The importance of getting the old Ribery back

The Bundesliga season ended in 2007, and Bayern for the first time in over a decade finished outside a Champions League position, in 4th place behind Stuttgart, Schalke & Werder Bremen.  Suffice to say, it was a humiliating time for Bayern and their fans.  The fans were furious and let management knew it, and that is when Hoeness & Co. decided to splash the cash like never before.  They brought Ze Roberto back as a free transfer, but they went and bought Toni for 11 million euros, Klose for 15 million euros and an unknown potential star named Frank Ribery for 25 million euros!  Little did they know the gem that they picked up because Lyon & Real Madrid at the time didn't think he was worth the money..  However for this move, we should all be thankful of Fergie and United for splashing 25 million euros on Hargreaves which funded the money to buy the French wizard.  He was Bayern's most expensive signing at the time, and now it certainly is clear that he was worth every single penny!

Ribery & Toni signing for Bayern in 2007

Ribery took the legendary number 7 shirt, Scholl was the last to wear it and was loved by Bayern fans in his many years with us even though he was injured through many seasons.  For 3 years in a row, Ribery played as good as one might wish, goals and assists galore.  He along with Lahm made the best left wing in Europe for a few seasons.  His last season when Robben came back however, was probably his worst in his career.  Nearly half season injured, the sex scandal with a French hooker while being married, speculation on joining a different club and the time he spent playing was very poor compared to his first 3 years.  He even got a red card in the semi-final vs Lyon which meant he couldn't play in the final of Champions League.  Bayern went to court and fought but ultimately lost, they also protected him vs the sex scandal news.  Ribery then decided last summer that he would extend with Bayern on a 5 year contract, even though his wages currently are the highest of any player.  Now that history is out of the way, I only think about one thing.. getting Ribery back to his old form..

It was clear last year, we missed Ribery in the CL final.  He's always been Bayern's most creative player since he's signed for us and Altintop spent the entire game passing back to Badstuber.  This season especially when Robben gets back, we need him for the Champions League title fight.  Robben last season was phenomenal and if he can regain such a form, we need Ribery to do the same.  Having "Robbery" on form would be dangerous vs any team.  Until last month, Ribery was either injured for 2 months or average.  However the last few matches he reminded everyone of Ribery of old.  In his last 4 matches, he scored 5 goals & assisted 4 goals!  Those phenomenal stats may be a bit misleading as he played 3 very poor teams however he showed his old self during that time which is great. 

Ribery misses his old partner

One other thing that he is lacking since last season is Lahm.  Robben with him behind played his best season ever and Ribery with Lahm behind him also was at his best, this common denominator insinuates that Ribery needs a great left-back to be at his best.  Contento just isn't good enough, Alaba is far too young to handle it & Pranjic is far too weak defensively to be a long-term option as Ribery's partner.  Ribery needs someone stable defensively that has the IQ to play the quick passing game with Ribery.  Baines, Criscito, Tremoulinas & Coentrao are names that have been thrown as his potential future partners.  Baines however recently stated that he wishes to play with Everton until the end of the season and I doubt Bayern will pursue him in the summer if he doesn't join them in January.  The others are all potential good options.  The best option in my opinion could be Coentrao, though last season Benfica asked for a ridiculous 30m which Bayern quickly walked away from.  Either way depending who joins is very important as it could help escalate his form back to where it was with a proper left-back.  Getting Ribery back to his old form could be the missing key to getting Bayern to accomplish what they've wanted since 2001.. the Champions League trophy

Lahm & Schweinsteiger, the new Icons of FC Bayern Munich

Every big club has icons, players you automatically think of when you hear the name of the club.  Raul for Real Madrid, Xavi & Iniesta for Barca, Maldini for Milan, Zanetti Inter, Giggs United etc etc..  Even Bayern had these players, Kahn being the last, Effenberg before and even the Kaiser if we were to go back 30 years ago.  However Bayern may indeed have two new icons from Bayern, both raised who came from the city and youth system to turn into arguably 2 world class stars in the football world.. Phillipp Lahm & Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Lahm & Schweini, before the United match

