Who plays against whom and when?
Which game should you definitely not miss?
Bochum against <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/spains-supercup-in-the-desert-real-madrid-defeat-barcelona/" title="Spain's Supercup in the desert: Real Madrid defeat Barcelona“>Bayern. From the looks of it, Bayern’s significant defeat in Barcelona on Wednesday might not have been the last disappointment of the season for them. They lost 1:4 against the team of their ex-coach Hansi Flick. They were uncertain at the back and lacked ideas at the front against the Catalans’ high defense. This frees Barca from the Bayern curse. It was the first victory in almost ten years after six, sometimes violent, defeats against Bayern. Bayern slipped to 23rd place in the table. Two more places lower and they would be out of the knockout phase of the Champions League miss.
Not only the team, but also the management team at Bayern did not act like a top club. Max Eberl, the Munich sports director, responded to a critical question from Sky reporter Florian Plettenberg like a sore loser: “Get a coaching license, then you can do better,” he snapped at Plettenberg when asked whether the defender Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae were a factor of uncertainty in Bayern’s game. Given the four goals conceded, one could certainly come up with the idea. You can tell that Eberl went to school with Uli Hoeneß.
Which game can you safely miss?
Mainz against Gladbach. This has to do with a terrible record: Gladbach hasn’t won two games in a row for more than two and a half years. Borussia last managed this in March 2022. At that time they only won 2-0 against Hertha, then the away game in Bochum was counted as Gladbach after it was canceled due to a cup being thrown. Last week Gladbach won 3-2 against Heidenheim. You can imagine how it will turn out this time.
Who is in the spotlight?
Manuel Neuer. It seems as if Bayern only have one good goalkeeper, not a very good one anymore. In Barcelona he didn’t make any mistakes, but he also didn’t hold any “unstoppable balls” like before, said Lothar Matthäus Bild. Matthäus makes the captain partly responsible for Bayern’s currently vulnerable defense. Neuer is “not the support for the team at the moment as he was in the past”. Even before conceding the goal in the 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa, Neuer was too far in front of the goal. If you believe the data, Neuer is now one of the weakest keepers in the Bundesliga. So far he has been able to save less than half of all shots on goal, meaning the Munich team have conceded 14 goals from just twenty shots on goal in the league.
Bochum against Bayern. From the looks of it, Bayern’s significant defeat in Barcelona on Wednesday might not have been the last disappointment of the season for them. They lost 1:4 against the team of their ex-coach Hansi Flick. They were uncertain at the back and lacked ideas at the front against the Catalans’ high defense. This frees Barca from the Bayern curse. It was the first victory in almost ten years after six, sometimes violent, defeats against Bayern. Bayern slipped to 23rd place in the table. Two more places lower and they would be out of the knockout phase of the Champions League miss.
