3 Bayern Munich players that Arsenal will have to be wary of
Arsenal welcome Bayern Munich to the Emirates stadium on Wednesday night in a tricky opening affair to the last 16 round of the Champions League.
Although each side sit near the summit of both of their respective leagues, it is Bayern who are seemingly set to walk through this duel between two of the continents biggest clubs with relative ease. Unless of course Arsenal can find a way to keep Pep Guardiola’s German and European champions at bay.
Here are three way in which they may just manage to do that.
Philipp Lahm
Lahm the key to Bayern’s domination of possession
The first main danger that Arsenal are likely to face is Philipp Lahm, but not the player that we’ve seen developed and ultimately transformed through Guardiola this season. No, we’re likely to see the old-fashioned Lahm in his right-back position against Arsenal as Bastian Schweinsteiger regains his role as defensive midfielder.
Yet what this means for Arsenal is that Lahm is once again given the freedom and ultimately the comfort of his natural position where he has thrived throughout his career and established himself as one of the best at what he does across the world.
In the graphic above which shows Lahm’s completed passes in the first Bundesliga game of the season against Gladbach – and the last in which he played as a full back for Bayern in the league – we can clearly see the kind of influence that the German captain has on the game from the right hand wing.
Unlike most full-backs who tend to run to the byline before swinging in a cross in the hope that it would find some lingering forward, Lahm is much more intelligent with his play and naturally retains possession with Schweinsteiger on the half-way line before slowly edging into the opponents half. If Bayern go with plan A and proceed with keeping the ball from Arsenal on Wednesday night, you can bet that Lahm in this position will be the main instigator of such a tactic.
Although we can’t be certain that the young Spaniard will indeed start against Arsenal in such a high profile game, it’s worth at least acknowledging and preparing for a scenario in which Guardiola chooses to unleash his young demonic midfielder upon the North London club.
I use the word ‘demonic’ because what Thiago can do with the ball at his feet is simple unnatural.
Like the best dribblers of the ball at his former Barcelona side, Thiago can happily drift from side to side across the pitch with the kind of ease we usually see from Lionel Messi as he runs directly at a packed box full of defenders. He can quite simply skip past anyone. And that’s only half of his game.
As we can see from the graphic above, Thiago simply does not make a bad pass. Ever. That Pass Map was taken from a game against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga in which Bayern eventually won 5-0. Of the 154 passes that the 22-year-old attempted he failed to find the intended target just nine times, with most of those being half chances in the opponent’s box.
Such a performance was slightly higher than his average for the season of 91 percent but it goes to show just how technically brilliant this young man is in not only retaining possession, but finding his target when he ventures in to the opposing half. If he features on Wednesday, Arsenal will have to beware.
Mario Mandzukic
Mario Mandzukic
The final task that will have Arsenal pushed to their limits if they intend to keep Bayern out on Wednesday night will seem to some as the most obvious and perhaps even the simplest; keep Mario Mandzukic quiet. Yet such a task is harder than it seems.
Guardiola has often been an unofficial ambassador of the trendy tactic that involves not playing a striker and instead opting for a fifth midfielder to play the role of the ‘false number nine’, and on occasion Bayern have started games with that very intention with the talented Mario Goetze leading the line.
Yet this is yet to actually work with any degree of success and on a number of occasions Mandzukic has been dropped into the mix within the final half hour of tight games this season and ultimately stepped up with the important goals when they count. To put it simply; Mandzukic is Bayern’s only consistent goalscorer at this level.
With 12 goals this season, the Croatian forward is already four ahead of second placed Thomas Muller despite starting only 15 games in the current campaign. Guardiola may not always favour his sole striker, but he does know he can rely upon him when it counts. Mandzukic will be leading the line against Arsenal on Wednesday and he will be the most dangerous goalscorer in this star-studded side.