“IF your wife sends you shopping with instructions,” Thomas Muller riddled a few weeks after Niko Kovac’s sacking at Bayern Munich, “then you know exactly what to do. But when she doesn't give clear instructions then you'll be standing in front of the shelves and there's a big risk that dinner won't be as good as it could be.”
Muller’s thinly veiled criticism of Kovac’s weakness as a communicator and tactician was far from the first barb to come from the Bayern Munich dressing room towards the Croatian, but the German international’s words were most notable than most given the way he’d been exiled at the Allianz Arena.
Kovac made a very public point of dropping Muller from his first team, even stating that the attacker would only be picked if other players were unavailable. It seemed that Muller’s days as a Bayern Munich player were as good as over, with a Premier League move a reported possibility. It’s just as well the forward outlasted Kovac.
Hansi Flick, appointed Kovac’s replacement first on an interim basis and then permanently, has led Bayern Munich back to the top of the Bundesliga, restoring Muller as a central figure at the Allianz Arena. The 30-year-old has scored six times and notched an incredible 12 assists in 15 league outings under the new boss, making him Europe’s top assist-maker (16 overall). If the defending German champions are to keep their crown the revitalisation of Muller will have been a major factor.
Of course, Muller has never been a player defined purely by numbers, even if he is Bayern Munich fourth all-time top scorer. In fact, he is a talent who often defies any kind of logic. It can be difficult to pinpoint his attributes in that he is far from the strongest, fastest or most skilful, at least in conventional terms, but there is no doubting his effectiveness. Once described as like a junior doctor on a fun run, Muller isn’t exactly an archetypal elite level footballer.
Nonetheless, he has come to embody all that has been great, and continues to be great, about this generation of Bayern Munich attack. Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben might have retired last summer, but their frontline remains inherently fluid and interchangeable, with Robert Lewandowski, Serge Gnabry and, of course, Muller all revolving around each other. The thought of Leroy Sane being added to that equation is a terrifying one.
No player has more assists in Europe’s top five leagues than Thomas Muller (16).
Vintage pic.twitter.com/BqaMWMf9BO
— B/R Football (@brfootball) February 29, 2020
Flick has recognised Muller’s quality not just as an individual difference-maker, but as a facilitator of others. The relationship between Lewandowski and Muller has, in terms of goals, been the Bundesliga’s most productive this season, with the two players combining six times to find the back of the net. This is made all the more noteworthy by the fact Muller has only started 18 of Bayern Munich’s 25 league games.
With Muller and Lewandowski firing, it’s tough to envisage how anyone will be able to catch the Bavarians at the top of the Bundesliga, with the 2019/20 campaign set to resume this weekend after 10-week hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. After six years of playing together, the two are completely in sync with each other. Not even Kovac could split them.
While Philippe Coutinho’s arrival on loan from Barcelona last summer has seen the area of the pitch Muller usually occupy become more crowded, Flick has still permitted him something of a free role in his team. The self-styled Raumdeuter (space invader) is allowed to find space, wherever it is, and exploit it.
A big part of Flick’s early success at the Allianz Arena has been in his harnessing of Bayern Munich’s Old Guard, the dressing room clique that was left disgruntled by their former manager. Muller was, with good reason, the most disgruntled of all, but is now once again leading the Bavarians in the only way he knows.
