Talking Tactics: How Bayern Munich have wrestled back some of the advantage from their rivals this season

The all-German final awaits us at Wembley tonight when Borussia Dortmund will meet Bayern Munich to decide who gets to take home this season’s UEFA Champions League crown.

Season Head to Head - Games: 4 |Dortmund: 0 | Bayern: 2 | Draws: 2

In their successful Bundesliga run this year, Bayern pretty much obliterated every side in the league. Dortmund, though, defied them, forcing draws in both of their encounters. Yet, Bayern have managed to wrest the advantage slightly from their rivals this term.

Bayern beat Dortmund 2-1 in the DFL Supercup (equivalent of the English Community Shield) right at the beginning of the season. Mario Mandzukic and Thomas Müller were the scorers on that occasion. Bayern also dumped them out of the DFB Pokal Cup in the quarterfinals, a superb Arjen Robben strike taking care of business. Both league meetings ended 1-1; the first was in December in which Mario Götze cancelled out Toni Kroos’ strike to earn a point for his current team. The second was a dead rubber in May, with the league title already wrapped up and both teams fielding reserves ahead of the big clash in the Champions League final.

This is a match up that the Black and Yellow have had the upper hand in during recent seasons. Ever since Jürgen Klopp’s arrival at the Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund have enjoyed much success against their more illustrious counterparts. Of the last 10 meetings between the 2 clubs, Dortmund have won 5 of them while losing just 2. Last season, they secured 1-0 wins home and away in the league, while dishing out a 5-2 thrashing, that included a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick, in the final of the DFB Pokal Cup (German Cup). In 2010-11 too, their first title winning season under Klopp, they did the double over Bayern, winning 2-0 at home and 3-1 at the Allianz with Nuri Sahin having an outstanding game on both occasions.

Change of personnel and learning from mistakes

So, what did the trick for Bayern? How have they managed to get better against Dortmund while also becoming a more dominant force in the league?

Three reasons – Javi Martinez, Mario Mandzukic and Dante.

You have to appreciate how Bayern went about their summer transfer business. All buys were strategic in nature, executed with a specific objective in mind and to cover up major weaknesses. And these 3 players have fitted in as the missing pieces of the Bayern puzzle in their respective roles.

Javi Martinez

There were gasps of breath that went around Germany including Bavaria when news broke that Bayern Munich have activated the release clause of Athletic Bilbao midfielder Javi Martinez. The Spaniard is a World Cup and European championship winner, but €40 million was an exorbitant sum, and was met with mixed feelings. His immense contribution in this Bayern team’s success will no doubt have pleased those Bayern fans, while being a source of consternation for the rest of the Bundesliga and Europe.

Martinez plays as the holding midfielder along with club vice-captain Bastian Schweinsteiger. Previously, Schweinsteiger used to partner with Luiz Gustavo and at times, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk. Schweinsteiger is easily one of the best in his position in the world, but when they played Dortmund, he would end up facing the potent combination of Nuri Sahin/Lars Bender and afterwards Lars Bender/Ilkay Gundogan, after Sahin left for Real Madrid in 2011.

Dortmund’s high tempo attacking game with high energy pressing has caught the everyone’s eyes. Up against them, Schweinsteiger used to get swamped by the yellow shirts because neither of Tymoshchuk or Gustavo could ever keep up with them. As a result, the German international spent a lot of time combating that midfield engine room of Dortmund’s, which limited his participation in Bayern’s attacks.

Now he has a riding partner in Martinez, and the guy is an absolute terrier. At your heels all the time, the Spaniard has a terrific work rate and does not afford time and space to opposition midfielders when they have the ball at their feet. We got to witness this in both the semis and quarters, during Bayern’s games with Barcelona and Juventus respectively.

Lionel Messi was not 100%, true, but there was still the threat of Andres Iniesta to be met with. Even in games where Messi is well-marked, Iniesta has often popped up with the goods for them. Iniesta didn’t even have so much of a sniff as Martinez and Schweinsteiger cleaned crop. Against Juve, he did such a stellar job on Claudio Marchisio, that the Italian merely ghosted through the 2 legs and failed to get anything going for his team. The 2 together, along with Ribery, Robben and Muller, outworked and out-hustled Juve’s industrious midfield, which is no easy task. The duo work very well in tandem as Martinez predominantly goes about winning the ball back and providing it to the German, who then recycles it and initiates a Bayern attack. So, now Schweinsteiger does not get overrun anymore and Bayern are able to combat Gundogan and Bender.

