Match awards from Bayern Munich’s comprehensive 5-0 win over SC Freiburg

Jersey Swap: Ryan Kent. The Liverpool loanee was one of the few players in the Freiburg squad to offer anything positive going forward. His effort in the 6th minute forced a decent save from Sven Ulreich and gave Bayern a minor scare before they really started to establish their ultimate dominance. There was certainly no lack of effort from Kent either, as he constantly looked to break forward on the right flank. Unfortunately for him, he was often times pressing forward on a solo mission without much of a supporting cast around him and was left with too much to do on his own. With a bit more support on the right occasions, Kent really could’ve caught Bayern on their heels and stung them.

Tip of the Cap: Javi Martinez. In his press conference leading up to this encounter, Jupp Heynckes said that he wanted to deploy Martinez as a defensive midfielder to “stabilize the defense” and that’s exactly what the Spaniard did. Playing just in front of Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng, Martinez anchored Bayern’s midfield and once again gave Thiago plenty of license to roam rather freely in an attacking sense, which is where he’s at his best. He was able to cut out most of Freiburg’s forward movements when they would try to spring counter attacks before they would even get close to Hummels and Boateng — Martinez was a fantastic cushion in front of them. It’s growing increasingly clear that Martinez’s best position in this Bayern side is going to be a holding midfielder, but it was unfortunate to see him go off with an injured shoulder.

Golf Clap: Thomas Muller. It was another shift full of heart, determination, and a relentless work rate for Muller, and he wore the captain’s armband with pride once again. The announcers at the Allianz Arena appeared to have given Muller credit for Bayern’s opening goal in the 8th minute of play, but it’s justifiably been recorded as an own goal by Julian Schuster. It was Muller’s clever run into the six-yard box, though, that forced the error from the Freiburg captain. The sequence of play in the 75th minute the led to Robert Lewandowski’s goal (Bayern’s 4th of the match) perfectly illustrated the nature of Muller’s performance; he did incredibly well to close down Caglar Soyuncu near the touchline in Freiburg’s own half, strip him of possession, and pass to a wide open Lewandowski, who finished calmly with his right foot.

Standing Ovation: Kingsley Coman. With the injury layover the Franck Ribery is likely to experience, Coman is going to see increased minutes, and he put in a solid shift against Freiburg. Both he and David Alaba were constant threats coming down the left flank and the pair were constantly exhibiting textbook overlapping runs and movements with one another — it was one of those overlapping runs from Alaba that created Bayern’s opening goal after Coman had given a perfectly weighted pass. Often times the subject of criticism for his final product, Coman’s headed goal three minutes before the halftime interval should certainly serve as a necessary confidence booster for him — the finish was a reward for staying with the play after Alexander Schwolow had made a fine save to deny Arjen Robben. The deflection did fall rather kindly for Coman, but there can be no denying the quality of his headed finish to put Bayern 2-0 up.

Meister of the Match: Thiago Alcantara. The Thiago that we grew so accustomed to seeing last season was on full display against Freiburg, and it was quite arguably his strongest performance of the 2017/2018 season thus far. Virtually every facet of his performance was strong today; his pace, his distribution, his first touch, and his clever vision were all quite exceptional. His injuries have hampered him in recent months, but Thiago looked as if his sharpness is finally starting to return and he looks to be getting back to full fitness. His decision making was noticeably quicker than it has been this season, and he seemed to make the right pass every time he was pushing Bayern forward - his diagonal balls were a constant threat for Freiburg. To cap off his sensational performance, Thiago scored a brilliant individual goal in the 63rd minute by virtue of a finely finessed right-footed shot into the bottom right corner of Alexander Schwolow’s goal after he’d done well to take a delicate touch and create a yard of space for himself.