Bayern Capitalize on Stuttgart Mistakes | OneFootball

It was a busy week as Bayern celebrated their 125th anniversary and Bayern capped it off with a 1-3 win away from home at Stuttgart.

Vincent Kompany’s starting eleven consisted of Manuel Neuer, Konrad Laimer, Eric Dier, Kim MinJae, Alphonso Davies, João Palhinha, Leon Goretzka, Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané and Harry Kane.

Three Things We Noticed

Finding A Way

Once again, Bayern started a match slowly and yet come away with a win. The first half of this match left much to be desired from a Bayern perspective.

The offense missed a few golden opportunities while defensively they allowed a few to Stuttgart that they should have put away themselves.

The intensity and focus really seemed to be lacking for Bayern in that first half and Bayern were lucky to be level with Stuttgart thanks to a late Olise goal.

However in the second half Bayern turned in a much better performance overall. While the goals were the result of Stuttgart errors, Bayern also put themselves in position to capitalize on those mistakes. That is something this team has done with regularity and is part of the reason they have accumulated the amount of points they have this season.

Midfield Woes

For all of the critics of Joshua Kimmich, today was another example just how critical he is to this team. Without him in the middle of the pitch, there was next to no build up play through those positions.

Neither Goretzka nor Palhinha are equipped to be the outlet that Kimmich is for the defense and attack. Neither are particularly great passers. Neither are particularly great on the ball. Both have other strengths, as shown by Goretzka’s goal, but alone/together, they are a nightmare in terms of distribution.

Unfortunately this performance also comes on the heels of the news that Bayern have withdrawn their contract offer to Kimmich leaving his future in even further uncertainty.

If Kimmich were to leave next season, there is no heir apparent in this Bayern squad to fill the gap. Perhaps in a few years time Pavlovic or Bischof could fill those shoes but neither appear to be ready to immediately step in.

Eyes On Wednesday

With all of that said, there was clearly an eye on Wednesday evening’s matchup with Leverkusen today as well. While this victory puts them in even firmer position in the Bundesliga this season, there’s no question that Wednesday’s Champions League tie has much more at stake at the moment.

Kompany gave several players rest while trying to reintegrate others and being forced to rotate Kimmich and Upamecano through injury. Given the changes, it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that Bayern struggled a little early on but it was also encouraging to see them earn three points in the second half.

The downside however is that Davies was forced off towards the end of the match and some of the same issues that have plagued Bayern in recent weeks continued this evening, especially their lack of bite in front of goal.

Wednesday is almost certainly the biggest match of this season. Bayern will be very much looking for a win at home to take with them to the return fixture a week later. Leverkusen on the other hand will be looking for no worse than a draw. How it turns out, will almost certainly play massively into the result of the fixture.