Champions League performance insights: How Bayern progressions beat Man United

One of the most interesting tactical aspects of the Champions League group stage has been the different ways in which teams are progressing the ball into the attacking third.

For this last performance insights article of the group stage, UEFA's analysis unit took a close look at Bayern München's progressions into forward areas in their victory at Manchester United this week.

As the first clip in the video above shows, the German champions regularly looked for their wingers when passing into the attacking third. Yet as evidenced by the sight of Jamal Musiala working in pockets of space in both clips, once inside the final third Bayern had success in the central channels too.

Indeed, to underline Musiala's impact, he ended the match having recorded seven ball carries of ten metres or more, and only one other attacking player in the competition – Napoli's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – managed more in this week's matches.

Bayern's team includes some world-class passers of a football – Harry Kane (of whom more below) and Joshua Kimmich, for instance, are among the first-ranked players for through balls in the group stage with five each. And their collective passing powers are seen in this first 3D visualisation – a breakdown of their lead actions when entering the final third – which shows that penetrative passes accounted for 37% of their entries into that part of the pitch.

This second visualisation displays the type of progressions from Thomas Tuchel's side, and it emphasises the earlier point about them looking wide – with 47% made on the outside. That said, the fact 30% came on the inside tells us again that Bayern were able to vary their approach, asking questions not just out wide but in the middle too.

The video of Bayern's goal on Wednesday provides an illustration of their ability to play through United centrally. As mentioned already, the data points to a tendency to feed their wingers when passing into the attacking areas, yet inside that final third the approach was mixed.

To focus on Bayern's attackers, goalscorer Kingsley Coman took home the Player of the Match award after a game in which he and Leroy Sané, his fellow winger, were consistently the most advanced players in their front line. This made them the most common recipients of through passes on a night when Kane and Musiala dropped deeper.

The graph above shows the Bavarian side's lane locations when progressing into the final third and it is the flanks – Coman's Lane 5 and Sané's Lane 1 – which accounted for almost two-thirds of their progressions (63%).

Bayern's focus on the wings is further highlighted by this bar chart which offers a breakdown of the positions of the players receiving the ball in the final third – and in 43% of cases, this was a winger with the full-backs accounting for another 26%.

The third and final video above gives an example of a Lane 5 progression which ends with full-back Noussair Mazraoui firing over a cross.

To return to the players who supplied the passes into the final third, it is no surprise to see that Bayern's midfielders were the most common source (40%). Yet the main point to take from this last bar chart is that Kane (job description: centre-forward) accounted for 11% of those passes. To offer a point of comparison, in their five matches between the quarter-final and final of last season's competition, Man City's forwards contributed 2% of their passes into the final third.

With Kane dropping into a No10 role, he ended the match ranked joint-second among the Bayern players for passes into the final third with six (along with Leon Goretzka and Kimmich). Only Dayot Upamecano, with seven, produced more.

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