The secret behind Bayern’s defensive strength

As Dayot Upamecano stood in front of a microphone long after the final whistle at the Allianz Arena to once again talk about a good defensive display by him and partner Minjae Kim, the France international didn’t really want to accept the praise being afforded to the centre-back pair. The numbers at least show they deserve it. Upamecano won six out of 10 one-v-one duels and completed 97 percent of his 89 passes. With Kim it was actually 113 out of 113, winning 78 percent of his nine duels for the ball, including all six on the ground. However, as Upamecano reminded everyone, “We’re a team. We all want to keep clean sheets; all want to win.”

Well, the 1-0 win over Benfica was both a fourth straight victory and fourth clean sheet in a row across all competitions since the Champions League loss in Barcelona. It’s the team’s best run since the treble-winning season in 2020. Joshua Kimmich also believes the reasons aren’t just down to the centre-backs. “When we see how Harry [Kane] works back, then that’s a key factor,” the midfielder said. “It’s not like it’s just the back four working for it, but the whole team works against the ball. At the end of the day, that brings us clean sheets but also dominance with the ball.”

Bayern were also helped against Benfica, who played with a back five and mustered up only one shot in 90 minutes, by the fact that João Palhinha is finding his feet better in the team. The Portuguese midfielder put in some important sliding challenges to cut out a number of attempted passes in behind that had caused issues against Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt. “You can see everyone’s working together, that everyone’s hungry to defend our goal,” stated Kimmich.

Learned from mistakes

That defensive presence is also reflected in the stats. Bayern have faced an average of just 5.7 shots per 90 minutes in the Bundesliga this season. The two teams tied for second in that regard, Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund, have allowed opponents almost twice as many (both 10.3). In the Champions League it’s actually just 5.5 per game. The issue here has been that in-form teams like Barcelona and Aston Villa took their few chances and made them count at key times. But Bayern have learned from that, according to board member for sport Max Eberl: “We never said that we don’t learn from mistakes that happened or from the games we’ve played. And obviously we look at it all – Vinni [Kompany] and his backroom staff do so very intensively.”

A slight step down in intensity, a more considered approach to the opponent's build-up play – it’s all paying off to relieve the defence. “We were very solid beforehand,” said Eberl. “Obviously we were much more active, but having the control, permanently exuding that dominance, and obviously having two centre-backs who have done an excellent job in recent days and weeks.”

“Always been a monster”

Kimmich sees things similar, adding that he felt Upamecano made “very clever decisions” against Benfica, while also praising the form of Kim: “I’ve always seen him as a monster in challenges. But he’s also made progress with the ball at his feet. You can see that he understands the coach’s ideas and wants to implement them.”

The Germany captain also recalled his words from the start of the season: “It's quite something what they're defending with such a huge space behind them. Obviously we always try to support them, but it really helps us that both have great speed, that both are very strong in challenges. Both are making really clever decisions in their duels with opponents, and that really helps us with confidence.”

Three points off top eight

Bayern’s return of six points from four games currently has them ahead of holders Real Madrid in the Champions League’s new league phase. The gap to eighth, which will mean automatic progress to the round of 16, is only three points at the midway stage.

Read more about the game against Benfica: