Bayern Munich’s 3-0 shock defeat to Feyenoord highlights old problems

Firstly, the positive, regardless of what happens on Matchday 8 in the Champions League, is that Bayern Munich will advance from the group stage. But after a 3-0 defeat on Wednesday to Feyenoord, the question is whether the Rekordmeister will go directly to the round of 16 or face the detour via the playoffs.

All in all, it’s a frustrating result for Bayern Munich. Rotterdam needed just three shots on target to beat Bayern. Santiago Gimenez scored twice in the first half (21′ and 45+9′ penalties), and then Ayase Ueda made it 3-0 at the end of the second half (89′).

All three goals came from counter-situations, exposing deficiencies that Bayern boss Vincent Kompany had extinguished in recent weeks. Indeed, the defense has been excellent and saved an attack that has lacked goals at times as star striker Harry Kane struggles to score from open play.

Kane has scored 22 goals and 10 assists in 24 games for Bayern Munich in all competitions this season. That’s an incredible statistic. But eight of those goals came from the penalty spot, including his last three. In addition Kane has not scored from open play since his Bundesliga match 11 goal against Augsburg on 22 November 2024.

Without Kane scoring, the only other reliable goalscoring threat among Bayern’s forwards in recent weeks has been Jamal Musiala. Musiala had a great chance in this match, but his header was tipped over the crossbar by Feyenoord keeper Justin Bijlow.

Apart from that, Leroy Sané hit the post. In fact, only six of Bayern’s 30 shots against Rotterdam were on target. Rotterdam were more effective and had three of their eight shots hit the target, all three going past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Which once again looked anything but superhuman.

Therefore, even though Bayern appeared to be completely dominant, the xG was only 1.75 to 2.8 in Rekordmeister’s favor. Now that should be enough to get on the goal sheet. But with your primary no. 9 misfires and the rest of the attack toothless, Bayern are looking at a significant problem.

“I have to be honest; Feyenoord deserved their win,” said Kompany after the match. “They fought hard and ran. We had many chances; I felt we could have scored one, two or even more goals. Feyenoord used their moments well.”

That was actually the main problem here. Feyenoord used their moments well, but Bayern did not. But despite all that, the main focus was once again on Bayern’s shortcomings in defence.

While Min-Jae Kim looked out of place in front of the first goal, Raphaël Guerreiro, coming on for the injured Alphonso Davies, caused a penalty for the second and then played Ueda onside for the second. While both moments can be attributed to individual mistakes, it was the collective failures that really caused both goals.

“It’s not about one person; the defense starts from the forwards before the ball even reaches the backline,” said Kompany. “It’s the whole team’s responsibility.”

Although there is a notable drop from Guerreiro to Davies these days, the Bayern boss is right to blame the whole team for all the goals. It was too easy for Feyenoord to play through Bayern’s defense and explore the high defensive line in all three scenarios.

Looking at the way Feyenoord approached this game; The question must be asked why the Bundesliga teams are not exploring this tactic. We’ve seen it a few times. Frankfurt did well. So did Mainz and even Leverkusen.

Several clubs will explore the possibility of sitting deep and frustrating an attack that appears to be running out of ideas going forward. For all its improvement, the back line still has weaknesses that can be explored.

However, there is also optimism that Bayern will quickly move on from this result. “There is unity in the dressing room; everyone is rowing in the same direction,” midfielder Joshua Kimmich said after the match. “That was not the case earlier in bad moments. We stick together and have to show a reaction.”

With that in mind, Bayern will certainly be more than capable of bouncing back at the weekend against Freiburg and then at home to Slovan Bratislava next Wednesday. Anything short of a win against the Slovaks would be a surprise. Whether it is enough to finish in the top eight will be decided elsewhere.