Mid-Season Report Card: How Bayern Munich fared in the Hinrunde | OneFootball

After the 5-0 win over Hoffenheim on Wednesday, Bayern Munich are now halfway through their 24/25 Bundesliga season, as they look to regain their Bundesliga throne. Let's analyze how the season has gone so far.

Taking a look at Bayern Munich's 24/25 season up until now

Last summer, Bayern made the move to appoint Vincent Kompany as their new manager. This came with some controversy, given he had just been relegated with Burnley. However, in the 22/23 season, he showed what he could do when he had better players in the championship. He helped Burnley to promotion in his first season at the club.

Like his predecessor, Thomas Tuchel, Kompany has used a 4231 shape, though with differences in style and personnel. For the second half of last season, Tuchel used Joshua Kimmich exclusively as a right-back. This season he has only played there once, and in the midfield every other game.

The defensive partnership has entirely changed. For the second half of last season, Tuchel often used a partnership of Eric Dier and Matthijs de Ligt. This season, Dier is the third-choice defender, whilst de Ligt left the club. Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae are back in the XI, and playing very well.

Although Tuchel did give Pavlovic his breakthrough season, and played him several times, it is clear that for the most part, he preferred Leon Gortezka in midfield, with one of Laimer or Pavlovic next to him. That is another thing Kompany has altered - Laimer has pretty much only played at right-back this season.

Some of that will be due to the fact that Kompany has had Palhinha (when fit) at his disposal, something Tuchel did not have. He also has Michael Olise in his squad, so it is hard to compare how much Leroy Sane played on the right-hand side last season compared to this.

The other real tweak is how he has used Alphonso Davies, playing him as an inverted full-back, helping form a back three in midfield, or even tucking into midfield. Generally, Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala play pretty similarly to how they did last season, with Kane perhaps slightly less of a box nine than last year.

Bayern began the season with a win over Saturday's opponent Wolfsburg, with a dramatic 3-2 win, where Serge Gnabry scored the winner off the bench. This victory was followed up by a 2-0 win at home to Freiburg. After the first international break, Bayern came out of the traps, beating Holsten Kiel 6-1, and Werder Bremen 5-0, both on the road — with a 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb at home in the Champions League in the middle of that.

Then, the toughest week of the season came. Bayern were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen, before losing 1-0 at Aston Villa in the Champions League. Die Roten went on to concede a 94th-minute equalizer to draw 3-3 away to Frankfurt.

After a 4-0 win at home to VFB Stuttgart, Bayern would be condemned to a tough 4-1 defeat away to Barcelona. However, this defeat initiated a seriously good run of form. At Camp Nou, Bayern were consistently pulled apart. Since then, the defensive line has dropped five to ten yards, and when they do lose the ball, they win it back quicker. This counter-pressing style has led to a much better defensive record.

With this tweak, Bayern won every game in the league, DFB Pokal, and Champions League for a month, before drawing 1-1 at Borussia Dortmund, in a game they really should have won. Three days later, they were knocked out of the DFB Pokal by Bayer Leverkusen, after a 1-0 defeat with ten men. Despite the defeat, Kompany’s side still played fairly well and may have won with 11 men and Kane not missing majority of the game due to injury.

Bayern then got the job done with a 4-2 win at home to Heidenheim, and a 5-1 win Champions League win against Shakhtar Donetsk in Gelsenkirchen. However, on December 14, they lost in the Bundesliga for the first time this season, with a 2-1 defeat away to Mainz 05.

The Bavarian club bounced back from defeat in the best possible way. In the final game before the break against RB Leipzig, Bayern battered their counterparts 5-1, playing incredible football, where they really could have scored eight or nine goals.

Despite somehow coming into the return of the Bundesliga more depleted than heading into the break, Bayern picked up wins over Borussia Monchengladbach and Hoffenheim 1-0 and 5-0 respectively, to get the ball rolling in 2025.

After 17 games, Bayern have a lead of four points over Leverkusen. At one point it was nine (when Leverkusen were not second), but you would have taken that it offered at the start of the season. Let's take a look at the biggest positives and negatives of the season until now.