Pep's FC Bayern so far

Hi everybody,

as a way of introducing myself some thoughts on how we've been doing so far with Pep as coach.

- Pep and the FC Hollywood:
I wasn't sure in the first weeks how it was going on a personal and also a media level. Obviously the hype was crazy, as were as usual journalists' questions, and his first post-match appearances Pep seemed shaken/annoyed by it.

Also, when Pep announced in a press conference he wanted Thiago I somehow had the feeling this could be a sign of disagreements behind the scenes -as if he had to put public pressure on the club to get the transfer done he wanted getting done; and it also seemed to me almost a dig at the narrative of Götze being his dream player (with which we obviously persuaded Götze to join us..).

All in all, it seems to me Pep faced some pressure to justifiy the changings he was about to make, which is not surprising given our success last season.

Now, playing as we play, it all seems to be smoothing...

- Team selection, players

If I said Pep was facing pressure to justify change, maybe I was merely projecting what I felt onto the outside world - I was pretty sceptical about his switch from 2 DM positions to one (a treble winning season makes one pretty conservative).
In the first games it seemed to me we were returning to the flaws of Van Gaals system -dominance in ball possession, a crowded offensive, yet tame in front of goal and very vulnerable to counter attacks and being in danger a conceding games very easily.

Also I didn't like at all this Lahm as DM thing, with Rafinha starting.
Lahm was incredible as right back last season, he even improved there imo (especially crosses and interplay with Robben), and i don't rate Rafinha that highly. Also I'm not sure Lahm has the presence for a DM.

But while I was complaining for a while, I'll no longer pretend to know more about team selection than Pep... see below


-"a new coach/new system needs time"/"Don't fix what isn't broken" etc

All these questions seemed to be only suspenseful only for a short while, I get the feeling.

It's pretty astonishing how clearly visible Pep's handwriting is, how fast the team is improving in executing it. It's been only 2+ months!!!
While I still hope to see Martinez/Schweini in dm when everyone is fit, and Lahm back at right back, there's no denying how interestingly well we are playing.

A few weeks back we seemed like Barcelona on valium, not very exciting, but the games against Schalke and City were really, really exciting to me.
Complete dominance, winning balls back very early and sweepingly, making opponents chase us, incredible variability and movement up front.
With the full-backs standing so strangely narrow that's nothing I've seen before (was it like that at Barca?), and it's both a difference from Jupp and Van Gaal.

Very intriguing. After last season's complete satisfaction, I didn't think something so intriguing could happen so fast.

Good times.

anyone else care to share their preliminary conclusions..?

Well, against Schalke and ManCity, Bayern definitely looked really good. Only against Schalke, Bayern had some difficulties to get into the match for the first 15 or so minutes, while against ManCity, it seemed that taking off some players led to the concentration faltering in the final 15 minutes.

Frankly, I was hoping a bit that Pep turning Bayern somewhat topsy-turvy would give Dortmund a better chance to retain the BL, but how things develop, this might get more and more difficult the longer Pep has to put his ideas into motion.

 

KennethCole wrote: 

lol. Somebody is really waiting to get back at us..
Just watch out that your arm doesn't fall off carrying around that bat for month after month, year after year..

Still weird to see Lahm at CM, plus I really am not a fan of Rafinha. What happened to Contento, btw? I haven't heard anything about him for a while.

I like where the team is though, just have to finish some chances off better and avoid cheaply giving possession away in our own half and we should be fine.

completely agree. I don#t really want to see Rafinha starting either.
But against my personal emotions and aesthetics I have to admit this midfield with Lahm is working out pretty well so far.
Just wonder what will happen when we come up against a midfield that aren't pushovers.
Then it's always good to have Martinez in there, and Lahm is not a HUGE presence...

Better finishing is really the main point though. Don't want to see another game like at Leverkusen.

The more we completely outplay an opposition, the more annoying it is to see us squandering so much opportunities.

Can you explain what you mean with "the full backs standing so narrow"? I watched City game and didn't notice that.

