Bayern Munich: How Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller Make the Perfect Pair

Much has been made of Mario Gomez's career so far at Bayern Munich. With two polar opposite seasons thus far, the jury is still out as to whether he is the right striker to take Bayern Munich to European glory. Blessed with an amazing eye for goal but frustratingly poor technically, Gomez has found himself in the midst of an evolution of the modern day striker, where less is being demanded on a goal-scoring front but more from the technical side of the game.

It is the rule of the founder of evolution that only the strong survive, so it is not surprising to see the slow death of the "goal-poacher" along with the rise of new breed of strikers, strikers like David Villa, Wayne Rooney and Guiseppe Rossi. How else would a 39 goals in 38 starts striker still be deemed as not one of the best in Europe?

Narrow formations, possession play, interchanging of positions and quick passing seem to be the favoured themes within today's coaches. Mario Gomez possess non of those qualities. With the 4-2-3-1 encapsulating all of the requirements of possession play and narrow formations, it is no surprise to see majority of the clubs adopting it.

After having trouble dealing with the new formation under Loius Van Gaal, Gomez's second season was one not seen before by Bayern fans since the days of the famous Karl Heinz Rummenigge 20 years back. But with the obvious lack of cohesion between Mario Gomez's style of play and that of Bayern's, one has to wonder how this amazing season actually came about.

The 4-2-3-1 usually applies to primarily defensive central midfielders, one being box to box, with two wingers cutting in and a playmaker behind the lone striker. Against the usual four man defence, the usual case if having the lone striker up against two central defenders, it creates a clear disadvantage for the offense. This is where the versatility of the new breed of strikers like David Villa come into use, while the one-dimensional play of a poacher like Mario Gomez has a disadvantage.

The versatility of the striker means that he is now not just lurking inside the box being marked by the two central defenders, but rather moves around the final third, shifting positions with the wingers and therefore being more involved with play. This also confuses the defenders as to how the mark him.  

A perfect example of this type of play from a striker can be seen by looking at the heat map of David Villa's performance against Real Madrid back in 2009, when he was part of Valencia:

As you can clearly see, Villa was seen much more along the left wing than the penalty box, his ability on the ball enabling him to be able to control the ball under pressure and open up space for his team mates. A perfect player for the 4-2-3-1 system Valencia employed during that season. Here is an example of Mario Gomez's usual heat-map:

Gomez's play was much closer to the edge of and inside the penalty when compared to that of David Villa. There in lays the problem when playing with Mario Gomez as the head of a 4-2-3-1. He can be very easily marked out of space by the two central backs, who would not have much to deal with besides Gomez. This is where a player like Thomas Mueller, instead of the more orthodox central attacking playmaker, comes into great effect for Bayern Munich and Mario Gomez.

When talking about an orthodox central attacking playmaker, Toni Kroos can be set as a good example within the ranks of Bayern. Toni Kroos' strength, as with many play-makers, is in his passing ability and technical skills.

What he doesn't have though is the habit of making runs into the box. His goalscoring record for Bayern has been very disappointing, one goal in 50 appearances (though he managed a great return of 10 in 40 for Leverkusen playing in a 4-4-2, but that is another story). When you analyze his matches for Bayern, especially since he has returned from Leverkusen, it is not surprising to see why, even though he is one of the cleanest strikers of the ball in Germany, he has that poor return.

Playing as a central attacking playmaker in Juup Heynkes' continuation of Louis Van Gaal's 4-2-3-1 formation, Kroos' heat map looks the usual for a playmaker. Concentrated centrally with a slight tendency to move to the left (where he played for Heynkes while at Leverkusen), Kroos did see a lot of the ball but was generally unable to get any action inside the box and thus was not a worry for any of the central defenders.

While that lead to Kroos not being able to be a goal scoring threat, more worrisome was that his lack of penetration into the box meant that the central defenders could keep all of their attention towards marking Mario Gomez and limiting any chances he might have at getting space for a chance. 

As critical as the last paragraph might sound of Kroos, he still managed to create two key chances, second highest behind Schweinsteiger, within the 60 minutes of match time he got. Therefore, the problem wasn't that he was unable to create chances but rather that he was unable to create problems for taking some of the central defender's attention off Mario Gomez. This is where Thomas Muller and his overall ability comes to the help of Mario Gomez. 

Even though the position on paper might look the same, Thomas Muller's and Toni Kroos' roles as part of the advanced midfielder directly behind Mario Gomez are quite different, as this heat map of Thomas Muller's performance in Bayern Munich's match against Hamburg will show:

Compared to Toni Kroos' two touches inside the box against Monchengladbach, Muller had seven against Hamburg, therefore underlying the difference in pressure both players apply to the center backs.

Muller is known more for his mental attributes than for his abilities as a playmaker. Even though he has a very impressive assist statistic of 25 goals created in 77 Bundesliga matches (10 in 21 for Germany), it is his 25 goals scored in 77 matches (seven in 21 for Germany) that shows the difference between him and regular play-makers and thus why he is more suited to play with Gomez as part of the 4-2-3-1 than any other player natural to that position.

Though the heat maps can be helpful, it would be useful to bring in some meaningful goal scoring stats to help support the claim that Gomez plays better alongside Muller:

1) Mario Gomez WITH Muller as CAM: 14 goals in 15 Bundesliga Matches

2) Mario Gomez WITHOUT Muller as CAM: 14 goals in 17 Bundesliga Matches

With the injuries to Arjen Robben for the first half of the season, Thomas Muller was rarely given a chance to play behind Gomez, as he was stationed as a right winger in order to cover Arjen Robben's absence.

With the second half of the season and the return of Arjen Robben, Muller was regularly played in his favoured position behind Gomez and the goals comparison bares some, but not very noticeable difference. One point must be added though, one which further supports the theory that Gomez plays his best with a support player willing to attack the box.

After Loius Van Gaal was fired and assistant manager Andres Jonker was asked to take charge till the end of the season, Jonker opted to play 4-4-2 with Klose alongside Gomez. The impact on Gomez's form was immediate. In the last five matches of the season in which Jonker was in charge, Klose was played alongside Gomez in three (Leverkusen, Frankfurt and Stuttgart). Gomez scored five goals. In the other two (St Pauli and Schalke), Muller played as CAM behind Gomez and the striker managed four goals, therefore making an overall record of:

1) 19 goals in 18 matches when played as either part of a 4-4-2 or with Muller as CAM

2) Nine goals in 14 matches when played with either Schweinsteiger or Kroos as CAM

This paints a much clearer picture as to how Gomez's form varies according to how much support he is given by his central attacking players. It is also not a surprise to notice that throughout Mario Gomez's career at Stuttgart, for 79 goals in 106 matches since his breakthrough in 2006 he was playing alongside Cacau, a natural striker who, like Muller, likes to play slightly behind a lead striker.

As the new season has gotten underway, Gomez is already continuing his trail of destruction from last season. Eight goals in eight Bundesliga matches shows that Gomez is not going to be a one season wonder for Bayern. With Heynkes at the helm, there is sure to be more rotation amongst the front three when compared to the reign of Loius Van Gaal.

Kroos has already started seven matches this season which indicates that Heynkes does see him having a much more important role in the side when compared to last season, so Gomez might have to adjust to play alongside Kroos more often this season. Although Kroos' latest performances against Freiburg and Villareal suggest that he is already trying to make himself a greater danger in front of goal, so Gomez might not have to worry too much.