Bayern Munich play out a lethargic 2-2 draw at home vs. Wolfsburg

In an almost complete 180-degree turn from Tuesday’s performance, Bayern Munich throw away a 2-0 lead and settle for a point at home. Problems seem to resurface with the UCL looming.

Bayern Munich seem to keep going one step forward and two steps back, at least in the Bundesliga. After showing some glowing promise in a romping 3-0 away win to Schalke, Bayern Munich seem to trip over their weaknesses. Obviously, the injury bug has not helped lately either. However, with the line-up Ancelotti made, there are still no excuses for this performance.

While the world’s best goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, has received another shock spell on the sidelines, the talent on display against struggling Wolfsburg should have more than sufficed. In the end, offensive complacency and individual mistakes held the Bavarians down. The XI looked strong on paper, but blame is once again spread all over for this match.

Totally static in attack

Despite coming off a convincing win at an otherwise energetic Schalke, the offense looked clueless as a whole. Whether transitioning to attack from defense or midfield, there was a total lack of creativity.

The passing in the final third of the pitch was abysmal, with players running into traffic or blatantly giving the ball to Wolfsburg. The only way the Bavarians made a mark on the game was through a penalty call and another ludicrously lucky deflection. Robert Lewandowski tried to do what he could with what he was given. Aside from the coolly placed penalty, the Pole received little service.

Likewise, Thomas Müller couldn’t inspire the most part of the match due to lack of positive movement from his teammates. Müller is a player that thrives on the pitch when his team thrives. His positives are their positives and vice-versa. So when his compatriots in attack around him, like Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben, waste the opportunities and space they’re given, the results on the field will look ugly.

Naturally so, when his teammates suffer, Müller suffers. Speaking of “Robbery”, the wingers had arguably one of their most limp displays this season. Both wingers looked bereft of ideas on the right and left flanks. They often ran into walls, wasted possession in space, and missed blatant goals.

After an excellent ball from Arturo Vidal, Robben went one-on-one with Koen Casteels only to slide it wide. Meanwhile, after a sublime back-heel from Müller, Ribéry blasted an absolute sitter over the crossbar.

Caught napping in the back

Despite Jérôme Boateng at times looking strong in his tackling, it wasn’t enough to explain the second half. To be fair, the second goal was a collective defensive error in marking. Perhaps Bayern Munich were too comfortable playing from the back, as evidenced from both center-backs having the lion’s share of touches. However, they were mostly wasteful in their long-passes.

It could be said the desperate attempts at connecting long-passes from the back were from lack of inspiration from the midfield and attack themselves. Regardless, lazy marking in the back didn’t become as big an issue until the shocking breakthrough by Wolfsburg.

While Maximilian Arnold’s free-kick was on-frame, it should have been a straight forward issue to deal with. The ball clearly veered right at Sven Ulreich, but what he did next was baffling. The Bayern Munich back-up keeper attempted to palm the ball with one hand, instead of using two, resulting in the ball deflecting into the back of his net. A shocking display after the heroic performance three days ago at Schalke.

That point in the match seemed to be the gateway for Wolfsburg’s confidence. Despite Bayern Munich overall playing poorly throughout the 90 minutes, Wolfsburg still looked relatively harmless in attack. Arnold’s goal gave way to frustration from Bayern and a resurgence in their attack, ultimately leading to shoddy man-marking to allow Divock Origi’s leveling goal.

Poor decisions from the sideline

Carlo Ancelotti did himself no favors in silencing his critics or turning the scoreline around. While a good bit of the fault is on individual player performance, his choices in when to make subs were confusing to put it lightly.

Despite seeing clearly that the attacks from the wings were largely toothless the majority of the match, Carlo saw no reason to make any changes until the 85th minute. Time and time again, Robbery failed to make notable impact on the match. Still the only timely change was Corentin Tolisso for the yellow-carded Vidal.

While the Frenchman looked energetic at the very least, defensive-midfield was not where change was most needed. Carlo had Kingsley Coman and James Rodríguez right there for him — two players that could inject some danger in Bayern’s attack — yet only gave them just over five minutes to play.

Next: Bayern Munich heavily featured on FIFPro World XI shortlist

The Italian seems to create more problems for himself, after seemingly being able to solve some of them days earlier. With the overhauled PSG just days away, questions must be answered again and quickly before traveling to Paris.