Revolving door to the manager’s office hasn’t kept Bayern from lifting trophies
There are two things Arjen Robben has seen a lot of in his time at Bayern Munich: trophies and managers.
In nine seasons in Germany, Robben has won seven Bundesliga titles, nine domestic cups and a Champions League title. And he’s done that playing for six coaches.
So the expectations didn’t change much Friday when Bayern began a new season under yet another new coach in the youthful Niko Kovac.
“We have won the league six times in a row. That’s something very amazing to achieve,” said Robben, who scored the final goal in Bayern’s season-opening 3-1 victory over Hoffenheim. “This year it will be the same. People will say ‘oh Bayern will win. That’s for sure.’
“But you have to do it.”
Bayern was Germany’s best team when Robben joined in 2009, having been pushed out at Real Madrid by the addition of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. But Robben immediately made the team better, scoring a career-high 23 goals in his first season as Bayern won league and domestic cup titles and made it to the Champions League final.
He’s scored at least 16 times in a season four times since then and ranks eighth on the team’s all-time list with 139 goals. And though he’s begun to slow a bit at 34, his unexpectedly long offseason vacation this summer was not welcome.
The Dutch national team he led to the final four of the last two World Cups did not qualify for this year’s tournament. And seven of his teammates who did go with the German team came home early after Germany was eliminated in the group stage for the first time.
Robben isn’t sure the extra rest will make a difference in the team’s performance, but he thinks the sour taste of World Cup failure will.
“It’s always a disappointment if players or countries are not there in the World Cup. Or when they go out earlier than expected,” he said. “But on the other hand that can be a positive thing. Some of them didn’t have a very nice World Cup so maybe they come in even more motivated.”
Bayern’s team is little changed from the one that won a record sixth straight league title last season, having replaced Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal, lost on a $20.8-million transfer to Barcelona, with German international Leon Goretzka. But the team is a year older, with five starters — including Robert Lewandowski, who scored 155 goals in all competition in his first five seasons in Munich — turning 30 or older before the end of the year.
Behind Bayern, the Bundesliga competition for European tournament spots was tight last season with Schalke finishing second and six points separating the next six teams. Among the most improved of that group is Borussia Dortmund, which finished fourth a season ago.
During the offseason Dortmund also hired a new manager, signing Lucien Favre to a two-year deal, then spent a reported $79 million to bring in defender Abdou Diallo and midfielders Thomas Delaney and Axel Witsel, adding to a core built around forwards Marco Reus, Mario Gotze and American attacker Christian Pulisic.
Still, it’s the dates with Bayern Munich that every Bundesliga opponent has circled on his calendar, and Robben says that’s what makes the team’s sustained dominance so special.
“Everybody wants to beat Bayern and you have to be ready for that,” he said. “Every single game starts again at 0-0. I know that sounds cliché but it’s the truth.
“Every team, they always have something extra they can give against Bayern. So every team we face, they will always be not 100%, it will always be 110%. They will always be at the top of their game.”
Kovac can attest to that. He spent parts of three seasons with Frankfurt, taking the team from the relegation playoffs in his first year to Europa League qualification and a DFB-Pokal Cup title last May, beating Bayern in the cup final in his last game at Frankfurt.
In his return to Munich, Kovac, 46, a former Bayern midfielder, replaces a legend in Jupp Heynckes, 73, who won four Bundesliga titles and a Champions League crown in four stints with the team.
Heynckes, coaxed out of retirement for a second time by Bayern in October, was the club’s third coach last season following Carlo Ancelotti, who was sacked after the club fell into chaos six games in its schedule, and caretaker manager Willy Sagnol.
The club won 15 of its first 16 games under Heynckes and never looked back.
The challenge now, Robben says, is for the team to continuing playing well under its fourth manager in 11 months.
“As a player you can learn from any new manager. So it’s always a new adventure, a new challenge,” Robben said, chatting by phone in English, one of four languages he speaks. “Players need to get used to the manager and his ideas and his intentions, what he wants to bring to the team. Also the other way around. You have to learn your players as a coach.
“There’s not going to be massive changes. We know how to play football. But little details on the highest level make the difference of winning titles or not.”
And winning titles is something Robben and his teammates all know a little bit about.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com | Twitter: @kbaxter11
