Bayern Dominant at Holstein Kiel | OneFootball

On Saturday, Bayern returned from the international break with a visit up north at Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga.

Vincent Kompany made a few changes to the line up for this match going with Manuel Neuer, Sacha Boey, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Minjae, Raphaël Guerreiro, Joshua Kimmich, João Palhinha, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Kingsley Coman and Harry Kane.

Bayern, and especially Musiala, came out of the gate fast scoring three goals in the opening 13 minutes with Musiala scoring in the first minute, Kane in the seventh and Musiala forcing an own goal in the 13th. Kane added his second in the 43rd minute to send Bayern to the dressing room up 0-4.

Kompany made several changes in the second half inserting Thomas Müller for Musiala and Michael Olise for Gnabry before bringing on Alphonso Davies for Guerreiro and Konrad Laimar for Boey. Just a minute after the second set of subs, Olise would add a fifth goal to Bayern’s tally in the 65th minute.

In the 76th minute, Mathys Tel would come on as Bayern’s final substitute for Coman. Unfortunately, Bayern would get hit on a counter attack as Kiel whipped in a cross that found an oncoming Armin Gigovic who headed into the far corner 1-5 (82). Kane would grab his third goal and finish off the scoring with a penalty as he was brought down in the box converting in the 91st minute 1-6.

Three Things We Noticed

Energy and Attitude

While it’s still too early to really make any serious assessments of this team and Kompany’s tactics, there is one thing that has obviously changed and is not a reach to state: This Bayern team is playing with far more energy and with a much better attitude than they have in a long time.

The players are more active. They have their heads up. They look like they know what they’re supposed to be doing and where they’re supposed to be. They’re moving the ball and moving to open spaces after.

More importantly, this looks like a team that might actually be enjoying their job. They look freer and more adventurous. The passing is crisper and more creative. They look more confident on the ball in and around the box. They’re more decisive taking shots.

It’s hard to say with certainty that these traits and feelings will last but apart from the 2020 Flick season, we certainly have not seen the players look like this and it is one aspect that Kompany clearly deserves a lot of credit for.

Tight Spaces

Another area where Bayern have shown considerable improvement is in their ability to handle pressure and maneuver in tight spaces.

This is an area that Bayern have struggled, arguably since Pep left, but certainly since 2020. These past few seasons especially, even smaller teams have caused Bayern a lot of problems simply by pressuring them high and hard early on.

In this match against Kiel, and yes I know it’s just Kiel, Bayern played their way out of pressure with quick crisp passing and dribbling. The players off the ball were moving rather than standing. The players on the ball didn’t waste time or put themselves in worse positions by hesitating.

I was hopeful, based on the little I knew of Kompany and his philosophy that this was an area that Bayern might finally improve and if today was an indicator, that hope looks to have been justified. If Bayern finally are able to play the ball out of pressure, they will be infinitely more difficult to defend and ultimately beat.

Concentration

While a 6-1 win certainly is a positive result, there are still things that need to be worked on. One of them that has been a consistent thorn in Bayern’s side is losing concentration late in matches like this.

Once again, they conceded a goal late in second half of a game that they had almost total control of. Kiel would have a second chance in about as many minutes that went off the cross bar as well. While this seemed to jolt Bayern out of their funk, these chances should never have materialized to begin with.

Realistically it’s probably not that surprising. Everything will not be fixed overnight. Mentality and confidence takes time to build and solidify. It was clear when Kiel scored that Bayern were reeling a bit, but it was also good to see them snap out of it rather quickly and even add a late goal. Still, this will be something to keep an eye on as the season progresses, especially against teams that are better than Holstein Kiel.