The last couple of months have brought Bayern back down to Earth, but the upcoming international break may give them a chance to bounce back.
FC Bayern are a club run by humans. That seems obvious now, but after looking at their performances over the past few seasons, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Last season, they were the champions of Germany and only lost twice in the Bundesliga. The season before, they had the same amount of losses but only four draws. When their dominant run started in 2012, they had only one loss.
Now, they’ve only played seven league matches and they already have two draws and one loss. They have fourteen points, which puts them level with Hoffenheim and five points back from first place Borussia Dortmund. Most clubs in the Bundesliga would love to be in their position, just ask Schalke 04, but Bayern aren’t a typical club.
With the level of sustained success that they’ve maintained in recent years, anything other than a title will be seen as a failure. There’s also the Champions League to think about, and their 3-0 loss in Paris is more concerning than their results in the league. The Champions League was the one title that Pep Guardiola couldn’t win during his time with the club, and it looks like their window to win the competition might be closing quickly.
The decline of Thomas Muller doesn’t look like it’s slowing down, Arjen Robben isn’t getting any younger either, and Philipp Lahm’s presence as a leader is missed. Bayern is a huge club and will almost certainly rebuild successfully, but for now, they don’t look like a side that can make it past the quarterfinals in the Champions League. They look like the PSG team from a year ago, that lost the Ligue 1 title and ultimately flopped in Europe.
It’s not too late for Bayern to improve, however. They’re still only a couple of matches into their European campaign, and they made a change in management before the season could be lost. Former defender Willy Sagnol has been appointed interim manager, and he’ll have the entire international break to think things over and come up with a strategy to get back on track.
Bayern’s next match isn’t until Oct. 14, and that means it will be two full weeks until they return to action. It might not sound like a lot of time, but it is a long enough stretch for things to happen behind the scenes.
Two weeks is a long enough time for a manager to completely reinvent a gameplan, and most tactical strategies are formulated in far less time. For example, managers in the Champions League and Europa League are only given three or four days to prepare exclusively for a midweek opponent.
The break also gives Sagnol some time to fix the team chemistry problems that appeared under Ancelotti. Bayern’s star players have a history of clashing with managers, and Franck Ribery is no stranger to those types of controversies. Ribery previously drew criticism from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge for his words about Pep Guardiola, and is in the news now for undermining Carlo Ancelotti and taking disagreements directly to club President Uli Hoeness.
More from Bundesliga
- Modern football’s disruptors: The remarkable rise of Union Berlin
- Bayern Munich emerge victorious following dramatic title race
- Following December knee injury, Manuel Neuer back to light training
- Assessing Bayern Munich’s recent uncharacteristic struggles
- Bayern Munich explain Julian Nagelsmann sacking
Ribery wasn’t Ancelotti’s only problem player, either. Kicker reported that Robben, Ribery, Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, and Thomas Muller ran their own training sessions after not being happy with the official ones held by Ancelotti.
Sagnol is the manager now, and the problems with Ancelotti are in the past, but players going behind the back of the manager is never a good situation and almost never leads to long-term success. Before some of the players depart for their international matches, Sagnol would be smart to sit down with them and ensure that previous mistakes aren’t repeated.
After all, everyone wants to win, and putting past troubles aside is the only way to do that. Sagnol needs to avoid making the mistakes that Ancelotti made, and the players need to avoid going behind his back and undermining his authority. If both sides agree to improve, Bayern’s squad is still strong enough to make one last Champions League run, and should definitely be strong enough to take first place back from their Bundesliga rivals.
Next: Kane covering for teammates' struggles
Or they can keep doing the same things that they’ve done before, and it will likely lead to more results like the loss to PSG and the recent draw with 10th place Hertha. The two weeks between that draw and their next match will be enough time for Sagnol and everyone else at the club to contemplate which path they want to take.