Bayern 2 – 3 Bochum: An Avoidable But Fair Defeat | OneFootball

A home match with sun, good weather, anniversary celebrations, nice choreo and an opponent fighting against relegation, everything pointed to a nice day for Bayern at the Allianz Arena today, but Bochum, and some Bayern players, had other plans.

This article written by Rainer Pompermayer

Kompany used an alternative first eleven, finally providing some real rotation, rest for some key players and more minutes for some players that hadn’t played as much lately.

The match started well, with Bayern dominating and a Guerreiro goal in the 14th minute. A couple minutes after Sané won a penalty only to be wasted by Gnabry, a mistake that would cost Bayern dearly later.

Before the first half was over, we had another goal by Guerreiro with a header (!), Bochum scoring one for themselves after Bayern defended a corner poorly, and Palhinha getting a straight red card and being correctly sent off due an clumsy challenge.

Bochum started the second half  well, dominating the game at first and equalizing via a header. Kompany tried to change the course of the fixture, subbing in all the big guns, Kane, Musiala and Olise, but in the end it was Bochum who scored the final goal in a quick counter. Bayern had some chances here and there but were unable to equalize the match.

The Bavarians now need to thank Werder Bremen, for winning against Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena and maintaining the eight point gap at the top of the table.

Things We Noticed:

Reserves and Squad Players Not Up For the Task

Besides Guerreiro, with a good match and two goals, it was pretty clear that the “reserve” players are not currently up for the task, a fact made clear when Kompany took five substitutes off the field to field five of his main starters.

Playing at home against Bochum, a team struggling not to be relegated this season, a Bayern team composed of names like Guerreiro, Müller, Gnabry, Sané, Goretzka, etc should be more than enough to secure a win.

Of course we can point out, correctly, that Bayern was missing a player for the whole second half, but Bayern should be 3-0 before Palhinha was sent off anyway. We know that players like Müller and Groetzka have had their ups and downs in the last two seasons, and that Sané and Gnabry seem to have forgotten how to play football in the last few months, but still this defeat was completely avoidable.

Two Moments Can Change a Match

This match was a clear example of how this current Bayern can throw away a win easily. The two moments that defined this result was the Palhinha send off, close to the end of the first half in a “not important” moment of the match, and mainly the missed penalty by Gnabry.

If Gnabry scored that goal, Bayern would be ahead by 2-0 before the 25 minutes mark, and maybe scored a third one by Guerreiro a couple minutes later, which would completely close the result.

Considering the tough matches ahead of the Champions League that needs to be front and back in the mind of the Bayern players. Of course, it also needs to be in the mind of the board and executives for the next season, because if Bayern can’t count on half of their offensive players to have a good match against a “lower level” opponent, we have a very big problem in the squad for the years to come.

LINE UPS AND GOALS:

Bayern: Urbig –  Boey (Laimer), Stanišić, Dier, Itō – Palhinha, Goretzka – Sané (Olise), Guerreiro, Gnabry (Musiala), Müller (Kane)

Bochum: Horn – Passlack, Oermann, Medić, Bernardo, Wittek (Masovic) – Bero (Losilla), Sissoko, Krauß – Hofmann, Masouras (Broschinsk)

Goals: 1:0 Guerreiro, 2:0 Guerreiro, 2:1 Medic, 2:2 Sissoko, 2:3 BeroYellow cards: Medic, Bernardo, Wittek, Horn, Sissoko, LosillaRed cards: Palhinha