Kane And Sané See Bayern Past Werder | OneFootball

After a week off following their near miss last Saturday, Bayern returned home to take on Werder Bremen at the Allianz.

Vincent Kompany made several changes to the team from last week with Manuel Neuer, Sacha Boey, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min Jae, Raphaël Guerreiro, Joshua Kimmich, Aleksander Pavlovic, Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala, Kingsley Coman and Harry Kane comprising the starting eleven.

Three Things We Noticed

Stymied

Werder came into this match with the same game plan that most teams have this year. The smaller clubs especially generally make almost no attempt to score except by the occasional long ball over the top to exploit the high line.

Instead they seem satisfied to sit extremely deep and keep Bayern off the scoreboard and tied for as long as possible. Unfortunately, these tactics have proved difficult to break down, especially in recent weeks.

Bayern have actually created chances, but they don’t come as often as they would like and they have not been converting those chances into goals with any regularity. At this point Kompany and the players all know what these teams will do and it is upon them to try to find solutions.

Bayern needs to find ways to spread the pitch and take these teams out of their compact base. That includes forcing them wider and higher up the pitch so that there is room to run and space to operate. Where Bayern have really struggled is when the team has been able to defend deep and in the box as Bayern pass the ball in the dreaded U around with no penetration through the middle.

Just Enough

However, as so often has been the case this season, Bayern found a way in the end. Given the performances of Leverkusen over the last few month, every win and every point is extremely important, especially with their big matchup next week.

Defensively, Bayern didn’t allow much of anything to Werder in this match. Then again that can probably be attributed to Bremen being very pragmatic and making almost no effort to score.

Offensively, Bayern improved drastically in the second half ultimately getting their breakthrough from a chipped through ball by Kimmich to Kane who forced the defender into an awkward position and ultimately a hand ball penalty which Kane converted.

Spark

Overall it was a much better and dangerous looking Bayern team in the second half but Kompany’s substitutions made an immediate and noticeable change to the performance.

Konrad Laimer and Leroy Sané especially provided a spark to the team and combined to score the second goal with a wonderful drive and pass from the Laimer.

Of course the goals made it easier for Bayern to create space and gave them confidence but it was clear that Bayern were far more dangerous following those substitutions than before and added one final goal with the last kick of the match as Musiala was brought down in the box and Kane converted.

Hopefully that momentum carries into this coming week as it will be hugely impactful on the rest of the season as they travel to take on Celtic in their first match of the knockout round of the Champions League Wednesday and then to Leverkusen Saturday for a top of the table match.