Bayern Munich Fans Send Detailed Open Letter of Complaint to Club

By: Daryl | August 24th, 2009

The big story in Germany right now is – as usual – Bayern Munich. The club has made a rocky start to the 2009/10 Bundesliga, with no wins, two draws and a defeat. Not exactly what Bayern fans are accustomed to.

It’s not unusual for fans of an unexpectedly struggling team to vent their frustrations on the internets. But rather than a simple “we suck”, Bayern fans have put together a detailed analysis of what they feel has gone wrong and posted it on the Transfer Markt forum as an open letter to the club.

Luke at Bayern Offside agrees with the content of the open letter, calling it“an expert piece of analysis”. So – for those of us who don’t speak German – what exactly does the letter say?

There’s a full translated version available here.

I’ve also put together a quick summary, based on my reading the translated version. I may have misread parts of it, so any corrections welcome:

1.1 The problem child of Defense
Bayern won the title in 2007/8 because of the strong defence, but since then the club has failed to strengthen in that area, and now Lucio has left for Inter. The club needed to sign someone like Darijo Srna or Jose Bosingwa at right back.

1.2 The (mis) cast the goalkeeper position since the retirement of Oliver Kahn
Basically, Kahn has not been adequately replaced. Neither Michael Rensnig nor Hans-Jörg Butt are good enough.

1.3 Catastrophic Kaderplanung in midfield, Kreativloch, lack of counterpart to Franck Ribery
There’s a lack of class in midfield. The loss of Ze Roberto, the faith in Bastian Schweinsteiger and the failure to sign Alexandr Hleb, Diego, Wesley Sneijder or Rafael van der Vaart all contribute to this. The latter to are still available, so act fast!

1.4 Louis van Gaal – curse or blessing for FC Bayern?
The new bosses diamond formation is not popular, especially because playing Franck Ribery at the tip of the diamond (instead of on the left) prevent him from using his pace and making “inward” runs from out wide. There’s also some dissatisfaction with Mark van Bommell playing as a #6 instead of #8.

1.5 The principle of performance and his lack of application
The players need to be selected on merit, not reputation. Bastian Schweinsteiger is again the target here.

1.6 False pride during transfers, media spectacle of the Board
The club should have sold Ribery to Real Madrid and used that money to strengthen the team.

All of which may be true. And it’s always good to see fans criticize their team analytically rather than just angrily. But does anyone else think maybe Bayern fans are over-reacting with the season only three games old?

Some Related Stories:

Category: Bundesliga

« Why Sky Blue FC’s Championship Win is Good News for WPS | Home | U2 Is Destroying Football (Pitches) »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Tommy Wong

I watch the Bundesliga here and there. What I have seen is that the league has elevated itself somewhat, and Bayern Munich really don't have the depth or the over abundance of stars as compared to other German teams. It is more even now, and Bayern really need to do something big to be #1 again. I'm impressed with the Munich fans, and I'd be even more impressed if the club actually listened to it's fans, not the papers.
Joel

Why play a Diamond formation when they don't have a world class Defensive Midfielder like Pirlo, Cambiasso or Essien who can control the pace of the game. Van Bommel or Tymoshuck are not world class. Also, Schweinstiger plays better on right wing and Ribery on left wing as both players like to run down the wing and cut inside. Stop playing Klose then brining him off at half time. Just play Gomez and Olic. Change their formation to 4-4-2 and try Toni sometimes as he is a great head target.
victor

there is one point there which is worth mentioning: the disharmonization of Lucio and Demichelis last year was due to Klinsmann's offensive approach. Hitzfeld melded the two together and only let in 21 goals. If Micho gets relegated to the bench again, we will be in trouble.
Ryan McManus

They should have sold ribery for a reasonable price instead of trying to send a message that they are not a selling club, especially since their results have not backed it up.
walter

No, we are not over-reacting because even before the season started we knew our goalies sucked, we knew we needed a decent RB so we can could keep Lahm on the left, we knew that a diamond in midfield was not gonna work because we don't have a true 10 in the team (playing Ribery centrally is simply stupid), and we knew the board should've never let go of Lucio and Ze Roberto.
All these factors were discussed before the season started in Bayern forums and I am simply baffled that LVG and the rest of the Bayern board have made SO MANY FREAKIN BAD decisions, when even the fans could see it coming!