I think the meaning is the fullbacks come inside instead of overlapping when Bayern have the ball. Although I think that's due to the wingers wanting to come in from wide positions and also having the fullbacks narrow means there's an easy passing option.

Oh, so the fullbacks overlap from the inside of the pitch instead of outside?

I'm not really sure what I meant tbh, I'm not a expert at tactical analysis..
It seems to me that our fullbacks now more often stray further infield than they used to.

With van Gaal and also Heynckes they mostly picked out positions pretty high and as far as possible to the touchline.

Now somehow (please don#t ask me specifics) they seem much more part of the general midfield passing play.
For example, when the ball is being played on the left side in build up, Rafinha sometimes is coming almost near the middle circle, guess that means our play is varying between drawn wide and contracted narrow, as in that case.

I might be wrong about being it a fundamental difference, but I had that impression a few times.

I'm very surprised that with a fit Thiago Lahm still started as a midfielder. But maybe it's because Thiago is still not match fit. However, It hink we can see that when everyone is fit, Lahm won't be playing as midfielder and I also don't think he will bench Piggy as suggested.

free_cat wrote:I'm very surprised that with a fit Thiago Lahm still started as a midfielder. But maybe it's because Thiago is still not match fit. However, It hink we can see that when everyone is fit, Lahm won't be playing as midfielder and I also don't think he will bench Piggy as suggested.

Not sure yet. Thiago wasn't match fit yet, and we've got so many injuries. Now Lahm is injured, so we'll have to wait another few games to see what will happen when all are fit.

It's true, the insistence with which Pep started Lahm in defensive midfield even with Martinez back is a little strange.

Against Dortmund (where Thiago probably wasn't fit enough to start yet) he even played Martinez in a very attacking position, while Lahm was very deep and trying to deal with Dortmund's expected pressing together with Kroos.
The plan obviously was to have Lahm and Kroos deep, who are capable of dealing with pressure technically and in a composed way, as well as having Martinez as a target for long high balls directly into offensive midfield.

For me it didn't work at all (also because Dortmund didn't press as early as was expected), and I thought our best flow was after Thiago and Götze were on the pitch and Rafinha out, Martinez was dm and Lahm was back at right back, i.e last 15-20 minutes or so.

But, while I won't complain and will be happy to let Pep do as he pleases, I'd be a little bit pissed if Rafinha continued to start at right back, when we have all (or most) of our midfield options available.
It would just seem like a waste of line up space, tbh.

Thiago/Martinez/Kroos/Götze/Schweinsteiger should be able to handle midfield, and Lahm simply is a MUCH better right back than Rafinha.

We'll see, but the way we've been coping with injuries is pretty great. What a great moment for Thiago to be fit finally.

21 games, 59 points. That's what's up.

Well, I really had hoped Pep would have some more problems in the beginning to make the fight for the salad dish more interesting, but then, no one expected Dortmund to have so many injuries in one part of the team so that they stumbled over their own legs...

One can only say "great job so far, Pep".

rwo power wrote:Well, I really had hoped Pep would have some more problems in the beginning to make the fight for the salad dish more interesting, but then, no one expected Dortmund to have so many injuries in one part of the team so that they stumbled over their own legs...

One can only say "great job so far, Pep".

If Dortmund had less injuries, sure they'd have a couple more points, but the only thing that would have made competitive was our match at Dortmund - with Pep having us winning every game, there's just no competition.
And it's not because the league is week, this guy is simply doing an outstanding job keeping our squad going, which is of course in great shape from before.
But to come in after these trophies, change the way we play, deal with all the countless injuries, do that Lahm in midfield thing, and then win record numbers of points..

The guy is quite simply a genius. A workaholic genius. Plus the games we didn't play well HE won us by making the right changes.

          

Actually, if Dortmund would have won every of their matches, then they would have collected way more points, too. The fact that they are so far behind is simply that Bayern won almost all of their matches, while Dortmund didn't. The single match between Bayern and Dortmund is a so-called "6-points match", sure, but currently Bayern have 59 points and Dortmund have 42, which is not caused by that one match.