Bundesliga
Bayern Munich are unbeaten, scoring for fun and top of the Bundesliga heading into Matchday 9's meeting with Union Berlin. bundesliga.com goes under the bonnet of Vincent Kompany's free-scoring, but not quite note-perfect pacesetters...
Six wins, two draws, 29 goals scored and seven conceded: Bayern certainly mean business in the early part of 2024/25. They're five points better off than defending champions Bayer Leverkusen, who have shipped over twice as many goals (15) and hit nine less than Kompany's record-breaking charges after eight rounds of top-flight fixtures. No first-time Bundesliga coach - not even Leverkusen's Xabi Alonso - has masterminded such a prolific start as Bayern's Belgian strategist.
Although an attack-minded, counter-pressing machine, the current Bayern ensemble's hallmark is arguably their end product. With a Shot Efficiency rating of +8.5, they're essentially outscoring their Expected Goals (xG) rating by eight and a half goals. That's an improvement of 1.7 compared to under Thomas Tuchel last term, and some 5.1 more than the next-best finishers in the division, Werder Bremen.
That's not to say there isn't room for improvement. While Bayern have hit 29 goals from an xG of 20.5, they needed 152 shots to do so. For context, Leverkusen are the better team in terms of shots to goals (157/20). Past Bayern incarnations have been more efficient and, like every elite-level juggernaut, the class of 2024/25 have their kryptonite.
A high defensive line - even higher than under Pep Guardiola's celebrated watch between 2013-2016 - is susceptible to being picked off on the counter. They've already been breached three times on the break - the same number of counter-attacking goals Guardiola's Bayern shipped across the entire 2015/16 campaign.
It's a high-risk approach, outweighed by some tangible rewards. As well as being top scorers, Bayern are setting the gold standard for possession (65 percent), pass completion (91 percent) and tackles won (55 percent). They're also among the hardest runners, covering 119.2 kilometres/ 74 miles per game, compared to a relatively low 115.4 km/ 71.7 miles in 2023/24.
Watch: How do Vincent Kompany's Bayern Munich compare to Pep's?
Of course, it helps when Kompany has players of the ilk of Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala and Joshua Kimmich in peak form, and all singing from the same hymn sheet. In terms of total goal involvement, the Bayern quartet boast a combined hand of 29. If the 38-year-old can successfully fine-tune his sometimes vulnerable defence, setbacks like the 4-1 loss at the hands of Hansi Flick's Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League will soon be a thing of the past.