Both had contracts expiring and clubs after them.  Lahm before signing his last extension had a chance to join Barcelona but refused and signed for us two years back.  Barcelona, United & Milan had been rumored to be after him.  Schweinsteiger being reinvented in the central midfield position (thanks to Van Gaal) has been a transfer spotlight from all over the place, Juve, Inter, Chelsea United & Real Madrid are clubs that in the past 2 seasons have wanted his signature.  Yet after the last Bundesliga match at the Allianz Arena, he took the microphone and said I have signed an extension until 2016, long live Bayern!  In an interview afterwards, he stated he'd rather win the title with Bayern rather with Real Madrid or Inter Milan.

 Schweini telling 69,000 fans live of his extension with Bayern!

One interesting thing that I noticed from Rummenigge that was similar to both extensions was the time frame it took to pen the deals.  According to him, both players took 5 to 10 minutes before signing.  Both players have signed until 2016, which would make Lahm & Schweini 33 and 32 years old by the time the contract runs out.  It's a statement that they wish to stay for the club for a long time and likely retire in Munich.  Their extensions is great news for many reasons.  For one, it states that Bayern can keep their stars and have serious ambitions to be a top club.  Another is that since last year, Bayern has many good youth talents thanks to Van Gaal.  Many look up to Schweini & Lahm.  In fact based on a few interviews from last season, Muller, Badstuber & Contento in particular talked how both these two players and not the current captain Van Bommel were ones they look up to.. the players they want to become in the future.  It sends a great message because in the future if these youngsters grow and become big name players.. once the big clubs come in to ask for them, they may look at these 2 icons from Bayern and decide to stay with Bayern, to do what their role models have done.   Players like Muller, Badstuber & Kroos in particular look very talented and could be the ones who replace these two in many years to come as the face of Bayern Munich..   Both are vice-captains at Bayern & Lahm is captain with Schweini as the vice-captain for the German national team.  Assuming Van Bommel leaves in January or the summer, these two will lead Bayern & Germany for many years as the captain and the vice-captain.  However for them to be remembered, they need titles and important ones.  Winning the Champions League, Euro Cup & especially the World Cup in the future is something they will need to do to immortalize their names in the German & Bayern Munich fans' eyes!

Mario Gomez, proving his pricetag one goal at a time

What a way to start this piece, Bayern go to Italy already through to the round of 16 and with no pressure.  Unfortunately after leading 2-0 at half-time, everything went wrong 2nd half and Roma scored 3 goals.  However since the game itself was not of too much importance to Bayern, I will focus on basically the only bright spot of this match.  Mario Gomez once again is the man to put the ball in the net for Bayern.

Mario Gomez this season has already scored more goals than he scored all year last year, 15.  He scored 14 goals throughout the season last year which was simply put dissapointing considering he's the most expensive player so Bayern expected a lot more from "Super Mario", especially when they splashed a whopping 30m euro paycheck for him.  Some of his statistics so far this season are simply phenomenal.  He already has 15 goals and has only started 10 times this season, 14 of those goals coming from those 10 games.  In Champions League, he has scored his 6 goals from 7 shots on target!  Imagine if he had started since the beginning of the season, his tally might be even higher than it currently is.

Super Mario showing his Stuttgart form, goals goals goals...

The funny thing about Mario is that he might not even be starting if it wasn't for others getting injured.  Olic is out for the entire season, and Klose will be back .. well information on when he's back is still pending unfortunately.  Klose started this season and scored only 2 goals in 9 matches, his form from the World Cup dissapeared.  Van Gaal simply didn't see him in his plans because he's not the type striker he is looking for, and a loan deal was going to go through with him joining Liverpool.  However, management stepped in & the deal went through, our two other strikers got injured and the rest is history.  Things in football change quickly, one second you're a looser and deemed flop of the Bundesliga and the next you are the hero of the biggest team in Germany.  Make no mistake about it, Bayern's rise from their horrible form is due mostly to two players, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Super Mario Gomez.  If he continues his form until the end of the season and does his job in the Champions League knock-out stage, than maybe just maybe we might not even hear the Dzeko rumors anymore.  I jest of course, but giving a player time to get adjust to the team seems to be quite a positive for Bayern now as they have a reliable goalscorer.  Recently he seems to be Bayern's only source of goal which is a bit disappointing, but that's a topic for another day.  All we can hope now is that Mario can keep his form for the rest of the season.

