Bayern München Season Preview

FC Bayern München

Coach: Luis Van Gaal

Luis Van Gaal is a special character, but a real football teacher.

He has a clear vision of what he wants and how he can use his players.

His favourite system is the 4-3-3 but he is not naiv and says that with the players given to him in Bayern München he cannot play this system.

Therefore he is testing a 4-4-2 at the moment with all players. Especially his trust into young players is amazing. Just as an example he decided that Lucio can leave the club since he has only the right center back position free for Demicheles,Buyten,Lucio and Breno.

On the left center back position he tries Badstuber, a 20 year old guy coming from Bayern youth team and playing a big role possibly in Van Gaals plans.

Van Gaal showed what he is capable of doing and what a knowledge he has a coach - I admire his objective analyses after the matches and the way he uses simple mathematic to his advantage.

Simple mathematic yeah, thats how he got successful with Ajax winning the Championsleague years ago. A team full of young guys and the 4-3-3 as tactic.

Why 4-3-3? Simple answer, in the 4-3-3 system you have 7 triangles in which you can play the ball while in a 4-4-2 you have only 6 triangles, one possibility less to pass the ball or change the direction of the game.

A lot of personal conversations with his players, he wants to know many personal questions in order to find solutions to possible problems.

Giving everyone a fair chance motivates the player additionally, but he never lacks to critize bad performances or bad behaviour.

All in all a real unique coach who fits quite good to Bayern München.

Money spend for transfers: 22.950.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 50.700.000 €

Balance: -27.750.000 €

Quite obvious that Bayern München is on attack modus again!

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

The injuries of Olic, Klose, Tymoschuk, Schweinsteiger and Ribery during the preperation time did not allow to have some test matches with the best lineup Van Gaal probably thinks of.

The test matches were sober at the beginning but later on especially against Cologne we could see first tactical improvements. Van Gaals work was readable in the match the first time and the fact that they won 2:0 showed that they aint that bad at all.

Possible lineups & tactics:













Most likely:

1. 4-4-2 (4-1-2-1-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,LM,RM,OM,ST,ST

2. 4-4-2 (4-2-2-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,DM,LOM,ROM,ST,ST

or 4-3-3 is possible aswell but LvG said that he misses the right players for it and that he could only use one striker out of Klose,Toni,Gomez and that would be critical.

Tactic:

Fast combination football. Create triangles with three players and move into offense that way.
Create wing attacks to use long strikers Klose,Gomez,Toni.

Aim set by club:

What else than winning the league?

Teamcheck:

Goalkeeper: 8/10

With Rensing and Butt Bayern does not own the best goalkeepers in Bundesliga because Rensing could not show his big talent last season and Butt is quite old already.

At the moment it is looking like Butt has better chances to play. His quality may be enough for Bundesliga, but neither him nor Rensing could show performances similar to goalkeepers like Neuer, Adler e.g.


Defense: 8/10

Van Gaal plans Lahm on the right back position.
Therefore either Braafheid or Pranjic will play on left back position.
Alternatively he can put Lahm as left back again and put in Hamit Altintop, Lell or Görlitz on right back.

In the center we had a surprising development. Lucio got sold and Van Gaal said that on right center back position Breno,Buyten and Demicheles will have to fight for one position.
On the left centre position Badstuber got his chance. That guy comes from own youth team and has the advantage that he is left feet player. Van Gaal prefers left feet players on left and right feet players on right.
As a backup for Badstuber, Braafheid but also the other three guys (Breno,Buyten,Demicheles) could play.

All in all it will depend on the performance they can show. Potential is 9-10/10 for sure and every position can be played by at least two players in the team.

Midfield: 10/10

Awesome midfield in my opinion.
Tymoschuk and van Bommel can play the defensive midfield part.
Right and left midfield can be played by Pranjic, Schweinsteiger, Hamit, Tymoschuk and Franck Ribery. Many good players for two positions. Even Olic can be placed in midfield!
Offensive midfield can be filled with Ribery, Baumjohann, Sosa and Schweinsteiger.
A lot of all rounder in the team, all are very great players.. big quality in here!

Striker: 10/10*

Amazing offense with the new 30-million transfer Mario Gomez, Klose, Toni, Olic and the young Müller.

That's the best quality one can have, the best strikers together and that before Wolfsburg because they can compensate injuries of top strikers, because they simply have four of it.


Total: 9/10

My prognosis:

Very good coach.
Big Stadium.
A quality team with two players for each position.

What else do you need to be one of the favourite teams this season? In my opinion nothing more than a good atmosphere in the team.

This team is the benchmark once again. Of course we can find aspects which can be criticised in this team (such as goalkeeper and a missing good right/left back). But first of all other teams must reach this level of Bayern München and that will be very difficult.

My number one this season!