Why Bayern Munich are the most dangerous team in the world

Last year, Bayern Munich won the Bundesliga title with six games still to play — the fastest it had ever been secured. They also blew away Barcelona 7-0 (agg. score) in the Champions League semis and coasted to a win over Borussia Dortmund in the final. Could you better a season like that? Well, yes. At his first attempt, Pep Guardiola led his team to the Bundesliga one match quicker than Jupp Heynckes. His team are in the Champions League semifinals and were unbeaten in the Bundesliga until their loss to Augsburg last week. Last year, after 29 matches, Bayern had 78 points. They had scored 83 goals and conceded 13. This year they have the same number of points after 29 games — have scored a goal less and conceded four extra. You can credit that to Guardiola’s more attacking style of play — the simplicity of the matter is this: Bayern Munich were the scariest team last year — and still are as scary, if not more. [caption id=“attachment_1474839” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bayern Munich were the scariest team last year — and still are as scary, if not more. Reuters[/caption] So what sets them apart from the other Champions League semifinalists? The answer lies in the Bayern players’ statistics. In all competitions, Bayern have scored 130 goals. Eight of their players have scored more than five goals — Mario Mandzukic (24 goals), Thomal Muller (23 goals), Arjen Robben (19 goals), Frank Ribery (15 goals) and Mario Gotze (12 goals), Xherdan Shaqiri (seven goals), Bastian Schweinsteiger (6 goals) and Claudio Pizzaro (6 goals) and 12 players — Ribery, Robben, Muller, Gotze, Mandzukic, Rafinha, Toni Kroos, David Alaba, Phillip Lahm, Dante, Thiago Alacantara and Schweinsteiger have at least five assists. With that sort of a spread of goals and assists, you don’t know whom to mark, where to mark and how to mark. All these players — from the center backs to the full-backs to the midfielders can score and pass. How does a team stop a side which sends wave after wave of attack through the middle, through long balls and most primarily through the wings? Chelsea has seven players who have scored more than five, but the gap in the numbers is what matters. Eden Hazard has 17 this season, Samuel Eto’o and Oscar 11. Fernando Torres, Frank Lampard and Andre Schurrle are yet to hit double digits. Compared to Bayern’s 12 players with a considerable number of assists — only seven Chelsea players are regular providers — Oscar and Hazard top the chart with 10 each. Real Madrid are even worse — just four players have 10 or more goals all season, with Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale have score 86 of their total 134 goals — that’s 64%. Without Ronaldo, Dortmund took them apart in the quarters. Angel Di Maria, Benzema, Ronaldo and Bale are also their top assist getters. Just like Chelsea, only eight of their players have more than five assists. For Atletico, the threats are very tangible — Diego Costa (33 goals), Raul Garcia (16 goals) and David Villa (15 goals) are their most potent threats. Arda Turan and Koke contribute, but more as team players. Only Koke (18 assists) has assists in double digits in the entire team. It’s not that a concentration of goals and assists makes teams bad — it makes their threats tangible. Atletico marked Lionel Messi and Neymar out of the game and beat Barcelona. There’s no arguing those two are Barca’s most potent threats. With Bayern, you simply don’t know whom to stop. You can keep half their team at bay but the other half is equally dangerous. It’s scary.