Van Buyten insists that Bayern’s gameplan has to be based on teamwork

Former Bayern Munich center-back Daniel van Buyten recently did an interview with Goal.com in which he argued that Bayern must not rely on individual players, but rather must focus on teamwork if they want to win Bundesliga and the Champions League. In particular, Van Buyten warns his former team not to rely too much on the individual talent of Philippe Coutinho, whom Bayern signed from Barcelona on a one-year loan:

For me, it is always a work of the whole team. You have top players like [Robert] Lewandowski and many others, but you can’t think that if you hire a player like Coutinho, he has this magic wand to do something special. I think it’s teamwork and you have to get a top performance every time. No matter which team you have to play on the weekend, it’s always the same process. If you ever think that it’s easy, it’s a negative process.

Daniel van Buyten spent nine years at Munich and recalled his time there and that back then, teamwork was the key to success:

It’s about your mentality and from my time back then, I know very well that we had a lot of players as far as the character was concerned, they were very concentrated and really had the focus in their heads to win the championship, and also to go far in the Champions League.

He also commented on the rivalry between Bayern and Borussia Dortmund. After an exciting summer transfer window for Dortmund, they will be a threat for Bayern. But what he isn’t sure about is Dortmund’s depth when their resources are stretched:

Borussia Dortmund made very good transfers and they are a good team on the pitch. They will definitely be a team that will fight for the championship in the Bundesliga until the end. But there are still one or two other teams that will also play for the title.