[SIZE=5][U]Horncastle: Bayern may “only have an A team” but missing Kroos and Mandzukic could hurt against Barça[/U][/SIZE]
Hannover could perhaps have been forgiven for thinking that maybe, just maybe this was going to be their afternoon.
Their opponents Bayern Munich, who had been crowned champions of Germany earlier than anyone in the 50-year history of the Bundesliga and for the first time in two years a fortnight earlier, had lost on three of their last four visits to the AWD Arena. And with the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona on Tuesday night in mind, coach Jupp Heynckes had chosen to rest a number of players.
As the team sheets were read out, club captain Philipp Lahm, fellow defender Dante and midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez were just some of the names conspicuous by their absence from the visitor’s starting line up.
There’s a chance here, Hannover manager Mirko Slomka presumably believed, a slim one admittedly, that a supposedly ‘second string’ Bayern side with nothing to play for, their players’ heads perhaps already distractedly thinking about Barcelona, were vulnerable to a slip up that would allow his own stuttering team, one that’s in transition, to end their recent slump and keep their feint chances of qualifying for the Europa League again alive.
It was to prove wishful thinking. By half-time, Bayern had a 3-0 advantage. A Lars Stindl own-goal and strikes from Frank Ribéry and Mario Gomez allowed Heynckes to rotate his squad even further. Ribéry was taken off at the interval and replaced by Xherdan Shaquiri while Arjen Robben stood in for Thomas Müller. There was no let up.
Once Gomez got his second of the afternoon and Bayern’s fourth just after the hour-mark, Heynckes substituted him as well. Hannover, beaten and bruised at this point, perhaps thought their opponents would show some mercy and decide to go easy on them now. But Bayern chose not to. They were utterly relentless.
Veteran striker Claudio Pizarro, who’d played Ribéry and Gomez through on goal in the first half, capped an outstanding performance by getting himself on the scoresheet not once, but twice, his second coming barely a minute after Hannover pulled one back through Andre Hoffman, acting as yet another reassertion, if one were necessary, of Bayern’s hegemony.
A 6-1 victory was their 26th in the league this season, a Bundesliga record, and also their ninth in a row on the road too, another landmark achievement. Their goal difference of +75 is better than any other team’s goal scored. Already on 81 points, equaling Dortmund’s history-making total from last season, Bayern have four games to add to it.
But let’s return to Saturday. Because, as you can imagine, Heynckes was delighted.
One segment of his post-match press conference in particular resonated. “Once again,” he said, “the players have proved we don’t have a B-team, we only have an A-team. The players are just enjoying their football, and our attitude is superb. Every man was totally motivated, we put together some very fluid moves, we showed great discipline and we created outstanding goals. We laid the foundations for a big win in the first half.”
It’s worth picking up on a couple of things from that. Heynckes’ statement that “we don’t have a B-team” on the one hand serves to remind everyone of Bayern’s extraordinary strength in depth and on the other reinforces the perception within the dressing room that everyone is an “A-team player.” That in turn, you might argue, is why “every man was totally motivated”, because no one feels on the fringes, everyone believes they’re involved and that their contribution is appreciated.
To have created that spirit, that dynamic is perhaps Heynckes’ best work at Bayern.
No more so will it be tested, though, than against Barcelona. Or will it? “This is the ideal moment to face Barça,” Javi Martinez told Marca. Barcelona have ‘only’ won one of their last five Champions League games. And that, lest we forget, was the ‘reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated’-performance against Milan in the Round of 16 when they overturned a 2-0 first leg defeat with a stunning 4-0 win in the second.
Lionel Messi, you might say, got them out of jail on that occasion as he did once again in the final half-hour of their quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain when he shrugged off an injury to come on and inspire his teammates to find the equaliser they needed to go through on away goals.
Barcelona do have defensive frailties too. Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano are out injured. Adriano is suspended, which means Gerard Pique will either be partnered by Marc Bartra, Alex Song or the remarkable Eric Abidal, who made his first starting appearance against Levante on Saturday after recovering from the liver transplant he had over a year ago.
Bayern, you anticipate—are along with Real Madrid—better-placed to exploit Barcelona’s apparent weaknesses than any of their opponents this season. But it’s here that we should perhaps go back to Heynckes’ claim that “we only have an A-team.” Because, although Bayern have a wide range of options available to them, you still feel that they’re going to miss Mario Mandzukic, who’s unjustly suspended for the first leg, and the injured Toni Kroos.
Gomez is expected to stand-in for Mandzukic on Tuesday night. The German is arguably more of a goal threat than the Croat. But the question is: can he work as hard and play the ‘defensive’ centre-forward role as well as Mandzukic? He was exceptional in the first leg against Juventus, holding up the Bayern long-ball, pressing the short one played out from the back by their opponents, retreating into his own half to ensure his team kept a good shape when out of possession, even winning a number of tackles.
His absence, you suspect, will be felt. As will that of Kroos. Wonderful against Real Madrid in last season’s semi-final, his ability to work in tight spaces, find and open up new ones, retain the ball, circulate it and play that killer pass mean he’s exactly the kind of player Bayern could do with on this particular occasion and against this particular opponent.
With Kroos and Mandzukic in his starting XI, Heynckes perhaps would have spoken about “an A+ team.” Instead, he’ll have to make do with the “A”. Bayern are so formidable, though, that it may still be just enough to make the grade against Barça.
