Thomas Muller has suffered a couple of dampened hopes over the last week. He will recover. Those who know Muller speak of his ebullience, and always of his determination.
After he left the field having scored the goal he hoped might usher in confirmation of Bayern Munich's fourth successive Bundesliga title on Saturday, a coronation then delayed by Borussia Monchengladbach's equaliser, he set out objectives.
"We have to admit that we have been missing the secret ingredient in our game recently," Muller told reporters. "What we have to do now is investigate what that is, and make it count in the Champions League."
Bayern have time to collect their domestic championship – a point from their remaining two games will seal it.
More grave is their Uefa Champions League situation. They have 90 minutes to rescue their European Cup semi-final, at 1-0 down to Atletico Madrid going into Tuesday's second leg at the Allianz Arena.
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• 5 reasons Bayern will win | 5 reasons Atletico will win
A few Germans have an idea how to identify the secret ingredient that was missing from Bayern’s game in the Spanish capital last Wednesday, and opinion-formers have not been shy of saying so.
“Thomas Muller is the emotional centre of this Bayern team,” reckons the magazine Kicker, “he gives it its commando quality.”
Bayern’s head coach, Pep Guardiola, chose to take on Atletico at the Vicente Calderon without Muller, the German international, in the starting line-up, and gave him just 20 second-half minutes to hassle the opposition and try to eke out pockets of space, one of his specialisms, in and around a compact, well-organised Atletico back four and midfield. The decision to leave him out was heavily criticised. “Guardiola, the tinkering tactician misses the psychological points,” added Kicker.
Franz Beckenbauer, the former Bayern captain, coach and president, writing in Bild-Zeitung, added his view: “From the outside, the line-up may have been justifiable. But without Muller, there was no support up front.”
Guardiola’s defence of a formation that lacked a player with a distinguished record of opening up tight rearguards, of scoring important goals in crux matches was that he wanted to fill the midfield, and play with two orthodox wingers.
“It was nothing against Thomas Muller,” he insisted. He and Muller have had their differences in the past. The most public flashpoint was a year ago, when Muller made plain his unhappiness at being substituted during Bayern’s Champions League semi-final defeat against Barcelona.
But Muller has been a terrific ally for Guardiola in the three years the Catalan coach has been in Bavaria. Muller's next Bayern goal, assuming there is another this season before Guardiola's summer departure to Manchester City, will be his 80th under the Catalan coach.
He has hit 20 towards the inevitable 2015-16 Bundesliga title, and his partnership with Robert Lewandowski, the Polish centre-forward, has at times looked irresistible.
Guardiola has a vast range of attacking options in his Bayern squad, and the purist in him opted in Madrid, as he explained, for footballers of a certain type.
Guardiola wanted a left-footer on his left wing and a right-footer on the opposite wing: Douglas Costa and Kinglsey Coman, both new to Bayern last summer, got the nod. He favoured elegant passers, men with a finer first touch that Muller, in midfield, in Xabi Alonso and Thiago Alcantara. Arturo Vidal supplied the gumption.
Significantly, Guardiola took on Atletico with Spaniards, included four Spain internationals in his XI and left a pair of Germany’s world champions, Muller and Mario Gotze, on the bench.
And for the third time in as many years, the Bundesliga champions are now chasing a European Cup semi-final from behind against a team from the Primera Liga. Barcelona eliminated them 12 months ago, Real Madrid thrashed them in 2014.
Guardiola needs a match-winner. He needs to rediscover the secret ingredient. He is under pressure to pick Muller, the totem, the boy who grew up with Bayern, from the start.
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