FC Bayern shows what they are capable of when provoked. In the top game of the Bundesliga, the Munich Union Berlin don’t stand a chance. This is also due to Thomas Müller. He acts unhappily at first, but then turns into a match winner.
Bayern Munich is back at the top of the Bundesliga. For one night, the rest of the country dreamed of a major crisis for the record champions, falling to third place after 22 match days. But in the 3-0 (3-0) win against Union Berlin, Munich vented their anger on one of the pursuers and left no doubt that they also want to win their eleventh title in a row. Visiting coach Urs Fischer had already feared that. “Now they’re particularly dangerous. Now they’re irritated. That’s when they’re ready,” he said before the game and then had to experience exactly what that meant.
Especially in the first half, Bayern tore apart the so highly praised defensive of the Berliners, which did not get a break and was repeatedly confronted with unsolvable puzzles. On the Munich side, Thomas Müller was particularly enthusiastic. With two brilliant assists, in his 650th competitive game for FC Bayern, he drove out the frustration for himself and his team after the 2-3 draw at Borussia Mönchengladbach, including the substitution in the 15th minute, and straightened things out in the league again.
Despite the best opportunities, he didn’t want to score just one goal. First he stumbled miserably early on, then, when the game was already splashing along, Union keeper Frederik Rönnow even cleared his head. Mueller didn’t care. Almost doesn’t matter. “I was in debt,” he said after the game. “I didn’t put the thing in at the beginning. Phonzy and I (editor’s note: Alphonso Davies) have to have detention when it comes to converting chances.” But it didn’t matter tonight. It didn’t matter to Bayern. You put an exclamation mark.
The situation had changed so much in the last few weeks that even the trade magazine “Kicker” spoke of a negative balance for Union Berlin before the game. This surreal club from the deep east of Berlin has recorded at least one win against all other Bundesliga clubs in its almost four Bundesliga seasons so far, only not against Bayern. However, two knockdowns last season and two narrow defeats in the first year also faced three 1-1 draws. It was only at the beginning of September 2022 that Union had driven the guests from Munich to despair in the Alte Försterei, and in the end it was 1-1. A performance-based draw.
There was little sign of this on this uncomfortable Sunday accompanied by snowstorms. The iron ones were shown the limits. Union wanted to put mentality and organization against the individual quality of Bayern. They didn’t succeed. When they made mistakes in football, they simply made too many. Bayern Munich this Sunday was not Ajax last Thursday. It should have been 1-0 after just six minutes. But Müller wasn’t ready yet. Alphonso Davies had identified one of the gaping gaps in the otherwise well-organized Union defense and sent striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting into the penalty area. The keeper Frederik Rönnow, who was surrounded, let himself be pushed a little and put it back on Müller. But the 33-year-old couldn’t get the ball over the line from six yards out.
But whatever. Because then he was there. In the 40th minute. And he got down on his knees for a moment, unpacked the saw, which is only shown when something went very well. And that was it in that 40th minute. In the 31st minute, Joshua Kimmich provoked a mistake by the Union. He, i.e. Kimmich, sent the equally outstanding Kingsley Coman with a flat pass, Aissa Laidouni hit it and Coman placed wonderfully in the middle on Choupo-Moting’s head. 1: 0, at a time when Union had long been on the ropes and nine minutes later, in the 40th minute, Thomas Müller pushed him towards the ground.
Again, Union had operated Schindluder in the construction and had moved up. Müller got a ball from Mathijs de Ligt, out of the corner of his eye he saw Coman start, artistically he put the ball in the run. The Frenchman rounded Rönnow and pushed in confidently from an acute angle. Müller made the saw and then threw himself briefly into the arms of Joshua Kimmich. Pressure, so much pressure, fell off him, fell off Bayern. The 2-0 sealed the win early on. The Unioner game was too passive and too drained, who didn’t know what was happening to them and couldn’t believe it when Müller again, when Coman played their way through the penalty area – until Müller scraped the ball so elegantly off the goal line that Birthday boy Jamal Musiala only had to insert. 3-0 halftime. Minutes after the half-time whistle, Union defender Roussillon stood there with slumped shoulders, getting his bearings and possibly remembering what had just happened to him.
Müller, on the other hand, cheered. “Today we were no longer top of the table before the game started, so something had to happen. That was a small start for how we want to play football,” he said after the game. “We played an active game. We had good combinations, were agile and aggressive. It was a good first step, but it won’t do us any good next week.” A good step for the team, but also for the player himself, about whom, more precisely, about his value for FC Bayern, numerous debates had recently broken out. He came late against Paris St. Germain in the first of two giant duels, against Gladbach he went early because Munich had to compensate for the red card in central defense.
“It’s clear that I didn’t enjoy it, but it wouldn’t have been fun for any player to have to go down there. It wasn’t a huge issue, the coach made the decision,” Müller admitted. “Of course, every player, including me, always has the feeling that I can give something to the team, even when I’m a man down, to win a game like this, but he made the decision and we’re moving on.” It was publicly discussed that Müller was no longer non-negotiable, but exchangeable. Once again, farewells were sung. But Müller is Müller, in important games not exchangeable, but indispensable. As a leader, as a giant of mentality, as a pressing boss and man for possible and impossible preparatory actions.
As always, when Bayern are doing badly, they were the most dangerous. When it comes to their honor, when someone gets too close, they are merciless. And they were, according to the diagnosis in the first few weeks of 2023, damn bad these days, when the unrest since Manuel Neuer’s injury slowly manifested itself into a major crisis. Only nine points from six games, with BVB and Union suddenly two opponents in the title race. Coach Julian Nagelsmann also lost all decency and insulted the referees after the bankruptcy in Gladbach. It was stupid too. For one night they had given away the lead in the table.
But then Bayern bit against Union. “We always knew that we have a great team. They just have to put it on the pitch,” said Bayern President Herbert Hainer after the game: “The team showed in Paris what they are capable of when it it depends – and they will show that. The eleventh championship in a row is clearly our goal.” And Bayern can’t do that without Müller. If he’s fine, Bayern are fine. “He is an important factor that leads the team,” said CEO Oliver Kahn after the game. “That was a very good performance today. I would have given him the one or two goals to follow,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann and praised Müller for the green clover. He also has to accept that this footballer with his uncontrollable game and his power is too important in the club. At the latest whenever it is urgent to show that FC Bayern is always FC Bayern. He, as Nagelsmann emphasized as a kind of justification, always has the club in mind and not just himself. Thomas Müller is and will remain FC Bayern.
