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..