Deja Vu, Bayern's "B" team saving Bayern's season

Hmmm, it seems I've seen this before....  No Ribery, no Robben, injuries hurting the team and the team simply not putting up any results.  Last season Bayern was in a similar problem, then they started winning ugly with Golic spearheading the attack and with the famous Juventus thrashing where the "B" players like Gomez, Tymoschuk, Pranjic & Olic played brilliant to destroy one of the most famous European teams in their stadium to get out of the CL group stage. 

 Tymoschuk & Demichellis celebrating a goal

Now this season, Robben out for the 1st half of the season, Ribery out for nearly 2 months and the Bundesliga and Bayern have finally started to put up results.. even when they take only 15 players in 2 matches in 1 week.  4 wins, 2 ties in the last two matches and Bayern are looking on the right track.  At first they won ugly, with luck perhaps but got the results.  The last two matches however (Cluj, BMG), Bayern are finally starting to play good football even if vs BMG Bayern tied, it really was a match that they should have won had it not been for a bit luck missing and certain individual mistakes.  The other match tied was at Hamburg, a team that we usually tie or loose to with a full team so the result was not necessarily a bad one.  These B players are looking to be the same ones that were missing last season, though hopefully Van Gaal can see that maybe.. just maybe some of them shouldn't be on the B team but rather the A team.

Gomez doing what we paid him to do.. scoring

Mario Gomez, the most expensive transfer in Bayern's history (30 million euros) could be very well seen as a flop last season or perhaps 2nd chance not given after his poor run of form could be another piece of argument.  Point is he scored only 14 goals in total last season and that is simply put not even worth half of the amount we paid for, he was close to being shipped to Liverpool on a loan thanks to Van Gaal had management not stepped in.  Now it's only November and he's already scored 10 goals.  2 hat-tricks already, it looks like Stuttgart Gomez is back in business in this form.  A fan of Stuttgart always tells me, "Start Gomez and you always get goals, regardless of his form".  This is something I totally agree with, he has the tendency to have games where he plays very bad yet still pops up and scores.  This is essential imo and very important to have in your line-up, as in today's society fans keep asking for players in every position being great at many things (here comes the generalizations) as in a full-back has to score goals to be regarded great by others, a defensive midfielder now has to be a great passer to be considered a great player, a center-back has to be able to pass well and in Gomez it is required that he should be great at passing and making plays with Robbery & Co.  To me, there are 9 other players in the field that can do this, my concern is the man up top should put the ball in the net and Gomez can do that.  I believe if we start him (regardless of form), he will score at least 25 goals and there is no one in the team that can do this other than Robben or perhaps if Muller improves further.  However Robben plays another position and Muller can play behind him so it's not essential to bench such a strong goal threat.

I do agree Gomez isn't a great passer like Klose, doesn't run as much as the energizer bunny Olic, and doesn't read the game with players like Ribery or Robben like Muller does, but he offers other strengths.  He makes us better in set pieces, he scored from a corner and another set piece given by Kroos vs BMG, another header.  He can finally make us strong in the air, as last season we crossed the ball many times in the box only for no one to put it in.  He's also strong, a physically strong striker up front will mean defenders will often mark him to give space to our midfielders/wingers.  He's also a complete striker in his own way as he can score with both feet and his head.  Either way, I hope he can make it at Bayern because we spent far too much money on him & I would rather Bayern spend their money on the bigger problems like defense during the summer than buying Bundesliga's new hot shot striker (Dzeko).

