Gnabry is the future: Five things learned from as Bayern beat AEK Athens 2-0

In a stilted night of football, Bayern Munich beat AEK Athens 0-2.

The German Champions weren’t anywhere near their free-flowing best and just about limped to victory with two goals in three second half minutes. What did we learn?

1. Bayern need a full Coman recovery

Bayern’s performance against AEK was slow and sluggish, they won 0-2 but the performance was anything but impressive. A major factor in this was their lack of pace, specifically in attack. When you play without pace in attack your passing and movement was be absolutely perfect, and that’s simply not easy to do.

Time was Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery provided this, and both still can in small bursts, but they’re well into their 30’s now and cannot produce consistently. This is where Bayern miss Kingsley Coman. The young Frenchman was blisteringly quick and inventive, full of skill and trickery. He is the energising force that turbocharges the rest of the attack.

But Coman is currently injured, another ankle ligament problem after he had the same issue last season. In total Coman has missed nearly 180 days of action so far this year, and only been active for January of part of February. He only lasted three games this season before succumbing, but Bayern desperately need to him be fully fit again – because signing a player of his talent and potential would cost the earth.

2. James has to do more

James Rodriguez is a genuinely special talent. Unappreciated at Real Madrid, he had a superb debut campaign in Germany last season. But tonight against AEK we saw the worst of what James can offer; the Colombian looked disinterested and dulled all night long.

This is just not good enough, not for James’ personal stock but more importantly not for Bayern. With Robben and Ribery ageing plus Kingsley Coman being injured all the time, a vast amount of the creative burden of the side falls on James’ shoulders. As a result, they need the Colombian to step up and deliver consistently if Bayern are to find their form again.

3. Thomer Muller, what happened?

Thomas Muller was once the golden boy of German football, and justifiably so. Here was an incredibly intelligent striker whose ability to probe space and create chances was so great that Football Manager literally invented a new position on the game for him.

That should highlight how special and talented Muller was, but ever since Pep Guardiola left Bavaria, Muller has looked a shadow of himself. He had a career year in Guardiola’s final season, scoring 32 times in 49 games across all competitions. In the three seasons since then? He has just 26 goals in 99 games, including a meek substitutes appearance against AEK.

It wasn’t so much that Muller was bad against the Greeks, but he was just so incredibly underwhelming. Anonymous could be an accurate description; gone was the pulsatingly intelligent movement, the way he drifted through space and linked with his team-mates. Now he was was just a dude wearing no. 25 and looking useless.

4. Bayern are old, man

It’s pretty obvious that Bayern Munich are an old side. There are a few exceptions but most all of the key players are over 25 years of age, and a scary amount of them are 30 or older. Of the 11 that started and the three that came off the bench in Greece, only a quartet of 23 year olds Serge Gnabry, Niklas Sule, Joshua Kimmich and sub Leon Goretzka were under the age of 27.

This is not a good place to be in, because it slows the side down. Moreover, it makes the players more prone to injury. And most of all it places a young and inexperienced coach (Niko Kovac) in charge of a surly group of veterans who have won it all. It must be hard for Kovac to implement changes and exert authority on a group of veterans who have dominated their division with absurd consistently since 2013.

The Bavarians need a big influx of cash this summer to refresh the squad.

5. Serge Gnabry is the future

Despite Bayern being old, it’s very clear that Serge Gnabry is both the future and the present. The young German was signed from Werder Bremen back in 2017 and immediately loaned to Hoffenheim. That year spent under the tutelage of Julian Nagelsmann has seem him flourish and develop into the player Arsenal (who initially sold him to Bremen for just €5m) had begun to fear he would never be.

What Gnabry offered against AEK was sheer energy. The kind of pulsating persistence that you can only get from young attackers. He demanded the ball and was never hesitant to run forward and commit defenders, a massive contrast to basically every other Bayern player on the pitch. With the veterans losing their grip and the younger superstars like James and Thiago failing to take control, the space is there for Serge Gnabry to seize a permanent place in the Bayern attack.

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