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Bayern – Braunschweig preview, the injured and the unrewarded

Injury crisis. A depleted FC Bayern faces Eintracht Braunschweig on Saturday, but thanks to their lack of skills, this should be an easy peasy fixture.

Braunschweig, the unrewarded

Hard work should bring rewards. That’s standard thinking. With Eintracht Braunschweig, it gives little results, making them sit at the bottom if the table with only 8 points. They were often empty handed despite deserving a point or three. The only wins they grabbed were against Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, who had put together poor displays.

Their first season in the top flight was earned very quickly, with successive promotions from the 3.Liga to the Bundesliga in only two seasons. But now, this team made mostly of journeymen, aside from defensive midfielder Marco Caligiuri (formerly from Mainz) and attacking midfielder Karim Bellarabi (formerly from Leverkusen).

Coach Lieberknecht plays many formations, but is favourite is a 4-3-2-1 that leaves possession to the other team… without being efficient in counterattack. In fact, these guys haven’t scored yet in this type of situation.

Braunshweig is not accurate in passing and is not much better at shooting on target. It doesn’t help that intercepting the ball isn’t exactly a skill, while going offside when attacking is only too frequent. It’s air game is OK, except for the central defence in the area. The worst team in the league is guilty of a lack of pure talent to make plays.

The only real attacking threat is Bellarabi, a two-way player. He likes to escape his mark and take a pass behind the defence, and has a good shot with a quick release. We’ve seen it when he scored against us in 2012 with Leverkusen. Striker Domi Kumbela also has a dangerous shot, but only two goals to show for it.

Past games have shown everything I just mentioned. Braunschweig fights with energy and some level of organization. It has been the victim of unlucky bounces on an own-goal.

On Matchday 12 against Hannover, their keeper Davari made a big mistake that almost gave their opponents a goal. When you are in such a difficult situation in the standings, you need the last man to be the most reliable one on the team. They were also poor when fighting for the ball in the air in the area.

Last week against Freiburg, they couldn’t stop a free kick that was easy to grab, giving the Schwarzwald side too much space to maneuver.

To make a long story short, Braunschweig is nothing impressive.

Possible lineup

Bayern, growing sidelines

Injuries, injuries, injuries. You know that it’s a hospital crisis when even Philipp Lahm, our iron man, is sidelined with a hamstring injury. At least, the timing of those injuries is perfect since FCB can afford to put a B-team on the pitch against Braunschweig.

You can expect the Reds to gather possession (can we reach 75%?) against opponents who are not good at holding the ball. Given their biggest weaknesses, it would make sense to send a lot of crosses in the air, towards the area, if we have any problem scoring from short passes.

If I were Pep Guardiola, I would use this as a test match. Give Manuel Neuer a rest to put Tom Starke in the lineup. Try Mario Götze as false nine to see if he can still handle that duty while Mario Mandzukic is sidelined with a short-term injury. Start Thiago. Maybe Contento.

Braunschweig is a perfectly beatable side, unless we trip up on our own. We should win this by a couple of goals.

Possible lineup