How 'Chef' Muller reversed his fortunes to inspire record chasing Bayern

"I call him 'Chef', Chef Thomas Muller. He gives you assists, he gives you goals, whatever you need," Alphonso Davies said in the wake of Bayern Munich's 4-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday as Muller served up assists for Leon Goretzka and Robert Lewandowksi. The German now has 20 league assists this season, more than any other player in Europe's top five leagues and the first player to achieve the feat since Kevin De Bruyne reached the milestone for Wolfsburg in 2014/15. 

As Bayern maintained their nigh-on unstoppable push for an eighth successive Bundesliga title at Champions League chasing Bayer Leverkusen, there was plenty of adulation sent in the direction of Muller and teammate Robert Lewandowski. Indeed, the Muller to Lewandowski combination is now the most prolific assist-to-goalscorer duo in Europe's top five leagues this season, with eight of his 20 assists coming for the Pole to score. 

Yet it could have been so different for Muller, and in the opening weeks of the campaign, he was very much on the outside looking in for Bayern. Niko Kovac implemented a system that meant the 30-year-old started only five of the opening 10 league games of the 2019/20 season, the final of which ultimately cost the Croat his job. 

A 5-1 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern's heaviest in the Bundesliga since a 5-1 reverse at the hands of Wolfsburg in 2009, was the straw that broke the camel's back at the Allianz Arena. The defeat was one of only five league matches Muller started under Kovac this season. In the following months, though, Muller has become an essential player for the Bavarian powerhouse. 

Hansi Flick's appointment and decision to bring Muller in from the cold has been a masterstroke. Initially, it wasn't all plain sailing for Flick and Bayern as they fell to back-to-back league defeats at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen and Gladbach, yet since the latter loss in early December, Bayern have amassed 46 of a possible 48 points, their only blip on the record in their last 16 Bundesliga matches coming in a 0-0 home draw with RB Leipzig. 

A back-to-basics 4-2-3-1 with Muller and young wingers Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry in support of Lewandowski is yielding almost perfect results for FC Hollywood. However, the change in system has seen Muller develop from Raumdeuter to provider. He is famed for his ability to find space in the right place at the right time, previously to hit the back of the net, but with Flick in charge, the attacker is finding the space to unpick defences to maximise a statistically calculated WhoScored strength of 'key passes'. 

His vision in the final third has seen him create more clear-cut goalscoring opportunities (27) than any other player in the Bundesliga this season, yet that is unlikely to have been possible had Kovac remained at the helm. While the number of big chances created per 90 is the same under both Kovac and Flick (1.2), the fact of the matter is the latter has been willing to use Muller in his best role, while the former had him largely deployed deeper. 

That's not to say Flick hasn't used Muller primarily in the number 10 role, but seven of his eight starts in the position behind Lewandowski have come since the 55-year-old was named Kovac's successor and it's evidently had a positive effect. Muller is now averaging 3.5 key passes per 90, whereas that number was 2.8 with Kovac at the Allianz Arena helm. It's hardly a significant drop, yet the freedom to play to his strengths means that Muller has seven goals and 16 assists to his name under Flick. Under Kovac, he didn't score and provided just four assists, two of which came as a sub in the 6-1 win over relegation threatened Mainz 05 back in August.

 
Unsurprisingly, Muller's WhoScored rating has soared since Flick took charge, increasing from 6.67 to 7.73, that in itself the third best rating since Kovac was departed back in November of those to have made 10 or more league appearances. Over the same period, only Jadon Sancho (25) has had a direct hand in more Bundesliga goals than Muller (23), which goes to show that Flick's decision to bring him back into the starting XI has been justified.

And if he continues to dish up his assists on a silver platter for his teammates, then 'Chef' Muller's return to the fold will have proved the turning point for Bayern in their quest to land a record eighth-successive Bundesliga crown.