Van Gaal’s weaknesses wreck Bayern season

After losing the domestic title to Dortmund and the Germany cup to Schalke 04 as well as Champion’s League exit means reigning Germany champions Bayern Munich will finish this season trophless. Bayern Munich exit in this season’s Champions League was shocking news to many after winning 1-0 in Italy and eventually losing 2-3 at home. Many people would believe that apart from Barcelona, Bayern Munich would be potential contenders for this year’s Champion’s League title. But now the four time winner will have to wait for another season to shine in the most lucrative European event. Louis Van Gaal weaknesses were greatly exposed by Inter Milan side full of experienced players. Just like last season, Bayern’s failure in the Champion’s League has been accounted on poor defending. A team of Bayern’s category should be able to protect a 1-0 lead on their own home soil. Louis van Gaal became the second coach in Champions League history whose team failed to progress after winning the away first leg. In fairness to Bayern match against Inter Milan, they played a brilliant first half and would have deserved four or five goals by the interval. But after the break, they took their foot off the pedal, their offence came to a standstill, and there was an ominous silence in the Allianz Arena. It was as though the home fans truly believed their team would lose. Bayern appeared unsure of how to defend a lead, and were punished for their naivety by Goran Pandev’s last-gasp strike. The crowd’s silence and the team’s stunning inability to protect a two-goal lead are clear indicators that the ethos at Bayern is wrong. Van Gaal has done plenty for Bayern since joining in 2009, but for his team to progress further, fundamental philosophical changes must be made. At this point, we all have to believe that Van Gaal is not a champion’s league winner. Last season, when his team lost to Inter in the final the Dutch man pointed out that his team lacked quality in defense but made no attempts for defense reinforcements. He tried to replace his senior defenders Demichelis and Daniel Van Buyten with young and inexperienced Breno, Holger Badstuber as well as Anatolily Tymoschuk. To make matters worse, highly rated Demichelis was loaned to Malaga in January. Demichelis is a top quality defender and a regular in Argentina national team squad, but the Dutch man undermined his potential. Ten months and two transfer windows later, Bayern are no more convincing at the back than they were in last year’s champion’s league final. The loss to Inter proved that Van Gaal’s system cannot work at Bayern, certainly not in the Champions League. If he were to have spent any more training time in defense, perhaps Bayern would be the best team to qualify a head of inter. Instead, Van Gaal’s focus in Bayern training sessions has almost been exclusively on ball control and passing. It is an unabashedly romantic view of the beautiful game, but one that always ends in tragedy. Bayern players and management all had their parts in this season’s Champions League loss, but the result ultimately can be attributed to the ego that twice forced Van Gaal out of Barcelona, and marred his return to Ajax. Glaring deficiencies stared him in the face in last year’s final, yet he declined to request new centre halves in the summer and in January, and his only tactical changes have pertained to play in possession. He continues to neglect defense in training, and accordingly his team defends with little more skill than a mid-table team from a lower league. Van gaal chose to ignore his team’s greatest deficiency and eventually led to a shock exit in the champion’s league. On the upside, even the most ardent Van Gaal supporter will now be able to accept the Bayern board’s decision to part ways with the coach this summer. Though van gaal managed to reach finals and double domestic win last year, his memories have been clouded by a lost year and Van gaal has recapitulated his own tragedy. Bayern is now searching for new coach, who might seek solutions for team’s deficiency. Bayern need re-install players like MarkVan Bommel and Martin Demichelis in the squad. They also need a top class goal keeper like Schalke 04’s Manuel Neuer, who is a target for Manchester United. josephmunich06@yahoo.co.uk