Are Bayern Munich too reliant on Harry Kane?

The England striker is scoring goals for fun in Munich, but things quickly fall apart for Vincent Kompany's team when he goes quiet in bigger games.

Perhaps the man of the match award for Friday night’s clash between Bayern Munich and Augsburg should have gone to Mads Pedersen. After celebrating at full time with his players and walking off the pitch to applause from the home support, Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany may have breathed a sigh of relief and quietly promised himself to send the Danish wing-back a nice Christmas card this year. Because without the defender’s truly baffling hand ball in the 63rd minute, the game almost certainly would have ended in a dull 0-0 draw. 

Prior to the moment of stupidity from Pedersen, Bayern had amassed an xG [expected goals] figure of just 1.24 and were struggling to break down a well-drilled opponent that had clearly spent the week preparing to frustrate their Bavarian neighbours at the Allianz Arena. Then along came Harry Kane. The England striker was more than happy to dispatch a penalty from the resulting handball, only to then be gifted another spot kick in the dying moments of the game when Keven Schlotterbeck was deemed to have tripped the striker on-route to tapping home a second. 

If the second goal was farcical, the third was tenacious. With a man down and the game plan out the window, Augsburg had more or less given up, but Kane was on the hunt for his hat-trick. With space in the box, Leon Goretzka chipped the ball towards the towering striker, who took a wonderful touch and duly headed the ball into the back of the net with remarkable ease. Bayern and Kane had done very little on the night, but now had three goals and three points. Job done. 

Not only was the three-goal haul Kane’s fourth hat-trick of the season but it also set a new record in the Bundesliga for the quickest player to score 50 goals in the competition. The record had previously been broken by Erling Halaand, who reached 50 goals in 50 league games for Borussia Dortmund. Impressively, Kane had matched the Norwegian striker’s return with seven games to spare. And is showing no notable sign of slowing down in his pursuit of more and more goals for Bayern. 

However, as Manchester City are currently finding with Haaland’s remarkable goalscoring talents, a dependable No.9 in the modern game can often be something of a double-edged sword: on the one hand they score goals and goals have a habit of winning football games. But on the other hand, it can often lead to teams and tactics becoming over-reliant on a single player. Such a problem is currently derailing Man City’s title hopes in the Premier League this season and it will be interesting to see if Bayern are stung by Kane’s charm before the end of this current campaign.