It’s hard to say definitively. Outside of the Supercup, Bayern are one of two undefeated teams in Europe (Leverkusen being the other) so something is clearly working. But outside of a couple of moments, I don’t see the team (as a whole) looking close to a finished article. There are a few caveats here:
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Other teams are on a great run of form like Leverkusen and without the same pressure on them as Bayern, they can only do well.
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The squad is paper thin and getting thinner with each day. If Tuchel’s plan to navigate the first half of the season has been to keep everything simple so as to not overly exert the players then I get it. If this was Flick, I would hate to imagine where the team would be. I said it the other day about Gravenberch but the way we conducted our transfer business was really quite poor and this happened in spite of the manager saying what he needs (and indeed what every other manager has needed). I also believe that Neuer being on the pitch, even if he isn’t involved, has a huge impact so being without him for a while would have been an issue.
The positives: Kane had the same impact as De Ligt, it’s like he’s been here for years already. Sané is at his absolute best and is the player we all want him to be.
The negatives: this is the worst that Kimmich has looked since he joined and remains the main channel that all play goes through despite the bad performances. Players can have a bad run of form but after a while you need to point at the manager. If I was manager and had the opportunity to make one change, I would prohibit Kimmich from receiving the short ball direct from the keeper. This was done time and time again over the last three years (not just under Tuchel) and each time I have no faith that it will come off.
In addition to this, many of the games just haven’t felt convincing. Or if they have, they weren’t convincing over the full 90 minutes. It’s maybe ridiculous to say that coming off of an 8-0 win but even then the first half didn’t exactly look perfect. I can’t even use being a man down after 3 minutes as a way to rationalise it because they lost a guy shortly afterwards. The second half had the tenacity and progression that I want to see more of but the first half performances have been all too common.
I think therein is my main gripe: I haven’t watched 90 minutes and felt that the team was great from start to finish. For stretches, yes very dominant, very quick and a lot of goals but from the start to the end I always feel that Bayern will let the opponent back into the game. The United game is a good example of this I feel. An otherwise very good performance but thrown away at times, somehow resulted in conceding 3 goals.
Generally, I think things are fine but there is still work to be done.
I’m obviously going to be biased but I genuinely think Neuer has more of a claim to being the third best player of the past generation than anyone else. It’s never going to be easy to back that up with measurable stats in the way you can with goals and assists but just in terms of what he offers the team, he has been massive and evidently continues to be. He has managed single-handedly win matches in the same way that a striker has done - in Flick’s full season, Bayern probably wouldn’t have won the league if it wasn’t for either Lewandowski scoring a lot or Neuer making big save after big save every game. He’s a real big game player as well - I can’t actually recall a time where he has been at fault for a loss either for Bayern or Germany (the South Korea thing is maybe the best argument you could make but even then it’s not like he was up at the other end of the pitch just for funsies).