Tymoschuk is the next player on the list who just had an amazing game vs Borussia, even passing the ball forward which is something we haven't seen too much.  First half he basically stopped them whenever they got the ball and even had some great passing forward which could have easily led to goals.  Defensively in my opinion, he is better than Van Bommel but the case on why Van Bommel always starts over him (he's err.. Dutch?) is that he is much better at passing.  Last season Tymoschuk was indeed quite bad at passing, the balls would either go to the defenders, sideways or an incomplete pass.  The game vs Borussia seemed like a revival of Tymoschuk, the passing overall was fantastic but I'd rather not judge a player based on one game.  However like the Gomez case, if Tymoschuk's form can continue and most important be this good vs big teams who will pressure a lot more than Borussia did, than he should start over Van Bommel as well.

Pranjic ready to play whenever

we ask of him. 

Pranjic like last season, is proving to be one hell of a utility player.  Can play LCM, LM, LW & LB and always gives it 100% whenever he plays.  Bayern spent 7 million euros on him, Pranjic paid 700,000 euros from his own pocket as his old club was asking for 7.7m or no deal.  In other words, he wants to be here and is willing to bleed for the club.  I really appreciate him and what he's offered for us, he may not be the best player out there but when injuries happen he is a good depth player to have for several positions (even though at left-back, he's quite bad defensively).  He helped Bayern vs Juventus and United in particular and now helping us when Ribery and Contento are injured and doing a fine job for a back-up.

To me, it seems at least that in midfield and in attack, Bayern are well covered.  Perhaps not to the scale of Manchester City where they can afford to spend 20-25 million euros on a bench players, but players will work hard for the team and while not replicate the starter's form, at least don't leave a gaping hole once an injury occurs.  I do believe in defense Bayern definitely lack depth, or perhaps the better way to explain it lack starters.  Players like Van Buyten, Dmeichellis & Contento would be good depth players for Bayern, however at least so far (for Contento) these three shouldn't be starting for Bayern.  There is also the decade-long question of when will Bayern finally get him a proper back-up?  There is also Breno who could be the missing piece in the center of the defense, as it would certainly help many Bayern fans sleep better at night knowing that the next morning Van Buyten wouldn't be starting.  So while in most areas Bayern has good depth, certain areas in defense in particular are certainly lacking and hopefully Rummenigge surprised us and finds the right players in winter or.and the summer transfer period.. we certainly need it.


A special thanks to Demichellis for kissing the badge once he's scored and Altintop being a fine playmaker on the right these past couple of games.   Both will be out of the team by the end of the season, so I am enjoying whatever good moments they give us until then.  Yes, I do realize I left Ottl out of the "praise group" of the depth players and most of you should figure out why..

Hooneymoon over, the cracks that were hidden last year starting to show

Louis Van Gaal, the man who came to Bayern in one year and almost made himself a legend.  A Bundesliga title and DFB Cup all won on his first year, as well as reaching the Champions league final for the first time in 9 years.  One game from achieving something thought impossible back then in November.  Last year the 2nd half of the year Bayern looked threatening, fast & and unpredictable as well.  He changed Schweinstieger into arguably one of the best CMs in the world when before he was an inconsistent average Bundesliga wide player.  Muller and Badstuber were brought from Bayern II's team and turned into undisputed starters.  Youth (something that hasn't happened in far too long), very attacking football, dominant possession team, 2 world class wingers at once at Bayern, many players scoring at will and looking at times unbeatable.. you would think Van Gaal could do no wrong if you look at the 2nd half of the season yet some Bayern fans could already predict what's currently happening on the new season..

In the summer Bayern signed no one.  After making record revenue and doing so well that realistically they would have a good lure to bring in stars, they or rather Van Gaal decided no one was needed.  The only players that joined Bayern were Braafheid, a player who all Bayern fans wanted out before even January when he signed and who failed at Celtic during his loan, Ottl who was never good, Breno who while a good prospect came back injured confirmed to miss one third and finally Kroos, who had an outstanding season for Leverkusen.  Bayern last season showed far too many cracks in defense and some signs in midfield as well as a striker duo not confirmed until 2nd half of the season.  Bayern were ripped apart defensively vs Bordeaux, Fiorentina, United and finally Inter in the Champions League final, yet Van Gaal says he needs no one. 

