Why Bayern Munich are even stronger than last season?

It is often said that the Barcelona team of the last five years is the best team to have ever graced the planet.

February 27 marks the Bavarians’ birthday and title victories in the Bundeliga, the Champions League, DFB-Pokal, Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup in the past 12 months means they can celebrate in some style.

It is difficult to imagine how any treble-winning team can possibly get better. Looking at Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola this season, however, one can easily imagine not just an unprecedented Champions League repeat but an improvement on what was already arguably the greatest single season in the history of German football.

The German champions went onto win the treble in 2012/13 and since then the iconic Pep Guardiola has taken over as head coach and Ozil thinks the team are now even stronger – but the north Londoners can still beat them.

With Pep Guardiola’s side sitting top of the league by an astonishing 19 points in the current campaign, and with a 2-0 first-leg advantage secured over Arsenal in Europe, Rummenigge is contemplating the possibility that the current Roten players form the best collection that the German giants have ever seen.
Bayern lost two Champions League finals in the last three years, as they also went 2-0 down to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2010 and the hurt of last season’s defeat to former club Chelsea still lingers with the German side.

Finally, to compliment Guardiola’s comprehensive and all-encompassing style of play is perhaps the deepest squad in world football today. Bayern’s quality in depth was a big reason they went on to win the treble last season. This season that squad has gotten even deeper and even better.

With such a talented squad Bayern did not need to get Thiago and Mario Gotze in the summer, but both players fit Guardiola’s vision for the team and give them more variety. Both missed the beginning of the season due to injury but since coming back the duo have been directly involved in 22 goals in all competitions.

Gotze provides Guardiola with the ideal candidate for his famed "false nine" role while Thiago’s versatility and technical ability has been the perfect complement for Bayern’s two key players, Franck Ribery andPhilipp Lahm in midfield. 

Keeping in mind that Bayern have been this dominant without Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez, both of whom have been out with injury for large parts of the season. Schweinsteiger and Martinez were crucial in the team’s treble last season but the team’s ability to compensate for their loss and still maintain such dominant, if not finer, form demonstrates not only the quality in depth but the degree to which the team has been refined by Guardiola this season.

To sum up, there is little in this Bayern team that could be improved on paper. Guardiola remains critical in his quest for perfection, but as far as the numbers and performances go, very few teams come close.

Heynckes laid the foundation last season but Guardiola has taken it, refined it and evolved it. Bayern play an even more dominant style of football and one that is baring results. If any side has the chance to be the first team to successfully defend the Champions League title in the modern era, it is Bayern under Guardiola.