Dante

Holger Badstuber, Jerome Boateng and Daniel Van Buyten used to take care of centre-back duties for Bayern in previous seasons. All 3 are good in the air, but neither was really a top level defender; Badstuber is essentially a left-back who started playing at centre, Boateng, while good with aerial ability, is slow off the ground and lacks the pace to keep up with quick forwards. Van Buyten, now a veteran, falls pretty much in the same category. In addition, Badstuber and Boateng were not the best in keeping their defensive shape, be it playing for offside or sitting deep with zonal marking. Dortmund with Mats Hummels and Neven Subotic held the upper hand here.

The Afro sporting Brazilian Dante was bought for €4.5 million from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Dante has come in and provided a ready fix to all of Bayern’s teething problems in defence. Thanks to him, the Bavarian giants have new found solidity at the back. Very good in organizing the defence, Dante is superb in the air, always a threat from set pieces and reads the game very well. He also has the quickness to deal with pacy strikers. In the past, Robert Lewandowski and Lucas Barrio have had the better of the Bayern defence, often bullying them into submission. Last year’s Champions League final too was a fine example as we saw Didier Drogba boss Boateng, Van Buyten and Badstuber.

Finally, as is the case with most Brazilians, Dante is an excellent ball playing defender like David Luiz and Thiago Silva. And that’s an added quality which none of the other three can provide Jupp Heynckes with. With excellent full-backs on either side, Dante has plugged a major loophole that previously existed in the middle of defence.

Mario Mandzukic

Croatian striker Mandzukic is the other major signing that has had an impact in the change of fortune for Bayern. Bought from Wolfsburg for €13 million, the striker has had a remarkable debut season with 21 goals. But more than his goals, it is the way he attacks the centre-backs of the opponent that often leads to stray passes and Bayern winning the ball back in dangerous areas of the field. Relentless and tireless is how the Croatian can be described. He does not boast of any extraordinary skill, but he is a top notch poacher. He is very good in the air, can win most aerial duels and makes fine runs to get into good positions in the box.

One would say that in Mario Gomez, Bayern already had that 20-goals-a-season striker. But, Gomez was never really active on defence and committed to pressing. Also, the Croatian can make his own shot, while Gomez used to rely on service into the box. In short, in Mandzukic, they have a striker who replicates the work that Lewandowski puts in for Dortmund. Against Juventus and Arsenal, Mandzukic constantly kept harrying and harassing the defenders and sums up how Bayern have adopted Dortmund’s ‘gegenpressing’ style, from front to back.

The Full Backs and Wingers

For Bayern Munich, their predominant outlet of attack is the wings, where Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller can use their pace and guile to good use. Their full-backs Philip Lahm and David Alaba make for one of the best pairings in the world and they constantly bombard forward to support their wingers.

What’s changed is that the 2 wingers, Robben and Ribery, are now tracking back to help out their colleagues in defence. Müller has always been committed on defence, but the dedication of the other 2 to Heynckes’ system has just made Munich that much harder to beat.

Again, they have taken a leaf out of Dortmund’s book, because that is exactly what Jakub ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski and Kevin Grosskreutz used to do for their defence and something which newcomer Marco Reus has continued. They are, by no means, defensive-minded; ‘Kuba’ has 14 goals and 12 assists this season, Reus has 19 goals and 11 assists. But, their double-teaming on defence meant that Robben and Ribery were kept quiet in previous seasons and on the defensive end, Lahm and Alaba often found themselves with a 2-on-1 mismatch as Lukasz Piszczek and Marcel Schmelzer joined the attacks.

And that’s how Jupp Heynckes has managed to get his side to match up with Dortmund. As Jürgen Klopp pointed out, his team are still one of the few in the continent who can hurt Bayern. But, that gap has been bridged, with smart buys and by adopting some of their rival’s best practices. Together, the combination has worked wonders for Bayern and victory tonight will cement that shift of power that they have managed to achieve in the past 12 months.