For Vincent Kompany and Bayern Munich, the prospect of a treble-winning season could be very a lot alive — one thing the German giants haven’t managed since 2019-20.
They are cantering to a different Bundesliga title, victorious in 23 of 28 league matches and scoring 100 targets in that point. Bayer Leverkusen stand between them and a primary home cup last in six years, and they lastly appear to be making a deep run within the Champions League, too.
Their journey to the Bernabeu on Tuesday is for the primary leg of the quarter-final towards Real Madrid, who posed a formidable front three within the 2010s: Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale flanked Karim Benzema after they gained three consecutive European crowns between 2016 and 2018.
But now Bayern’s trio of Harry Kane, Michael Olise, and Luis Diaz are, statistically, the best in Europe this season. They are chasing the greatness achieved by Madrid’s ‘BBC’ trio, who netted a mixed 100 targets at their peak in 2014-15.
There are seven cases because the flip of the millennium of three attacking gamers collectively hitting a century of targets throughout all competitions in a single marketing campaign. All performed for Barcelona and Real Madrid. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar — the notorious MSN partnership — recorded 131 and 122 objective seasons in 2015-16 and 2014-15.
Kane, Olise and Diaz, a trio of their first season collectively, are on 86 targets (57 of these within the league). They might feasibly play 13 extra matches in the event that they attain the finals of the DFB Pokal and Champions League. Kane missed their Bundesliga win towards Freiburg on the weekend, however is predicted to characteristic towards Madrid on the Bernabeu.
It is nearly inevitable that they’ll higher the membership and Bundesliga file from 1971-72, when Gerd Muller fired in 40 targets and second and third-top scorers Ulrich Hoeness and Franz Roth chipped in with 13 and 12.
What makes them so efficient? A number of issues. Kane, Olise and Diaz are all excellent attackers — Kompany typically talks about their “high individual quality” — and the trio can all create, too.
Bayern, who sit solely behind Madrid for highest wage expenditure, have phenomenal attacking depth. Talented teenager Lennart Karl, 59-cap Germany winger Serge Gnabry, and on-loan striker Nicolas Jackson imply that even when Kompany rotates, they’ve firepower.
Diaz and particularly Olise have very best profiles to accomplice Kane. The England worldwide has already produced his best-ever scoring season throughout all competitions (48 targets, 31 within the league) and wants 10 extra Bundesliga targets to interrupt Robert Lewandowski’s file from 2020-21.
Kane has transformed all 10 of his league penalties this time period and has showcased each sort of end in any other case: tap-ins, long-range strikes, angled finishes, headers.
His artistic capabilities and all-round sport grew to become options at former membership Tottenham Hotspur, as did the partnership with Son Heung-min. At Bayern this season, Kane is surrounded by so many good creators that he is usually a pure goalscorer.
Kompany solely performs a 4-2-3-1 with Kane on the prime. It’s a case of choosing three from Karl, Diaz, Olise, Gnabry, and Jamal Musiala to play behind him. In assault, they shift right into a 3-2-5 to overload opponents. Full-backs develop into additional midfielders — typically Kompany performs a right-footer at left-back and the identical inversion on the opposite facet.
Bayern assault extra down the fitting. Olise likes seeing loads of the ball and operates as an inverted winger, chopping inside to shoot and present back-post inswinging crosses.
Here he’s scoring away to Atalanta within the 6-1 first-leg round-of-16 win. Right-back Josip Stanisic has made a supporting overlap run.
Olise is considered one of 5 pink shirts within the field within the picture above. Bayern are efficient at getting numbers into the penalty space and at having well-spaced attackers.
They ought to get these crossing choices, contemplating they management possession and territory greater than some other Bundesliga group — and are more dominant than recent Bayern iterations, too. Their man-to-man urgent and aggressive counter-press are relentless, forcing opponents to cede possession and keep waves of assault.
The second of Bayern’s eight targets in a demolition of Wolfsburg in early January got here from Olise discovering Diaz on the again submit. He had 5 totally different targets to goal at.
Olise, who arrived from Crystal Palace in the summertime of 2024, is flourishing. He is the standout participant throughout Europe’s top-five leagues for assists (18) and ranks second for giant possibilities created.
His inswinging corners from the fitting have been pinpoint, hitting front and back-post places to arrange 10 targets. In open play, he mixes between staying excessive and huge and shifting infield to mix.
Olise’s weight of cross is exceptionally constant, even when he’s reluctant to make use of his non-dominant proper foot. He’s created 22 possibilities for Kane this Bundesliga season, essentially the most of 1 Bayern participant for an additional.
Take two examples the place he assists Diaz. The first is from a DFB Pokal quarter-final win at residence to RB Leipzig. Bayern break by means of the press and Olise sees the chance to play direct, in-behind a disjointed defence. Diaz races by means of to attain.
Those straight runs between the centre-backs grew to become a giant a part of Diaz’s sport at Liverpool in 2024-25, the place he recurrently led the road. His off-ball working is an excellent energy, and he has the field instincts of a No 9 to reach on time for crosses.
Another Olise to Diaz mixture got here inside a minute of the Colombia worldwide approaching as a half-time substitute away to Hamburg on the finish of January. Olise, confronted up towards a low block, performs a one-two with No 10 Gnabry and makes use of a brief dribble to draw a centre-back and open up the by means of ball to Diaz.
“We were criticised a little,” Max Eberl, Bayern’s director of sport, mentioned of the Diaz signing not too long ago. The membership paid Liverpool €70m upfront for Diaz, who turned 29 in January. “We knew what we were doing. We were convinced he would be a perfect fit, not only because of his goals and assists, but also because of his attitude and intensity.”
Diaz, with double-digit targets and assists within the Bundesliga and 37 objective involvements throughout all competitions (22 targets, 15 assists), is having his best-ever season. That goes for Olise and Kane, too.
As a trio, they’ve elevated Bayern’s counter-attacking sport. Kompany’s facet lead the Bundesliga for fast-break targets and have already scored double (12) this time period what they managed from transitions final season.
That is smart contemplating Kane, Olise and Diaz all thrived in sturdy counter-attacking programs within the Premier League beforehand, and Germany’s prime flight is infamous for suiting groups and forwards who’re good off turnovers.
“Technically spectacular,” was how Diaz described Kane and Olise to Sky Germany in mid-February. “I’m very proud to be part of this attack.”
Keep firing at this price, and the trophies and data will certainly come.
