Chapter Seventy-Three: Bayern Munich
Although Stuttgart was the starting point of Gomez, where he grew into one of the top super strikers in the Bundesliga, Gomez was never polite in the face of his old club, and in his first season with Bayern, because he was still in the run-in period, Gomez did not win against Stuttgart.
However, last season, in two league games against Stuttgart, Gomez found his groove on fire, scoring four goals and providing one assist, including a hat-trick away from home.
In the German Cup, Gomez played only 30 minutes due to injury and still scored a goal before leaving. This time, Gomez's brace hurt the Stuttgart fans who had supported him in the first place.
At present, Gomez has scored 15 goals in 15 Bundesliga games, an average of one goal per game, and it is worth mentioning that he has scored more goals than in the first half of the 2010-2011 season, when he scored 13 goals.
Since his debut, Gomez has scored more than 20 goals in two seasons in the Bundesliga, namely 24 goals in the 2008-2009 season and 28 goals in last season.
Gomez has been under a lot of pressure in recent times, with Huntelaar, Podolski and Pizarro in the top scorers' charts, while international rival Klose has been in equally good form, scoring two goals and providing an assist for Lazio's comeback from Lecce.
At this point, Gomez's mature side was revealed, he turned pressure into motivation, he was positive on the pitch, and he had a calm mentality, against Bremen, he was willing to be a green leaf, giving up better opportunities to his team-mates, and this time, when the opportunity came, he was not weak, both goals were wonderful, and this performance in the face of adversity showed Gomez's tenacity.
Bayern won the southern derby with a 2-1 win away at Stuttgart, a victory that had other implications for Bayern in addition to essentially sealing the halfway title, such as their first comeback of the season, and the fact that they also made Stuttgart boss Labadia lose again after a year. In total, Bayern have won Stuttgart 4 times in a row in 1 year.
This reversal is also Bayern's first reversal of the new season, and interestingly, Bayern's last league reversal was against Stuttgart.
In the final round of the league last season, Bayern also reversed Stuttgart 2-1 after conceding first, with the only difference being that Bayern was at home at the time.
Stuttgart coach Labadia must have hated Bayern to death, although he played for Bayern in his career, he has been in charge of Stuttgart for one year, and every time he meets Bayern, he has no good luck.
Labadia was appointed Stuttgart manager on December 12 last year, marking his anniversary.
Coincidentally, when Labadia took office last year, his first opponent was Bayern, and his second opponent was also Bayern! In those two games, Labadia was beaten to the ground, Bayern won 5-3, 6-3 respectively, which made the new official Rabadia depressed.
One year later, Stuttgart have improved a lot under Labadia's tutelage and are currently ranked 7th in the league, but they still missed out on winning this game.
Stuttgart played the role of Bayern's point-giving boy in the southern derby, losing four games in a row, conceding 15 goals, and all in one year, no wonder Labadia was very excited in the game, and repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction, he wanted to win the game too much.
The 2-1 away reversal of Stuttgart, basically ensuring the title of "winter champion", Bayern has gained a lot in this round of the Bundesliga, however, not everything can make the Munich people laugh, at least their defense is still a headache, this game, Bad Stuber and Van Bitten's poor performance once again let people see Bayern's weakness.
In this game, Bayern started the game very strongly, but in the 6th minute received a smack, allowing Gentner to score, this conceded goal has a lot to do with the mistake of Bad Stuber's defense, after Hanik's header crossed, Bad Stuber failed to block in time, allowing Gentner to comfortably outflank the goal and score without being marked.
And Van Bitten's mistake was almost fatal, in the 79th minute, Van Bitten's header passed back to Neuer, the result was too small, and he was directly robbed by Cacaw, if it weren't for Cacau's cushion shot slightly higher than the crossbar, Van Bitten would have become Bayern's "sinner"
In addition to the direct mistakes in defence, the penchant of Bad Stuber and Van Beeten who like to carry the ball forward to assist also adds to the pressure on the team, and both Bard and Van Beaten's assists are too large.
On the one hand, it made Tymoshchuk and Kroos, who served as the central midfielders, less opportunities to mobilize, and on the other hand, their forward insertion also brought the hidden danger of being broken by the opponent to counterattack, and in the 69th minute, Bad Stuber received a yellow card for being entangled with the opponent in the front field and needlessly.
When Bayern didn't concede a goal in 12 consecutive games, the hidden dangers of their backline were blocked, but after that, the problems continued to be exposed, and Bad Stuber and Van Bitten were still old problems, slow speed, not fast enough to turn, plus a penchant for forward insertion, easy to give opponents a chance to counterattack.
Not only in this round, but against Bremen, Bad Stuber was shaken left and right by Rosenberg, losing his center of gravity and embarrassed scenes, which people still remember vividly.
The arrival of Boateng has increased the reflexes of Bayern's central defenders to a certain extent, but he has also had many brain short-circuits in defense and made low-level mistakes, which cannot reassure Heynckes.
Now, the absence of "Little Pig" Schweinsteiger has further magnified the disadvantage of the Bayern defense. In the seven games he missed, Bayern conceded a goal in each of them, a total of 10 goals, in stark contrast to the 12 games they did not concede at the start of the season.
Although Bayern's attack is still quite strong, the defence has become the biggest obstacle to their climb to the top, which cannot be compensated for by German international Manuel Neuer alone.
Previously, Bayern's top management had said that they would not buy people during the winter break, which means that if they want to stick to the end in the third-line battle, they must dig potential internally, and in the central defender position, their only "potential stock" is the Brazilian Brenaud, who has just come out of the shadow of the fire, and betting on him does not seem realistic.
However, as a rival, Dortmund hopes that Bayern's defense will get better and better, so that Dortmund can have a better chance of defending the title.