Apart from dealing with such mistakes, Bayern must question the extent to which the aggressive approach of total man-marking can work and, above all, not reveal the weaknesses of some players. Against Kvaratskhelia, especially in big games in which the Georgian regularly turns up the heat, there is little chance other than always looking bad. Leaving Stanišić to defend Kvaratskhelia completely alone at times doesn’t necessarily seem wise.
However, there will probably be no fundamental defensive changes from Kompany before the second leg. “There are only two ways: either you go all in or you withdraw completely,” he said on Amazon Prime UK. However, the quality of the full-backs in particular drops somewhat, at least defensively. Stanišić, Alphonso Davies and Konrad Laimer are sometimes very valuable offensively, but as we saw last night in Paris, offensive quality is not everything.
Bayern’s sports director Max Eberl, who was a full-back himself, said when asked by t-online: “Difficult game for both (full-backs, editor’s note) because of course there is a lot of man-to-man play. But that’s what we basically want.” But Eberl also added: “What shouldn’t happen then is that the opponents too often run head-on one-on-one. You have to be there beforehand, you have to solve that better beforehand.”
The full-backs’ positioning when receiving the ball can be better, so that when Kvaratskhelia and Co. receive the ball, they are closer to the opponents so that they cannot turn towards the goal. But given the general pace that can be expected in the second leg, it is almost impossible to stay close to the opponent over 90 or 120 minutes. Incidentally, PSG were also quite relaxed here and there, for example when Díaz scored to make it 4-5, when he only had Marquinhos in front of him in the penalty area.
The key point from Bayern’s point of view is that in order to help Stanišić, Davies or Laimer on the flanks, Kompany would have to bring in a midfielder to provide a certain level of security. But that would destroy Bayern’s total man-marking scheme and make such high pressing impossible. But since Kompany wants to continue to work aggressively against the ball, there is probably no opportunity to provide dedicated support to the full-backs or Bayern’s back four in general. A spectacle in the second leg is programmed, but the German champions will not advance.