The arrogance of course that he could turn any player into a world beater, that he wouldn't need any stars that are already good enough.  Contento who even after impressing last year in some matches, he benched for the last matches and the big CL final.  Putting Badstuber at left-back even though he was ripped apart by Valencia vs United, even though his original position is LCB since he has no pace to play out wide and offers nothing offensively he plays over Contento.  This would suggest Van Gaal has no faith in Contento and is using his favorite defensive player off his position to support this idea.  Yet when the summer comes and management offer him money to buy a player for this position, all of the sudden he states Contento can make it.  Perhaps Bayern tried (Coentrao), failed and he simply told them not to rush transfers.  He has stated Alaba, who just turned 18 years old will be Van Bommel's replacement, the current Bayern Munich captain.  Having started 3 matches and been substituted in 3 other matches all season last year, it seems a bit miraculous that he can turn him this quickly into a class player.  He has also hinted at Breno replacing Van Buyten at central defense, though I assume this move is also a push from management and the only reason why a class CB hasn't been bought last summer.  Kraft is also seen as Butt's potential replacement since he stated "I've always liked players from youth so it is possible" during the beginning of the season, when the entire management is all for the Neuer move on getting a keeper ready to take over and play at top level for potentially a whole decade.  Personally, I love what he's done with the youth team and his influence will be here even when he leaves.  However you cannot have literally have half the team between the ages of 18 to 21, the inexperience especially in Champions League will show and by the time they are ready for top football, Schweini, Lahm, Robben and Ribery won't be.

Van Gaal likes his players to do what he says or leave, or if they don't fit in system that he has built, he has no use for them.  That is what has happened to Luca Toni when he came, he sent him away directly, Lucio (oh dear and karma alike) was kicked out of the club and now Demichellis is on his way in January most likely.  Gomez and Tymoschuk were already told that he didn't have plans for them (according rumors), yet they unlike the other three decided to stay and prove their worth to the coach.  One must say that great coaches build a system in which best suits the players, not build a system that the players must fit into.  The next problem is this obsession over possession without purpose, as the Kaiser has just recently stated in an interview which I agree with.  You cannot keep possession for the sake of not giving it to the other team or "to tire opponents so we can win at the end of the match" as Van Gaal says.  Sorry but mid-table and relegation Bundesliga teams in our own stadium aren't teams we should try to tire out so we can score a goal or two the last 20 minutes, we should be going for the kill for the 1st minute.  He's using his tactic the same way vs every opposition, no matter what occasion.  One could argue Barcelona is the same way, and they've dominated European football the past 5 years.

It seems Robben helped his coach win his two titles in a big way, I assume Bayern will be back when he comes back as well.  However it makes one wonder how according to Van Gaal he is the player that follows his instructions the least of the starting XI, yet he finished the season up as the best player of the season.  Also the obvious favoritism has been shown to be a bit of a problem, for example Muller starting every Champions League game last year and being one of the worst players in the pitch most of those matches, Van Buyten starting over and over and yet being incredibly average, Klose starting this year and not impressing yet he got chance after chance when Gomez was benched after two matches last year when he had poor form.  While I do think Van Gaal fixes these mistakes, it takes a lot longer for him to see his mistakes than it really should.  His management abilities have left a lot to be desired from what has been shown so far.  If you aren't seen good enough to play his system, it seems just a matter of time before you leave, the over reliance on youth, favoritism over certain players and not being able to adapt to certain situations.

This isn't an article to slam Van Gaal as someone who doesn't have a clue, just adding some perspective that even though he came 1 match away from achieving all there is to win at club level all in one year, he still has flaws.  Though to be fair, what coach doesn't?  Lets make something clear, we would have not won what we won if he wasn't there.  Muller and Badstuber helped go as far as we did, some other youth players helped the team as well, Schweini turned into a phenomenon, possession football and the best pressuring system Bayern has had this past decade.  Tactically at times he is a genius, up there with the likes of Mourinho & Ferguson.  I truly am grateful for what he has done for us and he deserves the recognition and respect for it.  Yet his flaws are the main reasons why he has been out of the limelight for a decade.  He should continue as Bayern boss, I only wish he would adapt and improve some areas so he can take Bayern hopefully to glory.. to what we've wanted since 2001.. the Champions League trophy.