Why I believe that Götze’s move to Bayern was the Right One by Khadim Ndiaye

At Dortmund, Götze was the go-to-guy in a counter-attack high pressing system. The system of Klopp was mainly:
 1. Get the ball back as fast as possible

2. Pass the ball to Götze,


Reus or Kagawa who brought the goods, while this system favoured Götze's skillset it had some negative aspects as well. For one Götze was heavily overplayed and had lots of injuries because Dortmund (unlike Bayern) didn't fancy a deep squad where rotation is rather the norm than the exception.

 The second reason, in my opinion the even stronger argument, is that at Dortmund he was mainly used in a counter-attacking-system (just like De Bruyne at Wolfsburg). I don’t want to start a discussion whether or not counter-attacking is a better system than a possession-system but what I want to highlight is that it is at LEAST very good for the development of a young player to be educated in both systems. Let me now explain why I believe that for a player of the ilk of Götze it is very important to learn the possession-based system of Pep.

In a counter-attacking system Götze has a lot of space where he can accelerate and run at defence-lines head on. This system favours Götze’s relative lack of acceleration because he has the time and space to reach his full speed where he is very hard to stop! What this system doesn't favour is creativity, defending skills and a further refinement of Götze’s abilities.




At Bayern, in 9 out of 10 games Götze plays against BUS-PARKING teams. This means Götze needs to find solutions to create goal-scoring situations against tight defence-lines, which means he needs to work on his
 1. Decision making,
2. Body
3. Passing and
4. Shooting.

While he is certainly top in all those areas there is room for improvement!

Klopp is an awesome coach but with Pep and has taken Götze out of his comfort zone, He is now developing skills, which help him to reach his potential not only in a counter attacking system but also in a possession-based system. Let us address the last season; up until now Götze’s stats improved with every season with the last season being his best so far which leads me to wonder why people criticise him?

 Mainly because his stats dropped in the second half of the season (after the winter break) and he
didn’t feature in the first team for those big games. In the first half of the season he scored all his goals and contributed most of his assists. What happened then? There are several reasons for the drop in stats but the main reason was the injury of Alaba and the no Robben/Ribery. Götze now needed to play on the left wing all the time with Bernart as his partner in crime. But Bernart, while being a very gifted player, didn’t provide a suitable supporter of Götze on the left wing. Bernart was keeping the ball too long and passes the ball in very static situations. Very often Bernart would be dribbling with the ball in a tight area and was then passing the ball to Götze who doesn’t have the acceleration of a Neymar or Hazard to take on players in a tighter situation.

 Bernart’s dribbling and dynamism is sublime but his combination-game and crossing are things, which he needs to improve! With Alaba, Götze had one of the best tacklers in the world behind him and right then and there Götze was the main goal scoring threat of Bayern. In the CL-group stage as well as in the league he lead the scoring chart of Bayern over long periods of time. Robben’s absence was another factor as Pep’s main system was the following: crowd the left wing with technical strong players (Götze, Bernart, Lewandowski) and free the ball to the right wing in the last moment so that Robben gets involved!

With Robben gone there was no real dribbling ability in the final third at Bayern. Müller, Lewandowski and Götze are all players which favour movement and dynamism while Robben doesn't care he can score out of any situation just like Messi. The existence of Robben is of major concern for the opponent and gives Götze more space to operate. Why didn't Pep use Götze against the big teams?

Again, the main reason was the absence of Robben and Alaba. Without Alaba, losing the ball against Barca is VERY painful. Alaba has the speed and dynamism to get the ball back against any player in the world. Also,  without Robben, Götze doesn't have the space to provide a major threat! Fielding Götze would have meant dropping Müller. But Müller is still a much bigger goal scoring threat than Götze. So Pep decided to field Schweinsteiger instead of Götze to have more stability, to slow down the game and to provide more defensive cover against the likes of Iniesta and Rakitic.

Note that Pep’s major concern (without Robben and Alaba) was to stop Messi getting involved while Pep’s major concern (with Robben and Alaba) would have been to exploit the vast space behind Neymar and Messi. Overall, I believe that this period at Bayern is great for the development of Götze who is able to compete with the best in the game, train amongst the best and gets further educated by a coach who is arguably a superior tactician to Klopp.


People need to understand that Bayern has about 20 world class players and Götze is not yet on a par with Messi, Robben or CR7 to get a guaranteed starting spot on the wing and he is not better than Thomas Müller or Lewandowski who both belong to the best striker and supporting striker respectively in the world. I believe that with Thiago, Vidal and Alaba, Götze will now be able to play with more risk and to show more of his magic, be it on the wing or behind Lewandowski as a supporting striker.


KD