Daily Schmankerl: The aftermath of Bayern Munich vs. Hertha Berlin; Chelsea lists itself as favorite for David Alaba on own website; Manchester City planning “monster bid” for Erling Haaland; and MORE!

Die Folgen: Bayern’s 1-0 win over Hertha (Bavarian Football Works)

It was not always pretty, but Bayern Munich wrapped up a 1-0 victory over Hertha Berlin — and three points — before jetting off to Qatar for the Club World Cup. The game was a bit uneven, but a win is a win is a win, I suppose. Here are some quick hitters on the match:

• Credit to the Olympiastadion grounds crew for the great work they did in clearing the pitch to start the game on a snow day. The pitch was certainly slick, but that was understandable given the conditions. While snow did build up over the course of the first half, the grounds crew effectively cleared it once again at halftime.
• Manuel Neuer seems to be saving Bayern Munich’s bacon at least once early in every game. He did so once again yesterday. Neuer didn’t just do it early, though. The veteran goalkeeper made several key saves throughout the course of the game and finished with seven stops overall.
• Leroy Sane did an excellent job of freeing himself up in the fifth minute, but has to finish better than he did there. It was a fantastic effort by Rune Jarstein to make the save, but Sane has to do better with that opportunity. On the day, Sane was pretty good as he was successful on six of seven dribbles and was a pretty consistent threat throughout his time on the pitch.
• Early in the match it seemed that the left side of the Bayern Munich defense (David Alaba and Lucas Hernandez) had a very difficult time with positioning and communicating. Hernandez was very spotty and might not have done enough to convince Hansi Flick that he deserves more playing time just yet.
• Jarstein’s save on Lewandowski was impressive on what was a rare miss by the Polish Hitman. As the replay showed, Lewandowski just did not get it far enough into the corner. Jarstein had a phenomenal first half overall.
• Thomas Muller’s passing early in the game was fantastic. It was not Muller’s best game —- it was not even close — but his presence on the pitch means so much to the squad. Muller, though, does need to be a little more selfish.
• Benjamin Pavard looked assertive and confident going forward once again.
• Kingsley Coman’s goal was a product of his quick decision to rip a shot — with a little help of a deflection off of Niklas Stark. Muller was credited with the assist on the goal.
• Niklas Sule took a nasty headbutt, which opened up a little gash on the big man’s forehead. Hopefully, he doesn’t need stitches because you know the Frankenstein jokes are ready to be unlocked by his teammates.
• Playing as a lone defensive midfielder in a 4-1-4-1, Joshua Kimmich was firmly in command for the entirety of the game.
• The one downfall of the formation against Hertha Berlin was that when Bayern Munich was not quickly counter-attacking or pushing up the field on a break, Kimmich had little support in terms of being an outlet. The backline just simply did not have many options. Muller eventually started to drop deeper to help.
• Oooof...the head collision between Matheus Cunha and Kingsley Coman was nasty.
• Sane’s shot of the season (and he’s had some great ones) was that knee into Jordan Torunarigha’s “bread basket.” Seconds later Sane set-up Coman perfectly, but the Frenchman airmailed the opportunity.
• Overall, Bayern Munich’s backline was superb and played so much better than they had just a few weeks ago. It seems as if Hansi Flick and his boys have found that happy medium.

• The Bayern Munich backline was really solid for almost the entirety of the game but did get shaky at the end of the match. Let’s just call it a temporary lapse and move on...

If you missed our Match Awards, Observations, or Postgame Podcast give them a look or a listen:

Man City wants Haaland badly (Transfer Market Web)

Manchester City might be readying a massive €114 million bid to Borussia Dortmund for Erling Haaland:

Tracked by basically all A-listers around Europe, Norwegian international striker Erling Haaland (20) is growing into more and more of a major target for Manchester City. To this end, according to Daily Star, Premier League giants are planning to submit Borussia Dortmund a £100m bid, which will probably be turned down by German club, planning, if letting former Salzburg hitman out - most likely in summer 2022, - to make an at least 150 million euros fee from the trade.

Alaba’s next will be Chelsea per Chelsea (ChelseaFC.com)

This is a weird one. Chelsea has a page on its website, where it lists references to itself...including transfer rumors. In Friday’s update, Chelsea actually ran a story about how it is the favorite to land Bayern Munich David Alaba:

Headline: Blues are favourites for Alaba

Chelsea have received a big boost in their reported pursuit of David Alaba in the summer. According to the Spanish news outlet, AS via Sport BILD, it is understood that Real Madrid’s talks with the Austrian are not as advanced as Spanish media make them out to be.

The report also states that Alaba would be open to a move to England if the offer is right, with Chelsea viewed as his most likely destination in the Premier League. The 28-year-old’s Bayern Munich contract runs out in the summer and he is rumoured to be set to leave after spending almost a decade at the club.

If the Blues are to go for the Austrian, he’ll be the second established free agent they’ve signed in a space of a year after Thiago Silva earlier this season. Alaba has won nine Bundesliga titles, six German Cups and the Champions League twice.

Chelsea does offer this disclaimer for that page on its website: “These stories are samples pulled from external media sources. They do not represent the views or position of Chelsea Football Club.”

I still, however, find that to be extremely odd.

Serbian dog gets handed red card (@ftbllrswanimals)

It appears that mounting the goalpost is frowned upon in Serbia...who knew?

ICYMI: Pine Tree Garden’s FC Bayern song (Bavarian Football Works)

In the event you missed it, check out the Weekend Warm-up or BPW Podcast of Der Ausblick where you can hear a pretty cool song by Munich-based group Pine Tree Garden. The boys ripped out a song titled “Münchens Liebe, Mein Verein”, which is a banger.

Here is some info on the group if you want to check them out:

Pine Tree Garden

• Michi Geitner (vocals, piano, guitar)
• Hatti Seidl (guitar, backing vocals, piano)
• Philipp Habisch (bass, backing vocals)
• Felix Pieringer (drums)

Looking for a way to find Pine Tree Garden? Check out the links below:

• Instagram
• Spotify
• YouTube
• FC Bayern Spotify Playlist

You check out the song at (roughly) the 10:30 mark of the file below: