Match awards from Bayern’s difficult 3:2 win against Augsburg

Today both teams surprised the spectators. Bayern Munich played well below their standard and Augsburg played surprisingly above it — for someone who is 15th in Bundesliga table. If we compared today’s performance to movie-like awards, we would have more “awards” for Golden Raspberry’s than Oscars. But since we only award the good performances, it was not that easy to pick a few stand-out performances, since most of them were mediocre. But we shall persevere. Without further ado, here are the match awards!

Jersey swap: Dong-Won Ji

He was probably the most dangerous man for Augsburg. It was always a cagey affair for Manuel Neuer when Ji ran inside on the right flank or provided good passes up the middle. He scored the second goal for his team after a bad clearance by Niklas Süle. Philipp Max also had a good game with few good runs and two key passes.

Tip of the cap: Thiago Alcantara

It wasn’t his best performance, but Thiago still managed to obstruct Augsburg’s attacks and to control the field as much as he could. In the process, he ran a lot today and covered a lot of space. Incidentally, Thiago managed a rock-solid 92% accurate passes, which we are used to by now. We may well wonder, though, how Thiago will respond to the Liverpool’s attacks. I think he had an average performance, but for Champions League we need him at his best!

Golf clap: David Alaba

David Alaba also did not have a perfect night, but he managed to score the winning goal for the Rekordmeister. Often he had problems with his opponents but, luckily for him, Kingsley Coman was there to help him out. He should definitely be more focused when facing far more difficult opponents — let’s say, Mohamed Salah. But on the positive side, his partnership with Coman blossomed today and they seemed very good together. Their partnership seems to get better from game to game. It will be very interesting to see how their partnerships will develop and will it match one with Franck Ribery. Unfortunately, if Coman proves injured, that project will be on hold.

Standing ovation: Mats Hummels

Hummels had a very good game. He has been very good lately, except for occasional mistakes in front of the goal. Today, as was the case for most of Bayern’s defenders, he was more valuable for his build-up play than for actual defending. When you look at his heatmap from WhoScored.com, you can see that he was far more active in the midfield than in penalty area. He won 9 out of 10 duels and finished with 92% accurate passes and made two key passes. One of them was quite remarkable: he dispossessed his opponent, then made a fantastic dribble and sent a perfect pass forward to Serge Gnabry — who unfortunately squandered the attack. All in all a good performance from Mats.

As a side note: what would you think hypothetically about Mats playing as a defensive midfielder?

Meister of the match: Kingsley Coman

He was absolutely vital for Die Roten today. He scored two goals and assisted one. It is good to see him getting back to his form. His passes and crosses were on point throughout the game, he probably could have ended the game with an additional assist, but his teammates in penalty area failed to capitalize. Of all the players from today’s awards, he is probably the only one that had an indisputable place on them. He also made a 9.5 grade on WhoScored and fully deserved the man-of-the-match plaudits. But... his night may have ended on a tragic note. After a stellar performance, at the end of the game, Coman went out limping after a rough tackle. Niko Kovač said afterward that the injury doesn’t look good. We will see tomorrow what will happen with him. Hopefully, he’ll make it for Liverpool game. We need him.