FanPost

Survey Results: Bayern 0 - 3 Gladbach

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POST-MATCH REPORT

BAYERN VS. BORUSSIA MÖNCHENGLADBACH

Introduction

FC Bayern Munich’s 3-0 loss to Gladbach is the latest in a now four-match skid by the Bavarians. Is it a full-blown crisis at Säbener Straße?

Many thanks to all who participated in this week’s survey. With a little help from some friends - Bavarian Football Works and @iMiaSanMia and @Complaxes on Twitter, this edition accumulated nearly 500 responses! That’s way more than previous weeks, and should serve to hopefully give a more accurate picture as to how the fans are feeling. Thanks again!

MANAGER & PLAYER RATINGS

First, of course, is Niko Kovac.

Overall, Kovac’s "performance grade" saw a slight dip. Between the Augsburg, Hertha, and Ajax matches, respondents graded Kovac on average a 5.9/10. Following the Gladbach match, his average grade had dropped to right at 5.0/10. The most common response given was a 6/10, followed closely by 5/10. Overall, 56.1% of respondents felt Kovac deserved a 5/10 or worse, whereas 43.9% felt he deserved a 6/10 or better.


Now, we’ll move on to the player grades.

First, the overall picture.


Here’s how it breaks down:

  • Overall, we can see that respondents felt this was a fairly subpar performance from Bayern - shocking, right? With no player graded higher than a 7.3, we saw a lot of mediocre performances on the pitch.
  • Kimmich: Overall, you felt Kimmich was a contender for Man of the Match. Kimmich received the highest average grade and the second most 10/10 votes, behind…
  • Neuer: your other contender for Man of the Match, Neuer finished first in 10/10 votes with an average score just a bit behind that of his right-back’s. Overall, you didn’t seem to think Neuer was much to blame, even though we conceded three.
  • Alaba finished third in average score as well as third in 10/10 scores.
  • As mentioned, for Man of the Match voting, 17% of votes cast for Neuer were 10/10s. In second was Kimmich with 15.1%, and Alaba in third with 8.6%. Last week, your Top-3 MotM’s were Neuer, Thiago, and Kimmich.
  • On the bottom end, we’ve got some of the ‘usual suspects’. Ribery, Müller, and Robben have been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism for their performances this season, and their performances vs. Gladbach didn’t do them any favors in that regard. To his credit, Ribery saw his grading increase ever so slightly compared to previous weeks (from 4.0 to 4.6/10), but Müller and Robben both saw decreases (from 5.9 to 4.7 and from 5.6 to 4.1, respectively)
  • Biggest rises and falls: Ribery was the only player this week to improve his grade (when compared to Augsburg/Hertha/Ajax), with an increase of +0.6. On the other end of things, Thiago, Neuer, Müller, and Goretzka saw the biggest decreases, with a change of -1.4, -1.3, -1.2, and -1.2, respectively.
  • Being this week’s only player who "improved," it might surprise you to learn that Ribery took 1st place in "Flop of the Match" voting, with the most 1/10 votes. 10.1% of votes cast for Ribery were a 1/10; second place was Müller with 9%, and third was Robben with 6.7%. For comparison, last week your Top-3 "Flops" were Ribery, Robben, and Javi Martinez.
  • For those of you who are keeping count: That’s two MotM nominations for both Neuer and Kimmich, along with one for Alaba and Thiago. On the other end, that makes two "Flop" nominations for Ribery and Robben, as well as one for Javi and Müller. I’ll try and keep track of these and periodically report in on who your MotM and "FotM" (Flop of the Match) leaders are.

THE CURRENT STATE OF THE CLUB:

Overall, most of you are feeling a bit more nervous than you were a week ago. Previously, your average "Worry rating" or "Panic scale" measured at 5.2/10. After a bad loss to Gladbach, the ‘meter’ has raised to 6.3/10 - not the direction you want to be heading.

Your feeling on how the season has gone so far has soured considerably, too.

Last week, 55.4% of you reported that the season had gone "as expected," with only 41.1% saying it had gone "worse than expected" thus far.

As it stands now, 76.6% of respondents said the season had gone "worse than expected" with only 21.1% saying it was going "as expected." That’s a shift of about 20% in just a few days.

Similarly, you almost all feel the club could or should be doing better. 95.1% of respondents felt the team is underperforming or not performing "at its level."

When last asked, 82.1% felt that Bayern would still win the Bundesliga. Now, only 55.5% believe Bayern will finish first; 28.6% predict a second-place finish, 9.9% predict a third-place finish, and 6% believe Bayern will finish in fourth-place or lower.

FRESH LEGS:

When last asked, 70.5% of respondents felt we should be making at least one big signing in the winter. That’s only changed a little bit, with 78.9% of respondents now in favor of a winter-window signing.

