Non-stop action. Great goals. Controversies galore. Sensational passes. Unreal drama. European football rarely lacks for talking points after any given weekend of football, but with so much happening it can often be hard to focus on the biggest moments. ESPN India attempts to single out one moment from all the action across Europe's top 5 leagues (league action only) that lit up the weekend.
This weekend, we pick Thomas Muller's peach of an assist to Kingsley Coman, that put Bayern Munich 2-0 up against Union Berlin.
We are almost at the half-hour mark and the score reads Bayern Munich 0 - 0 Union Berlin. The upstarts from the East have defended superbly, and the Allianz Arena is growing impatient. Kingsley Coman collects the ball far out on the right, before a couple of touches allow him to tee up a delightful dink into the six yard box; where Thomas Muller stretches... and gently shins it right at the goalkeeper. The score remains 0-0.
For a while now, this is what Thomas Muller has been doing. Even at the very height of his goal-plundering powers it had been impossible to decode just how he was doing whatever it was that made him so irresistibly good, but those peaks appear to be long gone now. It's been a while since he's been the go-to guy for goals at Bayern: hitting double digits in the league only once since 2015/16. And that was 11 goals in 2020/21.
The declining goalscoring threat of Muller was made most evident during Germany's shambolic World Cup campaign this past November - and indeed four years earlier in Russia. After racking up ten goals and three assists over his first two World Cups, he's not troubled the scoreboard operators in the next two.
Union Berlin know they are still in it. They may be trailing (to an excellent Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting header), but it's just 1-0 and they have been pegging Bayern back for a bit now. A couple of decent chances have been created and things are looking up when Frederik Ronnow swats a clearance away. Union look like they'll keep it and attempt another attack when Mathijs De Ligt thunders in and wins a header near the halfway line. De Ligt's naked aggression has often caused flutters in the Bayern defence this season, but this is one of those moments which validate his philosophy. The ball runs on toward Muller but it bounces at an awkward height, around about shoulder height. His back facing the goal, this shouldn't cause much of a bother, think Union Berlin.
Muller last scored more league goals than he made assists in 2015/16. That season he netted 20 goals; meaning that until then, his goal tally had hit double digits in five out of his first six full seasons. Something changed in 2016/17. Coming off his most prolific season ever, then coach Carlo Ancelotti moved him out of his favoured position just behind the striker and the goals dried up. His response? Buckle down and focus on providing. From the tip of the spear to the man holding it. In those goal-heavy first six seasons, he had hit double figures in league assists just once. Since then, he's only missed it once in six full seasons (nine assists, in 18/19). He went from excellent goalscorer to elite creator and became even more un-droppable than ever before. Check out this stat from early 2022:
150 - Since Thomas Müller's Bundesliga debut (15 Aug 2008), only Lionel #Messi (180 assists) has assisted more goals in Europe's big five leagues than the German (150 assists). Space. #KOEFCB pic.twitter.com/VjtOBapePg
- OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) January 15, 2022
Yet, one was still unable to pinpoint just what made him tick. The self-declared 'interpretation of space' was still key, of course, but just how did he do it?
As the ball bounces, Muller is aware that there's a counter in the making here. If only he can get the uncatchable Coman running in behind. He knows his own marker is too tight for him to take more than a touch; but that also means he's too tight to then turn around and chase Coman. A look to his left to see where his teammate is - and a telescopic stretch of the leg to somehow reach the ball and then deftly maneuver it into Coman's path... and it's 2-0 Bayern. Coman's was a class finish, leaving his marker for dead and rounding Ronnow cleanly, but it's the Muller touch that opens up the space for all that.
Five minutes later, Muller was at it again. This time he pinged in a ball from way out on the right flank before running forward, limbs flailing awkwardly, overlapping Coman and cutting the ball back and setting the ball on a plate for Jamal Musiala to make it 3-0.
In just 45 minutes Bayern Munich had crushed the Union Berlin challenge and Thomas Muller had done all the string-pulling. An unexpected touch here, an out-of-nowhere run there, space created for those around... no one does it all quite like him.
Even at 33, that fundamental truth of the Bundesliga remains valid: Thomas Muller plays, Thomas Muller makes Bayern Munich win. Just don't go around asking how.