Bayern goes to Wolfsburg in clash of the title holders

 

After beating relative minnows in the first round of DFB Pokal competition, Bayern Munich travel to Wolfsburg for a tantalizing second round match featuring the cup and league title holders.

The last time these two teams met, Robert Lewandowski – scoring five goals in nine second half minutes – put on an offensive display you are not likely to see again in your lifetime, but trainer Pep Guardiola cautioned against seeing any sort of repeat. “That is over,” he said in the testy pre-match press conference, “just like the Supercup.”

Bayern lost on a saved Xabi Alonso penalty back in August’s glorified friendly, back when VfL Wolfsburg still had Kevin de Bruyne, and the result on Tuesday would seem to lie somewhere in between that and matchday six.

“Formations”

The word formations is in quotes naturally due to Guardiola’s tactical fluidity mid-match, with his chosen squad taking up various channels and boxes over the course of ninety minutes. In the 4:0 victory over FC Köln on Saturday, the coach used five forwards – Douglas Costa, Thomas Müller, Arjen Robben, Kingsley Coman and Lewandowski – and no natural holding midfielders as a gambit to parry Peter Stöger’s resolute defense.

It worked as the forwards constantly crossed over each other, switching positions, as they wore down the Billy Goats. It also facilitated some much needed rest for Alonso and the rest of the Spanish contingent, with only Javi Martinez gaining second half match fitness and Thiago Alcântara popping in at the end for Müller.

Tuesday will see the return of Alonso back in the Startelf, likely paired with Arturo Vidal and Thiago, as Guardiola needs a bit of defensive oomph ahead of his healing back line.

Holger Badstuber is back on the bench along with Jan Kirchhoff, and the possible return of Medhi Benatia– who returned to team training on Sunday – gives Guardiola some breathing room at center-back, but you might still see David Alaba partnering Jérome Boateng to start.

As the forwards go, it will be a “you pick ’em” between Costa and Coman on the bench, though you are likely to see them both over the course of the match. Just back from injury, Robben was a surprise starter in the Köln game, but his play looked like he never missed a beat and Guardiola would be hard-pressed to leave his big-match nous out, while the talismans Lewandowski and Müller are a given.

Wolves trainer Dieter Hecking has vacillated between a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-1-4-1 for much of the season with the exception of September’s loss to Bayern (4-4-1-1) and the weekend’s narrow victory over Darmstadt (4-4-2, Doppelsechs).

Where the single pivot is hardly ample enough to provide cover against the league’s most potent attack, Luiz Gustavo and Joshua Guilavogui – in front of Naldo and Dante at center-back – will try to right the abuse they suffered at the hands of Lewandowski.

Vidal

In the Köln match, the Chilean midfielder was used as a nominal single pivot behind a very strong attacking line. The end result was wholly “meh” as he was inaccurate with penetrating balls forward, while only winning 11% of his tackles.

Guardiola’s gamble proved correct as the forwards helped themselves and Vidal’s role will be much different on Tuesday with the return of Alonso. Instead, he will be tasked with controlling Julian Draxler, should the ex-Schalke standout see a lot of the ball.

Despite scoring the second goal against FC Köln (his third in all competitions this season), it is yet to be determined exactly where he fits in to Guardiola’s plans as the coach requires better decision-making than he has shown so far this campaign.

It must be said, though, that it has taken some very smart players a couple of years to fully grasp what the Catalan coach expects from them.

Injuries

There is an interesting wrinkle as Juan Bernat (groin) is listed as questionable. While you never want to see a player injured, he has undoubtedly been Bayern’s weakest link this season, and we might see another rare appearance by Rafinha at left back.

Mario Götze, Franck Ribéry and Sebastian Rode are all definitely out for Bayern while center-backs Felipe and Robin Knoche will miss this for Wolfsburg.

While it seems a shame that last years’ domestic title holders meet so early in the competition, it is also what makes the Pokal so great to watch. “I like the pressure of these knockout matches,” Guardiola enthused, “you win or you go home.”

BUNDESLIGA 2015-16: MATCHDAY 10 TALKING POINTS

It was another action-packed weekend in the Bundesliga, with plenty of goals, entertainment and decisive moments. Here we round up the main talking points from some of the weekend’s key games.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 0-1 Hamburger SV: Gisdol pays price for awful start

Going into this game there were suggestions that Markus Gisdol’s job was under threat if Hoffenheim lost here. As we know now, it was. But under the circumstances, it’s easy to argue he deserved more time. In his two full seasons in charge, they were very much one of the entertainers of the league, and were pushing for the European places having only just scraped to survive when he first took over.

But the summer upheavals, most notably the departure of Roberto Firmino, left him with a rebuilding job this season. With that brief, surely it was expected they wouldn’t do so well, but given the league’s nature, that implies they might find themselves at the wrong end of the table. For that reason, surely he deserved longer, as they would surely have moved up eventually, especially with more performances like the one against Dortmund last month.

However, here they were sluggish, and a Hamburg side who are on a more positive trajectory this season deserved their victory. And as these things go, it was another man who left Sinsheim in the summer, Sven Schipplock, who set up Pierre-Michel Lasogga for an easy tap-in late on to win the game. And so, it’s Huub Stevens, and not Gisdol, who takes things forward from here.

Bayer Leverkusen 4-3 VfB Stuttgart: Defensive issues holding Leverkusen back

After the game against Roma in the week, Leverkusen could have done with a much more straightforward game here. That’s not what they got. After a goalless first half, Stuttgart went 2-0 and then 3-1 up, putting them on the brink of following up their first win of the season with a second. Like London buses.