To that measure, those of you who do want to see Bayern dip into the winter transfer market would like to see a couple of changes. 31.6% believe we should buy players at multiple positions. As for single-positions, most of you felt we need to add another winger/wide midfielder - 29.2% felt as much. Following this, you felt our second-most pressing need was to add another fullback; the sale of Bernat coupled with injuries to Rafinha and Alaba have no doubt influenced this. Further, 7.8% would like to see Bayern shore up the midfield troops - most popular was the addition of a true defensive midfielder.

MANY PROBLEMS, FEW SOLUTIONS:

After the 3-0 loss to Gladbach, confidence in Kovac took a significant hit. When asked after the Augsburg/Hertha/Ajax matches how much Bayern’s bosses should be considering a coaching change, your average response was 3.9/10 - wherein 1/10 meant "not considering a change whatsoever" and 10/10 meant "should be calling potential new candidates right now." At this time, only 22.1% of respondents gave a 6/10 or higher.

Following the loss to Gladbach, that number rose to 5.4/10. Now, 48.6% answered with a 6/10 or higher.

Responses were fairly divided on when Kovac should be sacked, if the club were to make that decision. Overall, only 27.3% felt he should be given a full year. 32% now feel he should be sacked ASAP, and 40.6% felt he should be given at least until winter break before getting the boot.

As far as replacements go, the vast majority of you preferred Zinedine Zidane. 51.6% of you picked him as your preferred midseason-replacement and 45% of you want to see him signed next summer.

For some other names suggested: Peter Hermann, Ralph Hasenhüttl, Arsene Wenger, and Antonio Conte were all popular choices for midseason replacements. If Bayern were to search for a new manager in summer 2019, Zidane is still the most popular choice (as mentioned), but some other favorites included: Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp, Ralph Hasenhüttl, and Mauricio Pochettino, all of whom received a considerable share of the voting.

WHO IS TO BLAME:

When asked what ‘share’ of the blame should fall on the players, your average answer was 6.9/10, with the most common answer given being a 7/10.

When asked what share of the blame falls on the manager, your average answer was a 6.6/10; however, the most common answer was an 8/10.

When asked what share of the blame falls on the upper management - Uli, Rummenigge, Brazzo, the FC Bayern Board, etc - your average answer was an 8.0/10, with the most common answer being a 10/10 - 33.8% of respondents answered as such.

85.7% of respondents answered a 6/10 or higher in regards to how much fault the upper management bears. Only 14.3% answered with a 5/10 or lower.

Similarly, when asked to give a "Blame percentage" to the players, the manager, and the ‘upper management’, the most common response showed you felt the upper management were 70% to blame, with the remaining 30% being split between the players and the coach - with a slight ‘edge’ going towards the manager.

In short: out of 100% "blame" or "culpability", you felt that the upper management was 70% to blame, the manager bears 20% of the blame, and 10% falls to the players.

Finally, when asked what Kovac’s biggest problem was at the moment - you responded with a wide variety of issues. Overall, 36.1% feel that Kovac is simply out of his depth - that he’s lacking for answers and unsure what to do to ‘fix’ things. The second most common response, with 28%, felt that player issues were to blame - that the squad simply didn’t have enough quality and/or that the club has failed to adequately replace aging players.

I opened this question up so that you could respond in your own words.

Some other responses given include:

  • "Doesn’t get enough support from management; unrealistic expectations and too much pressure"
  • "Insubordination - players don’t respect him"
  • "He doesn’t have the experience to manage his way through a crisis, especially not at a club like this.
  • "Kovac doesn’t have the personnel to play the formation he wants to at the moment"
  • "He just doesn’t have what it takes for a top club. He’s a perfect fit for a club like Frankfurt, but not more"
  • "Kovac fails to recognize and support the young talent and would rather keep playing players who are no longer worthy of being consistent starters"
  • "We failed him by not signing wingers in the summer"
  • "It seems like Kovac is required to play Robben, Ribery, and Müller regardless of how poor the play. Orders from Uli?"
  • "Everything, sack now"
  • "F**king useless upper management and their awful transfer policies"
  • "Bad hierarchy in the squad. Players moaning whenever they get benched. Poor team atmosphere. A bunch of players who have achieved everything but are now lacking in hunger, motivation, and humility"
  • "Showing too much favoritism. Starting Robben, Ribery, and Boateng over better players."
  • "Favre spent some time rotating and tweaking his setup with Dortmund to find the right fit. Kovac seemed to be rotating just for the heck of it and now 7 matchdays in he still doesn’t have his ideal tactical setup figured out."
  • "Not enough discipline, tactical issues - there’s no clear ‘Plan B’."
  • "Bad rotation policy - benching players who played well in previous games, continuing to start ones who underperform, no clear standard to follow."
  • "Players are just too slow and the ones that aren’t keep getting hurt"
  • "There’s no one clear problem. Instead, it’s a ton of small problems."

Well, that wraps up this week’s survey results. Again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who participated.

Please follow the link below for next week’s survey and (shameless plug) feel free to follow me on twitter - @at_sunshine - where I’ll be continuing to post additional surveys and their respective results.


Mia San Mia!

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bavarian Football Works readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of BFW editors or staff. Visit our Fanpost section at the top of the page.