Manuel Neuer dangerously close to setting a personal goals conceded record at Bayern Munich

Despite Manuel Neuer being in sensational form both last season and most of this season, you didn’t read the headline wrong. With the three goals Bayern Munich conceded in the 3-2 loss at Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday, Neuer is now dangerously close to conceding the most goals in a Bundesliga season he ever has with his time at Bayern (Bild).

Neuer has been waiting to break Oliver Kahn’s record of 204 clean sheets in the Bundesliga, but he’ll now have to wait even longer to reach that mark. Neuer currently has 196 clean sheets in the league himself, so the prospect of reaching and/or bettering Kahn’s record this season is still in the cards, but with the way Bayern’s defense is currently performing, it doesn't look too promising. The last time Bayern kept a clean sheet in the Bundesliga this season was their 5-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt at the Allianz Arena at the end of October. Of course, since then, they’ve still won 6 league matches, but they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the 6 outings.

Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images

Neuer personally still has Kahn’s Bundesliga clean sheets record in his sights, but worryingly so, there’s also another record creeping up on him this season. Thus far, Bayern’s already conceded 24 goals in the Bundesliga and they’re currently on pace (mathematically) to concede close to 50 goals by the time the season ends. The last time Bayern conceded this many goals after only 15 match days was the 1981/82 season. Normally, Neuer is usually always below the 30-goal mark at the end of the season, but he conceded goal number 22, 23, and 24 against Monchengladbach. By stark contrast, his best ever mark in a Bayern shirt was only conceding 17 goals during the entire 2015/16 season when Pep Guardiola was manager.

It’s difficult to look at the numbers and place any sort of blame on Neuer with the amount of fantastic saves he’s been pulling off this season and how well he’s done in 1v1 situations on the counter-attack. Sure, he’s made his fair share of errors because, after all, he is human, but Bayern’s defense is of far more concern for Hansi Flick and Bayern fans than the “GOATkeeper.” You can bet that Flick will 100% be addressing the defensive issues in training ahead of their 2nd round DFB-Pokal match against Holstein Kiel midweek. Moving forward, the defensive issues absolutely need to get sorted so that Bayern can start winning matches more comfortably and not invite pressure upon themselves unnecessarily.