Three observations from Bayern Munich’s thrilling 4-2 victory against Borussia Dortmund

Another season, another entertaining edition of Der Klassiker. Bayern Munich remains two points ahead of RB Leipzig due to yet another attacking performance against a mediocre Borussia Dortmund side. Die Roten remains as offensive as ever and continues to provide the audience with exciting football. Here are our observations from an entertaining game:

Always on the offensive

Bayern Munich under Hansi Flick has become one of the most exciting teams to watch in world football. For the neutral, this Bayern Munich edition has become a team that always guarantees a high-scoring game. Flick’s side is one of the few teams that can easily let in two goals in the opening minute ten minutes, only to score four of five in the space of 45 minutes.

Bayern’s defensive problems have been consistent throughout the season. Flick’s consistently attacking tactics rarely allow for defensive stability, which certainly adds to my claim that his Bayern is the most exciting team in world football. Always with an attacking mentality, Bayern’s back four were once again extremely high up the pitch.

Letting in two goals in the opening ten minutes? No problem. Bayern can always score more than the opposition.

Dortmund made the mistake of lowering the positioning of their whole team after going up 2-0. After the cold shower of the first ten minutes, Bayern was able to control the game by keeping the ball in Dortmund’s side of the pitch for most of the game. A side that can score eight against Barcelona in a Champions League quarterfinal can come back from being down two goals against any team. Today was another example of the most exciting team in the world, coming back after a two-goal deficit.

Will this mentality come back to hurt Bayern in the later stages during this season? Maybe, but honestly, right now, I don’t care. FlikiTaka is football’s rock and roll.

A ground-breaking superstar

It does feel that Bayern’s success this season has often been reliant on the individual quality of some of their superstars. To be blunt, I do think that a team that is so heavily relying on their strikers outscoring the opponent’s strikers, would have been so much worse off without their 31-goal striker.

Words praising Robert Lewandowski have become superfluous. I consider myself a relatively unbiased Bayern Munich supporter, and I can safely say that there isn’t a better footballer walking our planet at this very moment.

This season, he has averaged 1.35 goals per game in the Bundesliga and 1,05 goals per game in all competitions. In his last 54 Bundesliga games, Lewandowski has scored 65 goals. No one has ever seen this type of number in the Bundesliga since Gerd Müller. Lewandowski now needs another ten goals in ten games to beat a record that no one thought would ever be beaten again.

Take Lewandowski out of the FlikiTaka equation, and it’s a completely different team.

Leroy Sané the future x-factor?

Another impressive performance from Leroy Sané tonight. The German international, who recently spent a whole season recovering from an ACL injury, provided the latest impressive performance in the important Der Klassiker clatch after a series of improved displays. Offensively, Sané always plays with a sense of purpose. He never dribbles for the sake of it, slows down the game when needed, and can just as easily create dangerous runs. What is even more impressive is his defensive resistibility.

Bayern was down with 2-0 when Marco Reus created yet another dangerous counter around the 25th minute. Passing it to the lethal Erling Braut Haaland, the Norwegian could have gotten his hat-trick before the 30-minute mark if it wasn’t for a fantastic defensive action from Leroy.

An entertaining player knowing his defensive tasks, Bayern looks like they’ve found their long-term replacement for Franck Ribéry.