Former Germany international Markus Babbel sharply criticised Bayern Munich's defending this season before the team produced a defensive display at Atletico Madrid. Bayern kept a clean sheet for the first time in eight games at Atletico Madrid.
Babbel on the centre-back issue
Speaking to ran, Babbel said the lack of a settled centre-back pairing was "not the main reason" for Bayern's comparatively high defensive vulnerability. He said: "That really surprises me. The goals very often come from one-on-one situations in which the opposing player simply has better timing, and I find that alarming."
League and Champions League figures
After eight Bundesliga matchdays, Bayern had conceded 8 goals, compared with 4 at the same point last season. In the Champions League, Bayern drew 3-3 away to Viking Stavanger.
Set pieces and aerial duels
Babbel said Bayern are "far too often a step too late" at set pieces. He said: "They lose such simple aerial duels; in our days as professionals, we would have been hung by our ears from the floodlight pylons for that."
He added: "It would have been absolutely unacceptable. The media would have torn us apart."
Babbel also said he had "the impression that nobody gets upset about it any more. Nobody says: 'Hey, Jonathan Tah, why aren't you winning that aerial duel? You're a centre-back, you're in the better position, that can't happen.' And the same goes for his team-mates, especially the full-backs."
Brown and Davies mentioned
Babbel said Nathaniel Brown and Alphonso Davies, particularly on the left, have considerable room for improvement defensively. He said: "Defensively, that no longer has much to do with the absolute top class. They clearly have qualities going forward and, when they're focused, defensively too. But they allow too many chances and too many goals, so they both definitely need to improve."
