Three observations from Bayern Munich’s disappointing 3-3 draw with Arminia Bielefeld

Niklas Süle is an expensive traffic cone

Buddy, let me tell you, Niklas Süle continues to get worse, not better.

Bayern was plagued in this match by Süle’s inability to communicate with his center-back partner Lucas Hernandez, Süle’s inability to track runners coming out of the midfield, and Süle’s deficient tracking of players in the box on corner kicks.

Sure, injuries impacted today’s squad, but that can’t be an acceptable excuse for Süle at this point in the campaign. His subpar play this season continues to hurt Bayern on the field, but it remains to be seen if he should be benched in favor of other options.

With Dayot Upamecano joining the club in the summer, Süle is going to have to start playing a lot better if he doesn’t want to find himself spending the majority of next season on the bench. Otherwise, perhaps Lothar Matthäus’s suggestion that Bayern should look to offload Süle to an English club this summer will become a reality.

Alphonso Davies continues to impress

The 20-year-old left back was phenomenal against Bielefeld, well deserving of Man of the Match honors. His ability to get forward into the attack while also snuffing out attacks with ease (sometimes on the same play, as observed in the first half today!) saves Manuel Neuer from facing an additional few shots every single game.

Davies struggled in the first half of the season, mostly due to struggling to adapt to the quick turnaround of his first European campaign combined with COVID delays, but he’s definitely turned that around in recent weeks.

Plus, he capped his spectacular performance with a great goal to rescue a point for Bayern. It was a superb day for the Canadian.

Hansi Flick has to figure out this defense

The most pressing matter for Bayern Munich for the remainder of the season is fixing the defense. Five clubs have a better defensive record than Bayern do at the moment and one other is level. On their current track of shipping goals, Bayern are set for their worst defensive record since the 1991-92 season when the Bavarians conceded 61 goals. This is also shaping up to the the third worst Bayern defensive team in 40 years. Fourty!

It hasn’t really matter what center-back combination Flick rolls out there, they concede goal after goal. Consistency is usually the key defensively, but various injuries and absences haven’t allowed that. It doesn’t really matter at this point if it’s Lucas Hernandez, David Alaba, Jerome Boateng, or Niklas Süle, what we’ve seen to date from this club has been unacceptable.

Things aren’t going well at the back, and the only reason Bayern aren’t lower in the table at the moment is because of Robert Lewandowski’s 25 goals. Again, Flick has to figure this thing out.