Player Focus: Mario Gtze a Good Fit for

Bayern
by Ben McAleer at Tuesday, Apr 23 2013 15:30

It was announced on the morning of Bayern Munich's Champions League tie with Barcelona
and 36 hours ahead of Borussia Dortmund's home leg encounter against Real Madrid, but
with the signing of Mario Gtze, the recently crowned Bundesliga champions have signalled
their intentions prior to the upcoming campaign before this season has even drawn to a close.
The news that the 20-year-old would be plying his trade at the Allianz Arena next year began
to gather momentum in the early hours of Tuesday morning before Die Schwarzgelben
confirmed Gtze would be a Bayern player come the 1 st of July via their official Facebook
page.
The deal comes a little over a week after Der FCB president Uli Hoeness had spoken of his
fears of the Bundesliga becoming a duopoly, with Bayern and Dortmund the pairing that
would be expected to dominate German football.
However, with his arrival, Gtze will not only weaken Jurgen Klopp's side significantly, but
the deal will go some distance to monopolising the Bundesliga in favour of Bayern, with
Hoeness complaining that the league had already become too easy.
Furthermore, with the imminent arrival of Pep Guardiola, and a supposed 240m transfer
kitty to dip into over the summer, prior to the signing of the Germany international, it will
only see the strongest team in the nation become yet stronger.
Yet, the deal has seen fears rise as to where Gtze will play in the Bayern starting XI. With
Javi Martinez and Bastien Schweinsteiger occupying the 'Doppel Sechs' role to shield the
defence and Mario Mandzukic, Mario Gomez and Claudio Pizarro the recognised frontmen,
it'll be in the attacking trio behind the striker that the midfielder will be expected to perform.

Guardiola, as it currently stands, possesses an abundance of options in the position, however.

Toni Kroos, Franck Ribry, Thomas Mller, Xherdan Shaqiri and Arjen Robben are the
prominent quintet that are all vying for a starting spot under Jupp Heynckes at present and the
arrival of Gtze will only increase competition for a first team berth.
Naturally, it'll leave the former Barcelona head coach with a selection headache, but one that
he'll likely welcome with open arms considering the expectations that will undoubtedly rise
following an impressive year, in which Bayern have swept aside all those in front of them to
claim their 23rd Bundesliga title, dropping points just four times in their quest for glory, at
the time of writing.
One stat that will weigh in the favour of Gtze is that he has created the joint highest clear cut
goalscoring chances (15) in the Bundesliga this season, adding to that with nine assists over
his 28 appearances.
In comparison to his future teammates, should they remain with Bayern come the close of the
summer transfer window, Ribry is level with the young midfielder in terms of clear cut
chances created, while Mller is second behind the pairing having created 13 himself,
although the pair have made only 24 appearances this year, four fewer than Gtze.

With that in mind, it's Ribry who is the stronger of the trio having created one clear cut
goalscoring opportunity every 1.6 games, while providing one more assist (10) than Gtze.
However, the current Dortmund midfielder is level with Muller in creating a chance every 1.8
appearances, with his compatriot also providing 10 assists.
Focusing on the rest of the Bundesliga, Kevin De Bruyne, on loan from Chelsea at Werder
Bremen, has also created 15 clear cut chances for his teammates, although having made 30
appearances this season, the Belgian is only creating one chance every two games. However,
he does have nine assists to his name, a figure level with Gtze.
Naturally, in a role such as Gtze's, the need to create is a necessity and it's no surprise to see
him place joint 5th for accurate through balls this season, putting a teammate in on goal on 9
occasions, a figure that puts him level with current Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Lewis
Holtby and FC Schalke 04's Jermaine Jones, all one above Ribry.

However, it's compatriot Kroos that ranks the highest out of the Bayern midfielders and the
Dortmund youngster with 11 of his through balls proving accurate, although that figure is
eclipsed by Wolfsburg's Diego, with the Brazilian seeing 17 of his through balls find a
teammate.
Interestingly, the Bayern-bound Germany international ranks third in terms of attempted
dribbles over the campaign (160), but that figure is overshadowed by Ribry, who has looked
to run with the ball past an opponent 220 times this term.
Furthermore, Gtze ranks second for the amount of times he has lost the ball when dribbling
(76), a figure once again topped by Ribry, who has been dispossessed when running with the
ball a staggering 112 times, the Frenchman failing with 50.9% of his attempts to run at an
opponent compared to the German's 47.5%.
When compared to the rest of Bayern's attacking quintet, Mller has failed with 43 of his
attempted dribbles, Shaqiri 33, Kroos 19 and Robben 18. This points towards the likelihood
of Gtze being utilised on one of the flanks in the attacking trio, with Kroos or Mller
operating in behind the striker as a result of the former's ability to thread an accurate pass
through the defence and the latter's 13 clear cut chances created this season.
Nevertheless, Dortmund's loss is certainly Bayern's gain as highlighted in the win ratio when
Gtze hasn't started. Beginning 23 games for Klopp's side this season has seen the club pick
up 15 victories (65%), a figure that drops to three wins from seven when he's started from the
substitute bench or been unavailable for selection (42%).
Losing one of your star players to your biggest rival is always going to hinder your
progression as a club, especially following the departure of Shinji Kagawa to Premier League
champions Manchester United last summer, but the loss of Gtze will likely see Dortmund
fall further behind their Bundesliga counterparts in the race for supremacy in Germany.