Much was expected of the former Barcelona boss when he was announced to take over at Bayern Munich at the end of 2012. Of course, at that point of time, Jupp Heynckes’s Bayern were going about their season pretty normally. In fact, not one fan would have expected that fairy tale ending to Jupp’s career as a coach. Winning the treble was the icing on the cake for a manager like Jupp and what it did to the club was, it rocketed the expectations which in my opinion is very realistic for any top coach who was inheriting a team proven in all competitions both domestically and continentally.
The demand for Champions League glory, once again is all that echoes around the Bayern footballing fan-base nowadays. Winning the Bundesliga is a matter of pride by itself and the Pokal definitely adds to the domestic supremacy that one would associate with a team like Bayern Munich, but for the fans, the Champions league is the real deal. Pep has experience of winning the competition before, in fact he even did the treble with Barcelona. But both the squads are vastly different in composition of players, but the level of quality of the set of players is arguably of the same level. Other than Messi and Puyol, I don’t see a major difference in terms of quality between both the squads, so here raises the question as to why Pep hasn’t managed to bring UCL glory to the Allianz Arena.
Let’s take it one season at a time. In his first year at the club, Pep won the Bundesliga in record time. Although the club were still in the Pokal competitions, the performances were starting to dip. The team had lost the hunger and motivation. You must’ve heard Pep say the exact same thing too. But there was another factor that did play a big part in the annihilation at home by Real Madrid. Tactics. When Pep announced the line-up for the game, most Bayern fans were puzzled as to why Javi Martinez wasn’t picked. He was fit and Bayern were lacking that defensive shield in the midfield region, while Rafinha obviously wasn’t enough to take care of Cristiano Ronaldo. It was fairly obvious to almost every fan to play Lahm at RB, but hey Pep is the manager who makes all the BIG decisions. And he made the mistake then and there. Bayern paid the price. But you got to give it to Pep, he admitted to the use of wrong tactics but that’s not enough to me as a Bayern fan. I’d expect him to make better decisions at this level. But all I could do was rant and vent over it on forums, twitter and facebook. When I was done with my rant, I moved on like every normal fan and hoped for glory in the upcoming season.
Coming to year 2. Bayern sold Kroos and made a bargain buy for Xabi Alonso. Drawn in the group of death amongst Roma and Manchester City, Pep wonderfully orchestrated a brilliant showing by the team in the group stages, winning 5 out of the first 5 games and unfortunately folding to Sergio Aguero master class at the Allianz Arena thanks to Benatia seeing red and Xabi Alonso surprisingly misplacing passes. This was still no point to fret over for anyone even remotely associated or following the club. But 2 months down the line, Bayern were facing a tremendously poorly fit squad. The aftermaths of the loss at Porto summed up the situation and it resulted with the club doctor walking out after nearly 4 decades of service with the club. But Bayern came back strong. Won it comfortably at home and set up a semi-final clash with Barcelona. Injuries and tactics could be loose and yet perfectly valuable reasons/excuses to flaunt around but once again, Bayern failed to get past the semi-final stage under Pep. Well, you can kind of see a pattern. Both seasons, Pep failed to take the side past oppositions of the same quality and level as Bayern. It is back to the drawing board for the Spaniard who now enters the last season of his 3 year contract with the club.
Can Pep Guardiola lead Bayern Munich for a UCL Title next year?
One would hope, if not for the major injury crisis of last season, Bayern would have had a fair shot against Barcelona. Contributions from Robben, Ribery and Alaba were sorely missed. But there is no guarantee that the situation would not rise this year as well. Bayern have done well to add squad depth to sort that problem. Signing of Brazilian winger, Diego Costa who has so far shown in pre-season that he can take the pressure of playing at big club. It remains to be seen if he can repeat it in competitive fixtures over the period of 9 months. Though the club sold the German captain to Manchester United, Bastian was soon turning 31 and was already under injury problems. He missed around half of last season and there is no guarantee he will remain fit through the year. Being on the last year of his contract, though it angered many fans, it made sense for both player and club to move on. Bayern made sure to not lose squad depth and quality. Chilean Arturo Vidal has been brought back to the Bundesliga who will play a crucial role if Bayern are to stump up a serious challenge for the UCL title. The central mid-field though is running on high dependence from the youth players like Hojbjerg and Kimmich. Hojbjerg recently made his return from loan at Augsburg while Kimmich was bought for 7M from Stuttgart. Both players enjoyed good spells of game time in pre-season and long with Sebastian Rode and contributions from Alaba and Javi Martinez, the mid-field looks heavily bolstered and ready to take up any challenge put their way.
There is something about this Bayern squad. Uncertainty is the word. If Pep Guardiola believes his tactics are right to win the Champions League provided the players are fit unlike last season, then I hope he is right. Fans are running out of patience and it would be good for the club and Pep to probably leave on a high. What I am trying to say is, there is a good chance that Bayern could win the UCL while they could possibly flounder in the semis again, there is enough fire power to get to the final but to win is a whole different scenario. I sure do hope that 3rd time is the charm.