Jamal Musiala is his own critic, but it propels him to success for Bayern Munich

Jamal Musiala has already been enjoying a fantastic season thus far for Bayern Munich. The 19-year old has already tallied a total of 11 goals and eight assists from 20 appearances across all competitions, and he shows absolutely no signs of slowing down any time soon. In just a few week’s time, too, he’ll likely be a key player for Hansi Flick’s Germany side in the World Cup in Qatar.

Part of what makes the hype surrounding Musiala so mouthwatering is the fact that, even at such a young age, he’s shown a high level of maturity with how humble he’s able to remain — the success isn’t going to his head at all. He has such a high ceiling and a small piece of commentary from Bayern’s 3-2 weekend win over Hertha Berlin stood out when it was said that he might not even realize just how good he is himself yet. That’s a byproduct of his humble nature and team-first attitude.

In a recent interview with kicker’s Frank Linkesch (via @iMiaSanMia), Musiala talked about he likes to hold himself accountable for his individual performances. He doesn’t like to get too carried away, even when he knows there’s a lot of things he did exceptionally well in any given match. “I’m happy with my performances this season, even though there are things I can improve. There are moments in the game where I’m not really there or I make simple wrong passes. I want to work on that,” he explained.

As it stands, Musiala has already bettered his individual numbers from last season. In the 2021/22 campaign, he only tallied 8 goals and 6 assists from 40 appearances across all competitions. He’s already having his best season yet and the Hinrunde isn’t even over yet.

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

He’s worked on a lot of different aspects of his game in the offseason and on the training pitch during the season and said that finishing, in particular, that he’s put a lot of emphasis on. “I always try to work on myself. I reflected on things with the coach and myself. In addition, I’m playing in a more attacking position than last season. Now I found my position where I’m really comfortable. I also found a rhythm that I take from game to game. My finishing was already good, but I still worked hard on it in order to be as efficient as possible. I worked mostly with our assistant coach Dino Toppmöller after training. I’m now more often in goal scoring positions. I also worked on my body to be fit and stable,” he said.

So far this season, even when Julian Nagelsmann’s side went through a four-match winless run in the Bundesliga, Musiala has been one of the club’s most consistent bright spot. He’s propelled them to being able to secure three points instead of just one or none on a handful of occasions and is always a threat for the opposition. He’s self aware of his impact, but there’s also an element of perfectionism to his craft. There’s always small details that he likes to play back in his head after matches, which he said sometimes has the tendency to take away from the pleasure of a strong performance. “It’s hard for me to be happy with myself after a game. There are always situations which I can solve in a better way. This mindset has accompanied me almost my whole life,” he said.