For Bayern Munich, scoring goals was like clockwork on Tuesday, making the math easy for anyone that wanted to quantify the few moments of reprieve Dinamo Zagreb felt at the Allianz Arena. The hosts averaged one goal every 10 minutes in their 9-2 win on the opening day of the UEFA Champions League season, truly clobbering the opposition by squeezing in six goals after the 56th minute.
Bayern dismantled Dinamo in a way that will inspire plenty of confidence for the team, especially considering the records they set along the way. They became the first team in the history of the Champions League to score nine goals in a game, while Harry Kane became the first to score three penalties in a single match. Kane's goal count also included a strike from open play in the second half, bringing him up to 33 goals in the competition, the most of any Englishman. It was a resounding victory that takes them top of the Champions League table in the new-look league phase, a placement that will be hard to outdo on Matchday 1.
The win was not dissimilar to some of their other performances this season, either. Kane scored a hattrick on Saturday in Bayern's 6-1 win over Holstein Kiel, and they are the only perfect team in the Bundesliga after scoring 11 goals in three games. It is perhaps a sign that Bayern are back in business after their first trophyless season in over a decade, but the string of lopsided results is also maybe a signal that the jury's still out on Vincent Kompany's team.
Bayern were not allergic to large margins of victory last year, and scoring was not much of a problem. They still led the Bundesliga with 95 goals scored last season despite a third-place finish, assisted in large part by Kane's 36 goals in 32 games but clearly not overly reliant on him. That was just as obvious on Tuesday against Dinamo Zagreb, when Kane scored four times but Bayern benefitted from having five different goalscorers. There's another commonality, too – they are prone to conceding a goal or two more often than not.
The German giants, then coached by Thomas Tuchel, conceded 45 goals in 34 Bundesliga matches last season, the most of any team in the top five, as well as 13 in 12 Champions League games. They are averaging one goal against per game in the Bundesliga to start this season, conceding three and keeping just one clean sheet so far in all competitions.
Their casual act at the back played out on Tuesday, creating an unnecessarily nervy game state at one point. Bayern cruised to a 3-0 victory at halftime, making a statement of intent about their status as the heavy favorites against Dinamo. Yet, they switched off completely to start the second half – they conceded two sloppy goals by the 50th minute, reducing a three goal lead to a one goal advantage in a matter of minutes.
It felt like a repeat of last season's woes could be a possibility, though the stress was short-lived with Kane's 57th minute goal. The margin of victory eventually became a reminder of the uneven matchup – Dinamo, after all, had +2000 odds to win the game and +800 to even snatch a draw in Munich. The result was also a demonstration of why a team would sign a player like Kane in the first place, or assemble a star-studded squad that includes fellow goalscorers Michael Olise, Leroy Sane and Leon Goretzka. Their individual brilliance is equally important on good days and bad ones, allowing their team to come out victorious more often than not.
Even on a triumphant day, though, it is hard not to notice the imperfections that cost Bayern a handful of trophies last season are still present. It is especially glaring on days like Tuesday, when Bayern had the game wrapped up early against an opponent they were clearly better than. Kompany's team still feels like it is on autopilot, a mode it will have to abandon at some point or another as the players finally shake off the preseason rust. It is still early in the season, but Kompany has yet to find fixes for Bayern's defensive lapses and the fact that they switched off in the second half against Dinamo, two issues that might be intertwined.
As he settles into his first job at a major club, those two issues still serve as a top priority for Kompany and his fate in his first season at Bayern might be defined by his ability to answer those questions. Those will be the narratives to follow as Bayern make their way through the Bundesliga and the Champions League league phase, and upcoming games against Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and even Aston Villa could provide the first real tests of Kompany's strategy. The answers to the questions of Bayern's ability to lift titles again this season, as well as Kompany's credentials as a top-tier manager, likely rest on those issues.