Heading into the game, both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen were on different winning streaks. Bayern broke a European record in midweek, winning 14 straight games in all competitions, while Leverkusen are unbeaten since hiring Kasper Hjulmand as head coach.
Despite the Rekordmeister having a much-changed starting 11 with Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Diaz on the bench, it was the same old Bayern.
In the first 20 minutes, Leverkusen did look to take the game to the league leaders, it the lead would not last long when Serge Gnabry was played through by Tom Bischof, and Leverkusen defender Jarell Quansah lost sight of the winger, who was able to make it 1-0. Six minutes later, Nicolas Jackson would make it 2-0 with his first Bundesliga goal for Bayern.
Then, just before half-time, the game was practically ended when Loic Bade turned in a Raphael Guerriero cross to make it 3-0.
Despite a flurry of chances in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, including Jackson missing a glancing header, very little happened with the Rekordmeister managing the game, and Leverkusen unable to challenge the Bayern defence. In fact, die Werkself were only able to register and single shot on target, which was a Christian Kofane shot that was saved by Manuel Neuer in the 81st minute.
In midweek, Bayern face PSG in the Champions League, which is part of the reason for the large rotation in the starting 11. This will likely be their toughest test so far, and will determine if they really are the best team in Europe at the moment.
Is this type of result good for the league?
Not really.
Despite Leverkusen’s fire sale in the summer, they still found themselves in the top five. With how easily Bayern swept die Werkself aside, it shows how large the gap is in terms of quality. This is the same that happened in the first half against Borussia Dortmund two weeks ago. As of right now, RB Leipzig looks like the only team that can challenge Bayern, and even then, they lost 6-0 on the opening day.
If you want to grow the league and promote it to a wider audience, it is not ideal if one team is ploughing through each team, at times not even looking like they are out of second gear.
On the flip side, this isn’t Bayern’s job to care about this. It is the other club’s choice to just focus on developing players and hoping that they stumble upon a title-winning team at some point.
At the end of the day, people don’t watch a league to be excited about who finished fifth; they watch it for a title race, but at the moment, it looks as if it is 85% over, and its only November.
Bayern Munich Player Ratings
Manuel Neuer (5), Konrad Laimer (7), Min-Jae Kim (6), Jonathan Tah (6), Raphaël Guerreiro (6), Joshua Kimmich (6), Leon Goretzka (6), Lennart Karl (6), Tom Bischof (7), Serge Gnabry (6), Nicolas Jackson (6)
Others: Harry Kane (5), Michael Olise (5), Luis Diaz (5), Sacha Boey (5), Aleksander Pavlovic (-)
Bayer Leverkusen Player Ratings
Mark Flekken (6), Jarell Quansah (5), Loic Bade (6), Edmond Tapsoba (5), Arthur (5), Robert Andrich (6), Aleix Garcia (6), Jeanuel Belocian (5), Claudio Echeverri (6), Ernest Poku (7), Patrik Schick (6)
Others: Ibrahim Maza (5), Jonas Hofmann (5), Christian Kofane (5), Martin Terrier (5), Eliesse ben Seghir (-)
GGFN Man of the Match: Tom Bischof (7)
The midfielder has been slowly integrated into the Bayern team and in recent weeks, has been used at left-back instead of his preferred central position. Today, it was slightly more back to the norm, but it could still be since at left-back, which is where he played the ball that got him his assist for Serge Gnabry’s opener.
On top of this (via FotMob), the 20-year-old won 80% of his ground duels, made four defensive contributions and had a pass completion percentage of 90%.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
