1. Kingsley Coman is the underrated at Bayern
Coman has become a real trump card for FC Bayern – but not because of his dribbling or his speed, but because of his clever movements. In the top game against Leipzig (3: 3) he gave the template for all Bayern goals. Without having danced or overrun an opponent beforehand.
In front of the first goal of the Munich team, Coman sits down twice to offer the teammates in front of him a way out of the fix. Then he pulls the ball into the center with the ball at his foot, waits for as many RB defenders as possible to pay attention to him, and then places the now free goal scorer Jamal Musiala.
The second goal was made possible by Coman with a brilliant run. First he realizes that Robert Lewandowski has left the storm center and takes his position. With this he ties Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano, who actually wants to pursue Lewandowski. When the Pole receives the ball, Upamecano storms off, Coman is now free, receives the ball from Lewandowski, a look, a pass, then Thomas Müller is free and hits.
Before the third goal, Coman changed the wing, he now plays on the right and crosses the ball precisely on Müller, quick to act and technically clean.
A look at the data shows that the 90 minutes against RB are no exception. According to Whoscored.com, five Bayern pros dribble more often than Coman on average. But nobody gives templates anymore. Maybe that has something to do with his position. He rarely played outside against RB, mostly he was in the half-space, the zone between the center and the wing. The game is more complex there because the opponents come from everywhere. Coman doesn’t seem to mind, on the contrary. In the past four missions he managed eight points scorer. How important Coman is for Bayern became clear in the Champions League final when he headed the winning goal. But its actual quality is different.
2. Is it disrespectful to postpone a sure gate?
It was the scene of the game at VfB 2-1 in Bremen: Stuttgart’s Silas Wamantiguka stopped in front of the empty goal, then waited to shoot. And waited. Until the long-lost Werder goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka trotted back. Only then did Wamangituka score the winning goal.
Was that unfair?
For Davie Selke it was clear. “That was disrespectful,” said the Werder striker at Sky: “The boy should just shoot the ball in and not run around here like somebody else.”
The action actually had something of the classic football field: instead of casually pushing it in, kneel down and nudge the ball over the line on all fours with your head. That would have been humiliating for the enemy. But there is a difference between a demonstration and what Wamantiguka did. So what was the 21-year-old up to?
Buy time. At least that’s what VfB coach Pellegrino Matarazzo said afterwards. “When I saw the goal, I thought he wanted to play for a while, and he confirmed that to me after the game.”
That would not be the epitome of fairness either. But to speak of disrespect is also an exaggeration. Probably Wamangituka will not repeat such an action, but score a goal if the opponent makes it as easy for him as the Bremen team.
3. Schalke have many problems – standards are probably the biggest
The Tasmania record is getting closer. Schalke have been without a win for 26 league games, at Tasmania Berlin it was once 31. Against Leverkusen, S04 lost 3-0, which means: still bottom of the table; scored the fewest goals (6), conceded the most (31). Such a record suggests that a lot does not work out for Schalke (and that is still an understatement). The team should address one problem in a very specific way, namely the standards.
After dormant balls – including penalties – Schalke conceded almost half of their goals: 15 according to whoscored.com. Fifteen! For comparison: In the past almost relegation season, Werder Bremen caught 20 standard goals; after 34 games mind you.
If you go through the Bundesliga clubs in the current season, you will see how much better than Schalke the competition is doing. Cologne follows in second place in the counter-goal ranking of the dormant balls – with eight goals conceded. S04 alone has caught more standard goals than Wolfsburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Bavaria, Leverkusen and Bremen combined.
Own standards are also a problem, only Mainz, Augsburg and Bielefeld have fewer goals than Schalke (three). Schalke of all people, one might say. The club that surprisingly became runner-up in 2018 thanks to standards.
On Sunday against Leverkusen the record got worse again. The team won the 0: 1 and the 0: 2 after a corner, both times Schalke defended with man instead of space, both times the respective Schalke lost in his duel. And the squires themselves awarded a penalty.
As devastating as the balance sheet is, there is also a little hope in it. Standard situations can actually be trained well because of their static character. And so they could become a simple lever for Schalke, both to score more goals and to concede fewer.
The next opponent is Augsburg on Sunday. So far, the FCA has only caught three goals after dormant balls, which is the shared fourth-best league value. This is another reason why the club has so far had nothing to do with the relegation battle.
