Why David Alaba is vital to Bayern Munich’s success?

Stats back Alaba’s excellence at Bayern Munich

With 2,662 touches in Bundesliga this season, Alaba has become Bayern’s “Mr Reliable” under Hansi Flick. Be it the build-up stage to create gaps or initiating an attack directly from the back, Alaba is the first point of contact to kickstart Bayern’s attacking flow.

The 28-year old was the target of 2,099 passes in the current Bundesliga campaign. Joshua Kimmich, Achraf Hakimi, and Benjamin Pavard are the only others who were targeted more often than Alaba. However, David Alaba leads them with 98.5% of those passes successfully received by him.

What makes Alaba so special is his calmness under pressure. The Austrian defender registered a pass completion rate of 91% in Germany’s top tier football stage. In the process, he made 263 passes when pressed by an opponent. This is a statistical data one can easily screen in the top ten rows for 2019/20 season.

Apart from orchestrating the game from the back, Alaba aids in progressing the play forward. Should Bayern ever find themselves hijacked by a compact defence, David Alaba will never shy from swinging in a diagonal ball or a delivering pinpoint long-pass to feed the attackers. Breaking the deadlocks and churning the wheels of the game are a few of Alaba’s specialities.

In the current season, Alaba completed a whopping 294 passes that entered the final third of the pitch. The dynamic centre-half manifests incredible ball control. Alaba progressed 7,669 yards forward while controlling the ball with his feet. This was a Bundesliga high stat of the current season. Since Hansi Flick took charge as the head coach, David Alaba has clocked an xG Chain per 90 value of 0.78. (Understat.com defines xG Chain as the total xG of every possession the player is involved in)

Bayern legend and a master of carrying the ball forward, Lothar Matthaus highlighted Alaba’s prowess in Hansi Flick’s nose-bleed high defensive line system. The following were Matthaus’s words when speaking on his podcast for SkySports.

"“Alaba doesn’t just perform to 100 per cent of his abilities at the back, but he closes the space, pings passes about and runs with the ball at speed. Usually players can only manage to do one or the other.”"

The story which was started by Hansi Flick in November still has several pages to unfold. At 28, Alaba has a lot to offer and play a clutch role in taking Bayern to the next level. The Austrian has been linked with several clubs as he enters the final year of his contract. European juggernauts including Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Chelsea appeared on the front pages chasing Alaba for resetting their defensive template. While these are early rumours, Hasan Salihamidzic and the Board must ensure Alaba’s continued appearance in the starting lineup in the near term.

(Note: The stats in this article were sourced from fbref.com, StatsBomb, and Understat.com)