Leverkusen’s defensive frailties, so exposed four nights previously, were again in the spotlight. Some were tipping them as dark horses to challenge Bayern before the start of the season, but it hasn’t worked out like that, with their lack of defensive steel costing them. They lost 3-0 to both Bayern and Dortmund, were caught out by Darmstadt, nearly so by Augsburg, and again here by Stuttgart.

But the reason people were fancying them was their attacking threat. And even though they’ve lost Son Heung-Min, the additions of Admir Mehmedi, scorer of the fourth goal both here and against Roma, Javier Hernandez, another scorer, and to a lesser extent Kevin Kampl, have given Roger Schmidt a variety of riches to compliment what he already had. And it’s been enough to win (or draw) games they could have lost.

It also gives Schmidt the chance to rotate, but the trick going forward is to get the right combination of his talents – leaving Karim Bellarabi on the bench isn’t somethig to be risked every week – to really kick on to the next year. But the defence needs sorting too, if they really want to challenge the big boys.

FC Bayern Munich 4-0 1. FC Köln: Another record-breaking day

This was, almost, just another victory for Bayern as they close in on their fourth title in succession. But, vitally, it was an opportunity for Arjen Robben to come back into the side (and score, of course), to give a few more Bundesliga defenders some sleepless nights in the week ahead, especially in Frankfurt, who host them next.

The other exception was the statistical significance for this victory, as it was the 1000th Bundesliga win for Bavarian juggernaut. Whilst Pep Guardiola’s eyes will ultimately be on the more immediate aim of winning the league, he was still proud of achieving the landmark:

“A thousand wins is outstanding. All credit to our fans, players, coaches and staff at FC Bayern who’ve contributed to this extraordinary achievement. 1,000 shows how big this club is. I’m proud to be Bayern Munich coach at this moment in time.”

They also became only the fourth ever club to win the first ten games in a major European league, with Tottenham Hotspur (1960-61), Manchester United (1985-86) and Roma (2013-14), although only Spurs went on to win the title. It’s difficult to see Bayern failing to join them in that, though.

Borussia Dortmund 5-1 FC Augsburg: Super-cali-fragilistic-Pierre-Emerick-Aubameyang

Robert Lewandowski has desereivdley won the plaudits for his form in recent weeks, especially after the five goals against Wolfsburg. But it’s time to turn attention back to Aubameyang, whose own start to the season has simply been phenomenal. Both have now scored 13 league goals, following the Gabonese’s hat-trick against struggling Augsburg. But across all competitions, Lewandowski has 17, and Aubameyang has 20.

Ok, so three of those are Europa League qualifiers, but he should still at least be seen on a par, form wise, with the Pole. Two hat-tricks in four days, including the one against Qabala on Thursday, shows just red hot he is right now. In the Bundesliga, he has contributed 45% of Dortmund’s goals (according to Who Scored), as opposed to Lewandowski’s 39%, and he’s done it with only 3.8 shots per game, with Lewandowski having 5.3. He’s also had three assists, with Lewandowski only making one.

The debate could rage all season as to who’s better, but if nothing else, Aubameyang is finally filling the void left by Lewandowski himself when he left Dortmund.

Borrusia Mönchengladbach 3-1 FC Schalke 04: The table lies

A glance at the Bundesliga table right now shows Schalke sitting third, with 19 points from ten games, and Gladbach with just 15. But for the latter, that doesn’t begin to tell the full story. After their abysmal start, which prompted Lucien Favre to leave, they have won all five of the domestic games André Schubert has led them in, and right now they would almost be mad to give the job permanently to anyone else but him, if he wants it.

The scoreline was a fair reflection of a game with Gladbach dominated. They were unlucky to go in level at the break, with Andreas Christensen getting the last touch on Max Meyer’s shot after what had been a great half from the Chelsea loanee. Schalke came out firing on all cylinders in the second half, but Raffael’s superb free kick put the hosts back in the lead, and after Johannes Geis’s abysmal challenge on André Hahn, the game was pretty much theirs, with Julian Korb settling it.

Clearly, it is not all rosy for Schalke. Their current position shouldn’t hide that they have now lost two in three in the league, with a lucky victory against Hertha in between, and the fact they have been comfortably outplayed by the two ‘big’ clubs they have played this season in Gladbach and Wolfsburg. There’s no doubting the good work André Breitenreiter has done so far, and the talent at his disposal, but there’s still work to do with Dortmund, Bayern and Leverkusen all back-to-back in November.

And the rest…

• FSV Mainz 05 1-3 Werder Bremen: Anthony Ujah scored twice just before the break to set Bremen on their way after four defeats on the spin. Fin Bartels got a third after half time, with a late consolation for Mainz from Yoshinori Muto.
• Hannover 96 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt: Frankfurt also recovered well after their thrashing at the hands of Gladbach, with Marc Stendera’s double turning it round after Felix Klaus had given Hannover the lead.
• Darmstadt 98 0-1 VfL Wolfsburg: Another stubborn performance from Darmstadt, but Daniel Caligiuri broke their resistance late on to keep Wolfsburg in the last Champions League spot.
• FC Ingolstadt 0-1 Hertha BSC: And Hertha remain fifth, with Mitchell Weiser scoring his first goal for the club early on as their fantastic, and unlikely, start to the season continues.