Bayern Munich manage to snatch a marginal 4-3 victory against Holstein Kiel after being four goals up.
An unnecessarily stressful ending to a game that should have been plain sailing.
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Devoid of defensive cohesion
Let’s start with the bad, and boy was Bayern Munich’s sketchy defence bad.
Now, I don’t want to chalk the entire defensive performance up to the dying minutes of the game. While it was undeniably poor defending causing Bayern to concede two goals in two minutes of added time, truth be told, Kiel could have been two goals up in the opening ten minutes had they been more clinical.
Bayern’s defence is far from being in shambles. Despite being knocked out of the park on a few occasions this season, Die Rekordmeister has actually had a strong defence, especially in the Bundesliga. This mainly comes down to the vastly improved, physically apt centre-back pairing of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae. However, against Kiel, the defensive duo were far from their best.
Likely a consequence of a lack of minutes playing together, the last time ironically another defensive disaster against Feyenoord in the Champions League, Upamecano and Kim certainly need more minutes together to find their rhythm again.
Poor game management
After singing his side’s praises for holding on to a 2-1 lead against SC Freiburg last week, you can’t imagine Vincent Kompany is pleased with how Bayern closed the game off against Kiel, narrowly avoiding a spectacular self implosion.
A quiet Kane is never quiet for long
It would be extremely difficult to critique Harry Kane’s time in a Bayern Munich jersey. The Englishman has set the Bundesliga on fire since he first set foot in the club. Breaking record after record and the will of near every defence he has come up against, Kane continues to shine, now becoming the most prolific Bundesliga goal scorer in their first 50 games, with 55 goals.
Yet, even the cream of the crop occasionally receives a spot of criticism and in Kane’s case, the 31-year-old striker has oft been accused of becoming invisible in games, lacking touches and involvement in build-up play.
Harry Kane’s performance against Holstein Kiel was perhaps the perfect defence to, the rather unnecessary criticism, Kane continues to receive from time to time.
In the first half of the game, Kane had been rather quiet and uninvolved, causing a few to question whether he was actually on the pitch. Queue the dying embers of the first half, with no evidence that Kane would make any significant stamp on the game, he does what he does best: puts the ball in the back of the net. To make matters even better, it would only take one minute after the start of the second half for Kane to put Bayern 3-0 up and secure a brace.
Harry Kane is never just invisible, but rather waiting patiently, analysing and calculating the best time to strike, and when he does, you can almost guarantee it’s going to be a lethal blow.
After all, let’s not forget what Kane’s primary purpose is at Bayern Munich: to score goals. What is Kane doing near flawlessly? I’ll let you answer that one.
Magisterial Musiala
While Florian Wirtz has been the one grabbing the headlines for his showstopping performances in recent weeks, Jamala Musiala has been having an equally impressive season.
Musiala’s 19th minute opener, assisted by Michael Olise, was a prime example of what Bayern need to do but are so often incapable of doing to break down a low block. Speed, accuracy and creativity, Bayern strung together a beautiful passing sequence unleashing Olise who squared the ball to Musiala, who fired the ball into the back of the net to mark his tenth Bundesliga goal of the season.
Even more impressive, Musiala’s goal against Kiel marks the 21-year-old’s 3rd consecutive Bundesliga season with a double digit goal haul.
The difference between great and world class so often comes down to consistency. Where others, such as Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané, have struggled to stamp down a run of consistent performances, it’s good to see Musiala continuously putting in strong performances week in week out.
Bonus shout out to Musiala for celebrating not being subbed off by Vincent Kompany in the 58th minute. It’s so refreshing to see a player so hungry to stay on the pitch despite the large gap in scoreline at the time.
The importance of good finishing cannot be understated
Serge Gnabry hasn’t exactly been showered in praise for his finishing ability recently, however, after the 29-year-olds world class finish, he certainly deserves a round of applause especially considering the importance of the goal.
Following Gnabry’s 54th minute volley, Bayern were four goals clear of Kiel and cruising to a massive victory, however, the game ended very differently and almost resulted in The Storks making one of the most iconic comebacks in Bundesliga history.
He certainly didn’t know the importance of his goal in the moment but it proved to be the goal that earned Bayern a vital three points and just goes to show, even at three goals to the good, every goal counts.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis of Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga win over Holstein Kiel? Awesome, then check out our Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show, where we break it all down from the starting XI to the scoring and subs to our final takeaways on the match! You can get the show on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
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