of utter brilliance by Douglas Costa.

But Neuer's claim that "it was not FC Bayern" is only partly correct. This was Bayern, back in the darker days of the earlier part of the season when inspiration was lacking, energy in their play was low, and faced with an opponent that was not so much parking the bus but giving it the VIP valet treatment with a wax and polish Carlo Ancelotti's men could not encourage to come out to play.

The simply mammoth 79 percent possession Bayern enjoyed—though that should perhaps rather be endured—at the Jonathan-Heimes-Stadion am Bollenfalltor became a burden rather than an opportunity as Ancelotti's men toiled desperately.

But for Costa's simply sublime strike—a "dream beautiful s--t goal" as Darmstadt coach Ramon Berndroth summed it up, per Bayern's official website, in one of the post-match descriptions of our time—Bayern would be behind Leipzig in the table ahead of Wednesday's game with the surprise title challengers.

But contrary to what Neuer said, that is Bayern in the Bundesliga: overwhelming possession against sides that do not want to attack them. The problem is finding a solution, and it is one Ancelotti will need to conjure up if his team are to enjoy a more comfortable ride to a fifth consecutive Bundesliga title.

"It wasn't easy against a deep-lying and aggressive opponent to get the necessary passing accuracy," complained Mats Hummels, per Bayern's official website. "It's just like that in Darmstadt. The games I have seen here have never been won by a team playing magical football. Here, you have to battle, you have to work, and we did that."

Indeed they did, with only the hosts' Jerome Gondorf and Mario Vrancic covering more ground than Bayern midfielders Xabi Alonso and Thiago Alcantara, both of whom edged over the 11 kilometre mark in the 90 minutes. Quite a statistic given how much Darmstadt had to chase after the ball.

It is indicative of their problems that Thomas Muller ran fewer than 10 kilometres in the 80 minutes he was on the pitch, per Bundesliga.com. Superb in recent games since being moved into the middle behind Robert Lewandowski, he was perhaps entitled to the football equivalent of a lazy day in the office tending to his social media profile and sipping coffee rather than working hard.

To be fair, his team-mates did not do what they could have and should have done to find him—he had the second-fewest touches of any Bayern player who started the game, just ahead of Lewandowski. But with Muller out of sorts and all but out of the game, Bayern were equally off-colour.

Not that rolling your sleeves up and sheer sweat will always be enough.

Perhaps Bayern's play would have been different had Philipp Lahm not suffered a thigh problem late on and been forced to withdraw to the substitute's bench. When teams sit back and defend, you have two ways of hurting them: down the flanks and hitting shots from distance.

For all Rafinha's qualities, he is not as good a full-back either defending nor—importantly in games such as the one at Darmstadt—going forward and getting crosses into the box as Lahm. The Brazilian contributed just two of Bayern's 17 crosses in the game, per Squawka. By contrast, David Alaba on the opposite flank provided five.

But there was not—as Neuer rightly pointed out—the pace of the play we have come to expect from Bayern in recent weeks. Costa did sparkle at times, his goal notwithstanding, but even the introduction of Franck Ribery, usually so full of verve and able to drag the side into life, failed to have the desired effect. It only made the absence of Arjen Robben all the more obvious.

Perhaps with Wednesday's game with Leipzig in mind, the players figured they could take their foot off the gas. But that is where Ancelotti has to step in and ensure motivation is as high—or at least high enough—to win against the Bundesliga's bottom side as it is to face a team tickling Bayern's toes at the top.

The Italian tactician perhaps also did not react quickly enough to his team's troubles. He adopted the 4-2-3-1 formation that has served Bayern well in recent weeks, but this was a game when he surely knew that his team would have almost obscene amounts of possession and that very little defending would be required.

Michael Probst/Associated Press

Perhaps overly wary of the problems his team had against the counter-attack in the opening months of the season, Ancelotti let his caution get the better of him. Instead, surely this match—and others of a similar ilk—call for the 4-1-4-1 that he finally all but installed with the introduction of Ribery.

With Xabi Alonso alone in front of the back four, Bayern should still have had more than enough to cope with the limited threat of Sven Schipplock and Co. It would also have given Muller the support through the middle he so desperately needed, diverting some of the Darmstadt defence's attention to someone else to give him the room to create.

With that formation employed from kick-off, and a greater determination from Bayern to deliver the coup de grace quickly, the afternoon would not have made for such uncomfortable viewing.

"In the end, the most important thing was to win and stay in top spot. I'm happy about that," said Ancelotti, per Bayern's official website, justifiably enough. "But we can play better and more quickly."

And they will, Carlo, if you tweak your strategy sooner.