3-0 against Union Berlin: demonstration of power by FC Bayern

When the sports faculties of the German universities had nothing more important to pursue (such as the court hearings about the positive doping tests of a professional soccer player), they might have been able to send research groups to the FC Bayern soccer arena this Sunday. There, the scientists were then allowed to empirically examine one of the more recent laws of the industry during the Bundesliga top game against Union Berlin: Nagelsmann’s Law.

The law goes like this: If Julian Nagelsmann, who has now been working as a coach in Munich for 19 months, loses a game with his team in the championship, he does not lose the next one. This Sunday, this situation came up again because Munich had lost in Mönchengladbach a week ago. And what can one say: When the football theorist Nagelsmann walked into the team dressing room on Sunday for a presumably theory-poor half-time speech, his FC Bayern was already leading 3-0.

The criticism of the traditionalists

This score – the goals were scored by Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (31st), Kingsley Coman (40th) and Jamal Musiala (45th + 1) – did not change in the second half, which is why the top game was called that without any scientific claim to sum up: Yes, Bayern didn’t always play like Bayern can be proven to play in these first weeks of the year, but they seem to play when it gets really important (cf. Paris Saint-Germain, cf. now Union Berlin), just like that still be Bayern. And are first in the table.

On Sunday, Julian Nagelsmann, whom some traditionalists in Munich blame for being theoretical, relied on a 4-2-3-1 system against Union Berlin. With Benjamin Pavard replacing the suspended Dayot Upamecano in central defence. With Josip Stanišić in defense. And with Thomas Müller in the Thomas Müller position. The fact that he always plays there was also a regularity of German football in the past. This season at the latest – if the coach isn’t called Hansi Flick – that’s no longer the case.

Why? You could find arguments for that in the sixth minute. When Alphonso Davies played the ball very cleverly into the penalty area. When Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting dribbled goalkeeper Frederik Rönnow and turned again because of the bad angle and passed in the middle. When Müller actually only had to shoot the ball into the goal. And yet didn’t make it.

“Oh, goodness in heaven,” Müller said later into the “DAZN” microphone when he was shown the scene there. As far as scoring the goal is concerned, he will probably have to “detention”. He could laugh about it because the opportunities he missed – in the 71st minute he failed to score the ball again, he shot Rönnow in the head – made no difference. And so Müller said: “That was a small start in the way we want to play.”

The law of the Bundesliga

It was really a very good game that Bayern presented against Köpenicker. Coach Urs Fischer’s team, which always uses their zero possession strategy in games like this, can defend masterfully, which was also evident when Robin Knoche stopped Jamal Musiala in the penalty area at the last moment (16th and 25th minutes). But the counterattacks that otherwise arise from these defensive actions hardly arose this Sunday. The exceptions: Jérôme Roussillon and Aïssa Laïdouni (15th, 37th), but they clearly failed.

15 minutes was enough for Bayern to decide a game that they should have won better. In the 31st minute, Kingsley Coman crossed into the penalty area, where Choupo-Moting had the best timing and headed the ball into the goal against Rönnow’s direction of travel. In the 40th minute, after a good pass by Müller, Coman ran away from all defenders and then past Rönnow. And in the 45th minute, Musiala shot the ball into the goal after an even better pass by Müller. That’s it. Or as Urs Fischer said in the press conference: “The analysis today is simple: we didn’t have a chance.”

In the second half, according to Fischer, who was sitting next to a happy Julian Nagelsmannmn, “Bayern shifted down a gear”. Which is why the highlight was probably the substitution of Sadio Mané, who had been injured shortly before the World Cup. You could see right away that he could enrich Bayern’s game with his direct actions in the penalty area. And that Union was overwhelmed in this top game. So not only Nagelsmann’s law was confirmed on this Sunday, but maybe the Bundesliga’s law: that in the end FC Bayern will be champions.