Pentagon Pursuit | Part 42 | Bayern Are Too Good

A tactical switch had seen VfB Stuttgart kick onto a new level at the end of 2042, sitting nicely in the Champions League group phase but massively trailing the seemingly unbeatable FC Bayern. And that uptick in form saw 58-year-old Japanese manager Robaato Rasamu handed a new deal worth £31k per week until June 2047 to continue his good work at the club.

Rasamu sold off a few young players that weren’t up to it in January, bringing in £15m for five players. And he spent that on one new player, signing attacker Bruno for £14.5m from Palmeiras.

Fighting For 2nd Behind Bayern

2043 began nicely as a Kenan Nuhic brace led a 4-2 win at Freiburg and Bruno scored on debut in a 2-0 win at Augsburg. However, the latter was marred by star striker Dejan Vujicic being sidelined for eight months with damaged cruciate ligaments, the club’s second in a year. That hit them hard as they lost at Dortmund but a reshuffle saw Havard Fuglehaug given a chance in attacking midfield, which he took by scoring twice in a 4-0 win over Wolfsburg then the only goal against Gladbach.

Form was decent from there, leading into a trip to again still unbeaten Bayern. The hosts won a dubious early penalty but Stuttgart turned the game on its head as Ángel Galeano and Nuhic scored long range strikes. Bayern came back into it and eventually levelled through Rasamu’s former man Saavedra and went on to win 4-2, which Rasamu felt was a little fortuitous on their part.

Stuttgart finished the season well, going unbeaten after the Dortmund loss and winning their last six to wrap up 2nd place on 76 points. However, no side in Germany can even come close to Bayern – who completed back-to-back Invincible seasons to win the league by 16 points. In the last two seasons, Bayern have only dropped points 11 times, have scored 181, conceded just 24 and are now 81 league games unbeaten. And they’ve spent £520m. It’s basically impossible to compete.

Tough Champions League Challenges

Stuttgart’s Champions League hopes resumed with one of their toughest challenges yet, a trip to Camp Nou to face Xavi’s Barcelona. And it proved too much for them as 35-year-old Lamine Yamal scored in first half injury time and they lost 2-0. That put the pressure on for a big game at home to Napoli. They started well as Galeano whipped the ball across goal for striker Henrik Bek Hansen to steer in. The Dane doubled his tally as they rebuilt from a corner and Galeano again teed him up from close range before the winger wrapped up a strong performance with a third.

That final day win was enough to secure automatic qualification, with Stuttgart finishing 7th above big-spending Bayern.

The last 16 paired Stuttgart with Benfica and they began the away leg well as Galeano squared the ball for Fuglehaug to fire into the top corner then doubled the lead with a nice half volley. Exciting attacking midfielder Ibrahima Tiréra scored a third and Galeano curled home a sumptuous free kick to seal a 4-2 victory after Benfica missed a late penalty. Galeano was at it again in the home leg, scoring on 20 minutes before Bek Hansen put it beyond doubt.

That teed up another clash with Marseille, who they beat in last season’s playoff round with the away leg first again. A frenetic start saw the home side hit the bar twice before Bek Hansen opened the scoring inside four minutes and Marseille scored twice in two minutes and missed a penalty in the 10th minute. Marseille had the better of the game but Marek Bílek had a blinder to keep them at bay before Lars Haasnoot crowned his stinking performance with for a shocking two-footer late on.

Back in Germany, it looked like being a frustrating night until attacking midfielder Serhiy Mazurenko curled in an absolute beauty of a free kick. The frustration returned as Stuttgart missed chance after chance and Marseille scored pretty much their first attack. But a great run by Bruno saw the ball rebound to striker Thomas Wieland to smash home a late equaliser. In extra time, Mazurenko put in a disgraceful two-footed challenge but the lads held on and forced a penalty shootout. Both teams scored their first seven penalties, which saw Marseille’s keeper step up and miss then Bílek also missed. Bílek immediately saved the eighth penalty, which heaped the pressure on centre back Brent Breukhoven… who scored to send Stuttgart into the semis!

That teed up a semi final against Atlético with key players Pereira and Mazurenko both suspended. The away leg was up first and Atlético came out flying, scoring once and having two disallowed in the first half hour then scoring again just before half time. While Stuttgart offered nothing other than setting Atlético up for more chances. And in the end, they were very lucky to lose 2-0. They were equally poor at home, wasting even more opportunities then allowing Atlético to score their first attack on 85 minutes. So the Champions League dream was done for another season.

Analysing Stuttgart’s Improvement

If it hadn’t been for Bayern, Rasamu could be celebrating a German title while they again went close to European success by reaching the Champions League semis. So the Japanese manager was pretty happy with how things were going, considering their best striker missed most of the season.

Stuttgart had improved their possession to the 4th-best in Bundesliga (56%), had the 2nd-best attack (81) and the highest xG overperformance (20.92) and conversion rate (17%). They also had the 6th-best defence (35) and there were no obvious statistics pointing to how they could improve. Rasamu simply had to admit that Bayern had to compete with over an entire season, a point that’s proven by Bayern’s £255m annual salary dwarfing Stuttgart’s 9th-best spend of £45.8m.

Galeano was easily the club’s star performer with 21 goals and 18 assists in 40 games. Bek Hansen also impressed with 16 goals and 11 assists while Fuglehaug scored 11 with 6 assists and Wieland and Nuhic both scored 10. But Rasamu still felt like something wasn’t quite right with this Stuttgart side, wasn’t convinced the three-at-the-back approach was the way to deliver success and needed to find a way to get more out of the excellent on his day Mazurenko, who won NxGn 2043.