now yesterday bayern munich played bayer leverkusen at their home . now befor i write about the game let me talk about the things that have happened regarding the appointment of pep gaurdiola . now gaurdiola is going to come to england and take over the reigns of man city . the stories have started circulating as to how man city would dominate the premier league . the most that is expected from gaurdiola is the tiki taka style that he will bring with him to the etihad . man city's appointment of gaurdiola and him choosing city over utd is seen as the balance of power tilting in manchester . now the thing is that tiki is played by spain but teams around the world have found a way to counter it and that is why spain had a disastorous campaign in the last world cup . but the most important thing regarding gaurdiola is will he teach them tiki taka or will he try something new . if you had watched bayern's game this season then you would had noticed that bayern had never played tiki taka this season . instead bayern had played more like a english team this season . playing very direct taking the ball from back to front very quickly and crossing the ball in the box rather than trying to open the opposition by outpassing them or working one zone and opening it . bayern under gaurdiola this season hadnt been playing tiki taka anymore . they had been domination opponent in the first few games where on they defeated opponents with bigger margin but against gladbach they had been found out . gladbach played their counter attacking game and got the better or munich . even though people are very optimistic that man city will dominate the premier league but i am not too certain about it and gaurdiola will opt tiki taka at man city is another question that remains to be brewing for a time being .
now in yesterday's game leverkusen started with their usual 4-4-2 formation with jedvaj-jonathan tah -toprak and wendell in the back four . while kramer and kampl were the middle two in front of the back four while calhanoglu and bellarabi were on the flanks . hernandez and keibling were the front two . munich started with the 4-2-1-3 formation with lahm-kimmich-badstuber and alaba in the back four . while alonso and vidal were in front of the back four in the middle with costa playing just off lewandowski in the no.10 role who had robben and coman besides him.now the game had a very good pace about it and leverkusen worked very hard into the game . now it can be said that gaurdiola was given the taste of his own medicine by leverkusen but not without a plan and they didnt just press because they wanted to but they had a plan on how they are going to press .first off they congested the middle of the park with both the back four and the middle four getting very narrow and just congesting the space in the middle of the park . both lines of the back four were had very little space between them . the leverkusen wingers were helping their fullbacks to deal with munich wingers since this season all the bayern attack had been through them . so leverkusen were determined not to give wingers any time on the ball . now as i had said that leverkusen made the middle of the park very congested so what they wanted was that bayern play the ball to either of the wing and then they would start pressing and they made bayern play to their tune rather than playing to bayern's tune . they didnt tried to overdo pressing means trying to press bayern centrebacks as well instead they would wait for the ball to be played out wide and then press and if the situation is there where on they can press the bayern's centrebacks then they will . leverkusen middle four and the fullbacks deserve special praise because they just neutralised bayern's offense . special mention has to given to toprak who's game reading was very good and he would stepup whenver it is needed .
now bayern's offense is that they take the ball wide and then cross it in the box and that what they had been doing this term. in this match he used robben and coman as the wide players and it was through them that bayern wanted to create . now this season lewandowski had been playing more as a link up player rather than as a out and out forward . he had been coming inside and trying to release coman or robben behind him . initially in the match lewandowski got the space between the lines where he would collect the ball and then try to release coman or robben he nearly got successful with releasing behind the back four but coman just couldnt find any team mates in the box . leverkusen didnt played a high line so that robben and coman had too much space to run . plus bayern just didnt work the ball and kept it instead they were happy to cross it in the box and find somebody . in the first half douglas coasta was just invisible and kept quite by leverkusen who's kampl and kramer worked very hard . leverkusen would try to hit bayern on the counter but never had an incisive opening to trouble neur in bayern goal .
now in gaurdiola's team we usually see somebody take the reign's of the game and control it but here it was just nobody . gaurdiola tried to change things in the second half where on he bought muller in the no.10 role and sent douglas costa wide . bayern did create two chances in the space of five minutes and there was a reason for that . kampl and kramer were pushing forward trying to press and costa could get the better on one on one with hilbert who had replaced degovah and could find muller inside the box who missed his shot . the back two were engaged by lewandowski and it created a space for muller in the hole but he couldnt finish.
bayern's are not playing as to what we distinguish with gaurdiola instead they are evolving and gaurdiola is trying new things . but to hype gaurdiola would be very stupid . he can be found out and without a proper flair player he can be found out and it had been shown in the games with gladbach and leverkusen . but one thing about gaurdiola is he is very open to changes and will be very flexible with his approach .
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