But how are Bayern Munich handling them?
It’s extremely early days, but Vincent Kompany couldn’t have asked for much more from his opening months at Bayern Munich. After an erratic search for a new boss led them to the relegated Burnley head coach, the Bavarian club needed two things quickly: a success in the transfer market and a few positive results in the Bundesliga. In Michael Olise, perhaps they’ve managed both at once.
To be clear, Bayern’s opening two league fixtures have not come against even the domestic elite. Wolfsburg and Freiburg both finished in the bottom half last term, 12th and 10th, and it tends to be the case at the Allianz Arena that anything less than three points against that type of side is seen as an indication of impending implosion.
Kompany has navigated those first steps, and against pointless Holstein Kiel this weekend, a third win will be expected – a nice, if standard, platform to launch into the meaty part of the season from, as Champions League fixtures start up, the distractions of late transfer exits departs and the squad focuses on the job at hand: silverware.
With that in mind on the domestic scene, Bayern’s usual approach is to out-gun the competition – with Olise now on the scene they have a chance to do so in dominant fashion for the long haul, most particularly with the 22-year-old being in tandem with 21-year-old star Jamal Musiala.
Kompany’s set-ups so far have been fluid; from 4-2-3-1 drifting to a back three or with an extra attacker in place. That has seen Olise play from the right and also much more narrow, in possession seeing both the former Crystal Palace star and Musiala occupy central positions as dual No. 10s, the latter dropping deep to receive play more frequently.
The appeal is clear: both have immense technical ability, appreciation of space, and eye to execute passes. Bayern’s opening goal of the season showed their overlapping natures: Musiala tapped in from four yards, but Olise could have been holding his hand as they were so close, attempting similar runs to reach a cut-back. That’s not to say there’s doubling up in problematic fashion though – they linked well to almost force an equaliser between them in the same game.
Having played 75 and then 60 minutes in his two starts, Olise is obviously being eased into matters following Olympics exertions with France, yet has had plenty of impact already. His cross to Harry Kane led to the penalty against Freiburg, then a rabona cross soon after almost gave the striker a brace. This, after an assist on his official debut – though coming in the German Cup against lower-league opposition, it was hardly a high-profile occasion.
Two league games is nothing to draw big conclusions from, but it can be the beginnings of seeing what’s to come: six chances created, three shots and the highest expected assists in the team so far, 0.7, points to a picture of high involvement in key areas. Again, it’s only two matches and he hasn’t played them fully, but adjusting for per 90 minutes, his involvement is notable in higher than 84% of players in his role and he’s started well with crossing and winning duels, too – Palace fans would be nodding in understanding at both.
At Bayern, though, the key consideration is not of impact, but of consistency.
Olise has been brought in to effectively replace a Champions League final goalscorer, in Kingsley Coman, even though the French winger stayed after exit speculation. Serge Gnabry is also a regular on the flanks, Mathys Tel another exciting option and perhaps the biggest obstacle of all to Olise being a guaranteed starter, Leroy Sané, is now back to full fitness after surgery. Let’s not overlook Thomas Müller either, a sub more often than not but an immense presence all the same.
All that makes Kompany’s more-or-less 4-1-4-1 setup in their first home match of the campaign an intriguing one. It allows an extra one of those creative, forward-thinking forces to set up from the start, particularly with that tendency of Musiala to drop deep. If that’s seen more regularly, the scope for the German and Olise to link up centrally will be enormous; add in speed from the flanks and the interchangeability of Sané and Olise, or Coman and Gnabry, to flit between channels and the possibility for Bayern to be extremely varied in their attacking play is clear.
As ever, that’s only one half of the equation for Kompany to solve though. For the attack to thrive, the platform behind them must be set in stone, be it the inverted play from right-back of Joshua Kimmich, a midfield pivot pairing getting to play regularly or – along with Olise – big summer signing João Palhinha getting back to full fitness after his cameo last time out.
Olise and Musiala can be an incredible pairing, supply line and sidekicks to Kane up front; the big question remains over whether Kompany is the one to balance talent, tenacity and trophies.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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