Harry Kane was substituted with a muscle cramp nine minutes from time, but he may also have been suffering from football sickness, dazed by Bayern’s high possession stats.
The champions’ 72-percent dominance at the raucous Weser Stadium was a million miles away from the simple ‘suffering ball’ the 30-year-old striker has had to endure under Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte in the past four years. Obviously, it took some getting used to.
Ken’s eyes lit up after that, and gushed about the pace and quality of the players around him. But until Werder Bremen opened up to chase an equalizer after the break, the control and space they gave up to their opponents in midfield posed their own challenges for the England captain.
After finding a trademark Leroy Sane on the opener early on, Keane spent the rest of the half struggling to be found by his new team-mates, with the hosts holed up inside their penalty area.
When the striker was brought on at least 30 minutes early in last Saturday’s 3-0 Super Cup defeat by RB Leipzig, wingers Serge Gnabry and Sane switched the wings to their natural sides, aiming to provide service for Kane. The ploy resulted in so many unhappy rushing crosses from impossible angles, everyone tried so hard. On Friday night, Thomas Tuchel recreated the traditional Bayern formation of the past decade with inverted wide players, forcing them and his new recruit to adapt to each other.
I’ve been taking a while. Punches, passes, and runs failed to align properly. The last ball failed to land like a line hit delivered in a foreign language. Things were a little ok, not completely lost but rather diminished in translation. This was certainly not the ‘Harry Kane team’ that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola referred to a few years ago. not yet.
Harry Kane and Bayern Munich, an exceptional summer…
But that wasn’t a big deal either. Thanks to Kane’s assist, Bayern were riding high and oozing with self-confidence that had been strangely absent from their game for most of the calendar year. His trial-and-error positioning, often in the right inside channel, did not lead to many personal shooting opportunities, but he effectively anchored Werder’s backline and held the ball well to allow the powerful attacking midfield to shine throughout. for him. Until he opened his account in the second half, it looked as if the €100m man might be swung on his league debut by the improved Jamal Musiala or the outstanding Kingsley Coman, an irrepressible marvel of trickery and dynamism on the left.
“I’m Number 9, first and foremost,” Kane reminded an international army of interviewers who all asked what the selfless part of his game was. But one can also feel the joy and comfort of knowing that he won’t have to do it all alone in front of this team’s goal.
After Tuchel’s barbs last week – “It’s as if we haven’t trained at all for four weeks” – the Bayern boss was in a more generous mood this time around, gently dismissing the notion that Kane and the team hadn’t trained at all. Always on the same page. “I’m not sure they still need to find each other,” said the 49-year-old. “We had a great mix of possession play and quick turnarounds, with good solutions in the half-space. Harry is good there. He’s very strong on the ball. He provides depth by being the focal point up front. And he always makes an impact on the defence, keeping them busy.” With his nimble movement. He’s very smart in everything he does and incredibly accurate.”
Tuchel was particularly fond of Kane’s “clean and calm first touch” for Bayern’s second goal, which effectively wiped out the uneven runners two-thirds of the second half. For once, Kane had room to run straight through the middle after some great interaction between Alphonso Davies and Koeman beat Werder with a hat-trick and goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka had no chance. I felt a counterattack but it wasn’t. Bayern will aim to create more of these quick attacking moves to put Kane in goal in the coming weeks.
The tactical fine-tuning will take more time – stronger opponents than Werder, who are looking to put up a relegation battle according to Friday’s evidence, are yet to come. But if Tuchel’s long and hyperbolic talk about his new striker is to be believed, Kane does indeed have a less visible but outsized influence on a team that last season needed not just goals but inspiration and leadership. “The way he trains, the way he steps onto the pitch…he’s very down-to-earth, radiates joy in training and has a lot of quality to boot,” said Tuchel. “He is impressive. He will make every player around him better by getting a lot of attention for himself. It was a very good start.”
It’s hard to argue with that after a 4-0 win (a second Sané and a brilliant strike from Matthijs Tal completed the scoring). Most importantly, it put the rest of the league on notice. Once he and Bayern are truly in tune, their dominance could reach new heights.
(Top photo: Marvin Ebo Gengor – GES Sportfoto / Getty Images)
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