Beyond compare: Bayern Munich’s winger duo sets Bundesliga ablaze

Before this season, no Bayern player has managed 13+ goals and 13+ assists in a single Bundesliga season since detailed data collection in 2004/05 This season, Olise and Díaz have blown that mark out of the water. Olise has 14 goals (after that last-minute leveler was reclassified from an own goal) and 19 assists while Díaz has 15 and 13, respectively, with two matches to go. It is true that 13 is a somewhat arbitrary number, but Bayern’s starting wingers have not been in the same galaxy. In his ten seasons at the club, hit double digits in either category just once: 10 assists in 2020/21, a season in which he had five league goals. His leading goals tally (8) came in 2022/23, and he had five assists that season. had a handful of seasons where he approached ten in both categories, and his final two seasons were his best: 8/11 and 11/5, respectively. has had a number of productive goal-scoring campaigns but only once prior to this year did he surpass five assists in the same season — the 2019/20 treble campaign where he had 12 goals to 10 assists. Of course, Bayern’s goal-scoring has exploded as a team this season, so there are just a lot of statistics to go around. But having dual-threat scorers and providers on both wings — as well as through the middle — probably has a lot to do with that. For years since the departure of the last truly great wing duo at Bayern, their replacements — no slouches themselves — have nevertheless prompted wistful comparisons to the days of and . Now, finally, the Bavarians are witnessing a new set of standard-bearers. *If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on , , , or any leading podcast distributor…*