| 02.11.2009 |
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| ...they go and play like they did against foundering Stuttgart. For once Louis van Gaal had a clear choice up front. You pretty much have to start newly acquired players against their former teams. Otherwise, those players throw a hissy fit and start calling you nasty names behind your back and drawing obscene caricatures of you dressing room walls. And lo and behold, there was Mario Gomez in the starting eleven on Saturday. The only problem was he didn't get enough decent balls to do any damage against his old club. Against Frankfurt in the Cup, Bayern looked as though they had their midfield creativity problems sorted out. But against Stuttgart the glaring deficiencies at the center of the pitch re-emerged. Schweinsteiger and Tymoschuck were useless and van Bommel reverted to his former, solely destructive ways. Bayern few chances in the match came on long balls into the middle or bursts of inspiration from their best player this season, youngster Thomas Müller. On the positive side, Bayern have just announced they're about to sign mega-deals with Audi and Deutsche Telekom that will bring even more euros into the club's bursting coffers. But whether they'll use the cash to sign the sort of player they need most, a big midfield general in the mold of Stefan Effenberg or Michael Ballack, is an open question. Van Gaal needs to put his foot down and insist they do. The Dutchman was hired for his tactical acumen, but there's been little of it on display this season. In fact, his record of this writing is worse than Jürgen Klinsmann's. The winter break will give him a chance to prove he has a vision for the team. He needs to insist that Bayern shake things up. Otherwise, Bayern are not going to win the title this year. And he, most certainly, will be out of a job. |
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| 2 Comments |
| Hi Neal, the basic problem is that Bayern have no one on offense who likes playing in the center of the pitch. As good as Ribery and Robben are, they're wingers not playmakers. Schweinsteiger also prefers to be near the sidelines, and van Bommel is a classic stopper, not a precision passer. Their strikers are all center forwards who need to be near the goal to be effective. So there's essentially a vacuum at the very heart of field. |
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| Jefferson | Homepage | E-Mail | 05.11.2009, 10:53 | ||
| Maybe I don't understand football, but I can't for the life of me understand how a team like Bayern, with the quality of players they have, is playing so poorly. Todays Champions League loss was embarassing. | ||
| neal | Homepage | 04.11.2009, 05:57 | ||