Bayern Munich's approach to 2020 can show Barcelona way forward

Eight two. Prior to Barcelona’s meeting with Bayern Munich on Friday night, many predicted victory for the German outfit. Some even foresaw a comfortable win. After all, Bayern had dished out heavy defeats to Tottenham and Chelsea in the Champions League already this season. They had netted 144 times to date since last August. But eight goals? It’s the first time Barcelona have conceded as many since 1946.

The fallout from Barcelona’s defeat, and the years of slow decline that have led to it, will be analysed and debated for a long time. So too will what happens next. For now, let’s focus on a night that ended Barcelona’s season but promises further glory in Bayern’s, and how their contrasting approaches in 2020 came to a head in Lisbon.

Before Friday’s quarter-final much of the focus was on the battle between the teams’ talismans. Lionel Messi had finished as top scorer in La Liga yet again, registering a further 21 assists, but could not prevent his side from relinquishing the title to rivals Real Madrid. Having been two points clear at the start of 2020, the Catalans instead finished five points off the pace.

Messi’s goal contributions handed his side 31 points, without which Barcelona would have finished 12th. In 2018/29 he was responsible for 30 points, taking Barcelona from seventh to first, and the season before 25 points (fifth to first). In short, the Argentine’s goals and assists are becoming increasingly valuable. Admittedly, using such a metric is somewhat simplistic; it’s not as though Barcelona would have simply fielded ten players after all. It does, however, point to somewhat of a reliance on him to deliver in key moments such as Friday night.

Despite Messi’s efforts, though, this season had belonged to Robert Lewandowski. Goals in each of Bayern’s opening 11 Bundesliga matches put him clear at the top of the scoring charts, with a further ten in the Champions League group stage. He had not let up since the winter break, either, only failing to find the net in two of his 19 appearances in all competitions. He had either scored or set up all of Bayern’s seven goals against Chelsea in the previous round. He finished the Bundesliga campaign with 34 goals, the highest tally in the tournament for 43 years. Meanwhile, Bayern had started 2020 four points from the summit of the German top flight and finished the season 13 points above second-placed Dortmund.

And so we come to the game itself, expecting a fight between two heavyweights, only Lewandowski had brought back-up. See, while it would be easy to attribute Bayern’s glory to the Pole’s brilliance, it would be somewhat missing the point. Without his goals and assists in the last league campaign, the Bavarian giants would have been just 17 points worse off, and therefore only been four from the top anyway. Yes, he scored 34 league goals, but his teammates chipped in with a further 66 to make it a nice round 100. Both games he missed in 2020 still resulted in a Bayern win, including a 6-0 thrashing of Hoffenheim.

Here Lewandowski was happy to drift wide to allow space for others to drive into the centre, or offer a decoy run to the far post as the ball was played to the near instead. By the time he added his name to the scoresheet his side had already netted five goals, of which he had only assisted the first.

Messi, meanwhile, was initially deployed as a striker by Quique Setién in a 4-4-2 set-up. A common criticism levelled at the six-time Ballon d’Or winner, one of the greatest footballers of all time (if not the greatest, but that’s for another day), is that the Barcelona system has been tailored to suit his specific needs (whether this harms his reputation, rather than simply reinforces it, who can say). Judging by what was on show at the Estadio de Luz, it is no longer the case anyway. The 4-4-2 formation deployed by Quique Setién fitted the Argentine about as well as an XXL jersey and, while the manager sought to rectify this by introducing Antoine Griezmann at the interval, it was clearly to no avail.

As the game wore on Messi’s role was to not to be focal point for his side but instead to plug their weaknesses; in the process, the final 30 minutes became a painful climax of not just the game but three years of his club’s carelessness. By the 70th minute he was operating as a deep-lying playmaker; ten of his 30 touches following the break were inside his own half. While Lewandowski’s flexibility demonstrated his side’s wealth of attacking options, Messi’s positions hinted at Barcelona’s desperation and indiscipline.

Messi dropped back with good reason, too. Just as with the La Liga campaign, Barcelona’s midfield was nowhere to be found. The starting quartet of Sergi Roberto (irrelevant), Frenkie De Jong (boring), Arturo Vidal (old) and Sergio Busquets (yesterday’s news) did not produce a single effort on goal across the 90 minutes. They amassed a total of two tackles and interceptions between them. For comparison, the highly impressive Leon Goretzka (read more about him here) regained possession seven times alone for Bayern and took four attempts at goal, supplying one assist.

It was not just in midfield where Barcelona’s problem lay, though. Failure to adequately replace Neymar since the Brazilian’s departure three years ago has never been plain to see as it was in Lisbon. Despite playing as a striker in the first half Messi had just one touch on the left flank, a corner in the 33rd minute. Meanwhile, de Jong was shoehorned into the left of midfield despite his inclination to play centrally. As a result, the entire team lacked an attacking outlet on his side.

Three successors to Neymar, each reportedly costing over £100m, were all present at the stadium; none started. Their respective inputs summed up their story since joining. The first, Ousmane Dembélé, was not at full fitness following an injury picked up November 2019 and remained on the bench. The latest, Griezmann, is not naturally a left-sided forward. Indeed, after his introduction he took more touches on his preferred right flank, where Messi would usually have been positioned, than the left.

The second man acquired to fill the Neymar-shaped hole, Philippe Coutinho, could not find a role at the club. By coincidence, he has spent the 2019/20 season on loan at Bayern, for whom he took to the field on Friday with 15 minutes to play. Within seven minutes he had crossed for Lewandowski to head home, and two goals of his own in the closing minutes took his tally for the season to 11 – as many as he had managed last year for Barcelona, only in 18 fewer appearances. Should he lift the Champions League trophy this season, Barcelona will reportedly owe Liverpool a £4.5m bonus fee for his success – the contract did not specify with which club the Brazilian would have to win it, after all.

Here lies a deep contrast between the Catalan and Bavarian behemoths. When Bayern legends Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben departed Germany last summer after 12 and ten years of service respectively, the club had already lined up Serge Gnabry as a future star. To help with the adjustment Coutinho was brought in on loan alongside former Bundesliga winner and veteran Ivan Perisic. While the two loanees are unlikely to extend their stay beyond the summer, the club have moved swiftly to sign Leroy Sané has from Manchester City. In Gnabry and Sané, Bayern have two experienced 24-year-old German wingers, both capable on either wing, for a grand total of £48m – under half of what Barcelona paid for any of Neymar’s replacements. Although now operating at left back, Alphonso Davies can also play further forward if required; both the Canadian and Gnabry managed five dribbles down the left on Friday, despite the latter supposedly being fielded as a right winger.

Perisic, Gnabry, Lewandowski and Thomas Muller dovetailed throughout the Friday’s quarter-final; of the four, the former was the only one to not both score and assist. Ironically, given his struggles in Spain, Coutinho’s introduction saw him operate exclusively on the left flank, with none of his 17 touches taken on the right-hand side of the pitch. His discipline allowed Lewandowski to return to his natural position in the centre, from which he converted the Brazilian’s cross. Kingsley Coman was also brought from the bench to offer another threat. Sané’s arrival only increases the number of options for manager Hansi Flick.

Lewandowski may have been the Bayern man on everybody’s lips before kick-off, but his teammates proved that they are more than worthy of sharing the pitch with him. The Pole does not need to be at the centre of the action for his team to thrive as they were able to carve out opportunities and shots (26 in total) from all angles. Barcelona could do worse than to look at their vanquishers’ approach, not only to the match but to 2020 as a whole. It seems to be working.

*Stats via WhoScored