BAYERN Munich’s 3-2 win at lowly FC Augsburg was described as “laboured but deserved” by manager Niko Kovac on Friday night, but the manner of the uneven performance at the WWK-Arena only underlined another paradox that goes to the heart of this team this season: the German champions’ failure to play with any sense of cohesion and their resulting fragility of the back are only outdone by their ability to find ways of scoring goals.
This time, it was their strong left flank that came up with the goods. Frenchman Kingsley Coman scored twice before the break to cancel out Leon Goretzka’s own goal on 15 seconds (!) and Dong-Won Ji’s strike before David Alaba’s angled shot won the game for Bayern. They’re now only two points adrift of leaders Borussia Dortmund, who travel to bottom team Nürnberg on Monday night.
Winning while not doing all that well has long been a hallmark of champions everywhere, and especially in Munich. Nevertheless, the unconvincing nature of much of Bayern’s showing made it difficult to agree with Kicker, who felt that “the dress rehearsal for Liverpool has gone well.”
Bayern boss Niko Kovac had a warning for his team ahead of taking on Liverpool pic.twitter.com/8nXWxmJfby
— Goal (@goal) February 16, 2019
Too many players fielded in the likely starting XI that Kovac would have wanted to play at Anfield were well below par, and collectively, there were no signs of real progress with or without the ball. Esteemed German football journalist Christoph Biermann recently called Bayern’s game “retro”. Indeed, it often looked as if it predates late 20th century innovations such as combination football, concerted pressing and the considered use of space.
They rely on individuals or combinations of individuals on the flanks to come up with solutions in the final third. When you have as much as class as Bayern, you can afford to be this player-centric for most matches but they have and will struggle against sides who combine similar quality with a well thought-out game plan. Augsburg troubled them by having only the latter at their disposal.
In terms of his personnel’s form ahead of the trip to Merseyside, the message was at best mixed for Kovac. Manuel Neuer returned to goal after his thumb injury and didn’t seem adversely affected. (He hardly had anything to do either, Augsburg’s two goals notwithstanding). James Rodriguez, on the other hand, had a game to forget and was substituted on the hour mark.
The Colombian is all but guaranteed a starting place against Klopp’s men in the absence of Thomas Müller but was so sluggish that Kovac might be forgiven to wonder whether the wonderfully gifted but sometimes a little selfish technician is really the right person to work and run in the cauldron of Anfield alongside Thiago.
Good news! The doctors have given Kingsley #Coman the all clear to face @LFC on Tuesday #FCAFCB #LFCFCB pic.twitter.com/gRSW1pxKIP
— FC Bayern English (@FCBayernEN) February 16, 2019
Worst of all, however, is the ankle injury Coman picked up in the last minute of the match after a foul from Danso. The Frenchman had been badly missed since hurting the same ankle in the first game of the season, away to Hoffenheim, and his absence due to a similar problem in the Champions League semi-final had hurt Bayern gravely, too.
His loss would force Kovac into making a tricky choice between keeping the 4-3-3 formation and looking towards the veteran Franck Ribéry for inspiration or to make a more pragmatic change and opt for a 5-3-2 with wingbacks instead.
Liverpool have had problems against deep-lying defences all season but leaving out James altogether for the biggest game of the season so far will have political repercussions. Either way, Kovac has plenty of thinking to do. This was a win that threw up more questions than answers.
