Three observations from Bayern Munich’s frustrating 1-1 draw with Gladbach

It’s happened again lads. Bayern Munich have been silenced by their bogey team Borussia Mönchengladbach. From minute 1 to 96, Bayern dominated Gladbach; like complete and utter domination. Bayern had 33(!) shots with 20 on target, 69% possession, and an 88% pass completion, and just one goal on an xG of 3.2. Madness! On the other hand, Gladbach had 5 shots with 3 on target and they scored from a counter from an error. Frustrating, right?

The attack with Sadioffside Mané and false 9 De Ligt

Why does this happen every time? Sadio Mané always gets himself offside before putting the ball in the net. Mané has cost Thomas Müller a couple of assists because the latter assisted the former’s offside goals, which should have counted. Mané’s goals were incorrectly chalked off, though I’ll leave that for you to decide. To be fair to them, they worked their socks off trying to get the breakthrough, which thankfully came in the 82^nd minute.

The rest of the attack had Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sané, who got Bayern’s equalizing goal. All of them worked extra hard against a Gladbach side who played negative football. You can’t fault the attack for trying and trying but not being able to go all the way. Incredible effort from the attack, and the entire team for not letting Gladbach get another one. How could I forget Jamal Musiala, who was brought on as an attacking outlet.

But the craziest part of the attack is that it includes Matthijs de Ligt, whom Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann put at striker in the final minutes to head in crosses from the wings. Props to De Ligt, who almost scored to put us ahead.

Questionable officiating

Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

The referee on the night wasn’t the reason why we struggled, but he sure did make our job a whole lot harder. The ref continuously failed to spot scrappy Gladbach fouls and decided to call unjust fouls our way. Manu Koné in particular had a fair number of fouls that went unnoticed by the referee, and it was baffling as to why he didn’t get carded, whether red or yellow. Benjamin Pavard got carded when he pushed Christoph Kramer, who looked like he fell over a bit too easily. Honestly, you’d be this close to wishing you got an English ref to officiate the game.

Not freaking Sommer: Most Wanted

Photo by KERSTIN JOENSSON/AFP via Getty Images

Yup, this guy has come back to terrorize the entire state of Bavaria. I mean, come on. He saved 19 or 20 shots on goal, a new Bundesliga record and easily the greatest performance of a keeper in the league, even better than Manuel Neuer. This guy is the reason why we didn’t win like 10-1 or 15-1. Sommer kept out all sorts of shots: long range shots, from point blank range, attacks from set pieces.

It’s honestly a miracle that Sané managed to score against this actual alien. Hats off to Sommer though, massive performance from the Swiss shot-stopper (anger had to be fought back when that sentence was typed). Promise us one thing, Sommer, if you’re going to be like this against Bayern, at least do it against other clubs as well. Otherwise, you’re making our attack look toothless.

Interested in more analysis of the game? Why not check out our postgame podcast? Listen to it below or at this link.

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