The first warm sun of the year was greeted by the darkest moment of Bayern Munich’s season. Their 2-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena on Saturday night ended any lingering hopes of winning a twelfth consecutive Bundesliga title. Bayer Leverkusen’s victory over Hoffenheim makes that a near certainty, extinguishing any remaining hope of a miraculous comeback.
But Bayern’s defeat, against an opponent over whom it has so often exercised an emotional hold, betrayed just how fragile it has become. The loss was cruel and ugly. It was deserved and deeply disheartening too.
Dortmund hardly benefits from a vintage year. They needed their victory to strengthen their chances of finishing in the top four. Yet Edin Terzic’s team was better in almost every area; more precise in front of goal, more solid in defense, faster and more deadly in attacks. In comparison, Bayern were a shell.
It was that night that revealed the extent of the reconstruction in Munich. Although Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen have made the news in Germany this season, the admiration has been tempered by the hope that, before long, Bayern would quickly become all-powerful again, while their rivals retreated.
This now seems naive. It’s easy to imagine Bayern winning the Bundesliga again, but the dominance and status they enjoy across Europe seems a long way off. A Champions League match against Arsenal, a team they have made a habit of humiliating, should now be approached with deep trepidation. Anything other than a victory for the Premier League side would be a surprise; that’s how frayed Bayern have become.
This is not a sudden decline, but rather the culmination of a downward trend. In each of the previous four seasons, Bayern’s points total in the Bundesliga declined. 82 in 2019-20, 78 in 2020-21, 77 in 2021-22. Amid the many events of last season’s final day – Dortmund’s collapse against Mainz, the dismissals of Hasan Salihamidzic and Oliver Kahn – it escaped attention that with 71 points Bayern had recorded their most lowest total since 2011, when he finished 3rd.
They have been getting worse for some time. Like a fighter without a challenger who becomes limp and caught off guard, Bayern’s level has fallen. The chemistry that made them so great, that gave them the national energy of 1980s Milan or 1990s Manchester United, has slowly dissipated. Bad decisions have been made on many different issues. This exposed them to the effects of their aging core and, ultimately, to the excellence of Alonso’s Leverkusen.
There will be no title this year. So, no lip gloss and no distractions. There is no alternative but to look the decline of this team in the face and recognize that the same flaws have recurred in every big game Bayern have played this season.
They have a terrible vulnerability to offensive transitions. They possess a stop-start offensive rhythm that blocks ball movement. Their midfield’s inability to protect the defense, especially against speed, especially against counter-attacks, seems an incurable weakness.
Bayern might pack a heavy enough punch that these issues won’t matter every week. They have the push and reputation to put Harry Kane within striking distance of Robert Lewandowski’s single-season goalscoring record in the Bundesliga. But in the most important moments, their flaws are still there. In the 3-0 Super Cup defeat to Leipzig, for example, and in the underlying details of the two league matches. Against Leverkusen. In the first match in Munich, they were dominated. And in the second at the Bay Arena, they were dominated and badly beaten.
The only exception was their 4-0 win over Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion. It’s the one moment that has soothed Bayern’s ego this season. It was the night Thomas Tuchel triumphantly took on Lothar Matthaus on Sky Deutschland and a victory in which their attacking class suggested they could be powerful despite their flaws.
Saturday night’s defeat shattered that belief. Yes, it could have gone differently. Kane should have scored with a header early in the second half and, in his press conference, Tuchel decried the decision not to award a penalty for a handball shortly after. A late Kane goal was also (perhaps wrongly) ruled out for offside.
But it is difficult to defend the ease with which Karim Adeyemi was able to pass Matthijs De Ligt to score the first goal of the match. Adeyemi is one of the fastest strikers in the Bundesliga and a defender of De Ligt’s form can never be left one-on-one with him.
The second goal of the match was a long time coming. Sven Ulreich had already made an excellent save before Dortmund slotted the ball across the Bayern box, the defenders failing to move or react, and Julian Ryerson, alone, smashed home.
Dortmund haven’t been very good this season. The fact that the 7,000 traveling fans were still so loud in the 83rd minute really told the story of the evening.
The road back for Bayern is not as simple as identifying the team’s shortcomings and signing players. It is always imperative to make the right decisions, but they are relatively easy. There are more serious issues that need to be addressed. How to reconcile Joshua Kimmich’s desire to play in the No. 6 position with his best role in the team, that of full-back. What to do with Leon Goretzka. If Dayot Upamecano, De Ligt and Kim Min-jae are to be kept in full, even if it seems unlikely that they will be able to play as a trio.
One of the marks of Bayern’s dysfunction in recent seasons is that, in some cases, it has failed to find ideal selling points for players. Kimmich could have demanded a considerable sum a few years ago. Goretzka too. Today, markets in both cases have weakened, characterizing both the nature of the coming challenge and its scale. Great personalities age. Others are nearing the end of their time at the club for different reasons. There are certainly major transfers to be made, but there are also past agreements to return to, and this reconfiguration will be a delicate and long-term project.
No wonder it is difficult to know who is the right candidate for the coaching position; It is only now that the true scale of this work is clearly understood.
(Top photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)