Watch Out Europe, Bayern Munich Are the Best Team in the World Right Now

Everyone has an excuse for why they can't win the Champions League these days.

Barcelona? A lack of cohesion and over-reliance on You Know Who. Juventus? Maurizio Sarri's inability to balance the side. Manchester City and PSG? A psychologically crippling lack of European pedigree. Real Madrid? The perpetual complaint of an unclear tactical identity under Zinedine Zidane. (although that hasn't stopped them before).

Even reigning champions Liverpool can complain of a lack of options outside of their starting XI, as made manifestly clear by the brief, fateful history of Adrián's meeting with Marcos Llorente.

So what Achilles heel is holding Bayern Munich back from European glory? What fatal flaw needs to be addressed before they can start dreaming of a famous night in Istanbul/Lisbon (or wherever the next Champions League final actually is)?

Well... more or less nothing, actually.

Unlike the rest of Europe, this current Bayern side have no excuse not to write their name into the continental history books at the next possible opportunity, and if recent signs are anything to go by, they haven't missed a beat in quarantine.

Hansi Flick's record at Bayern before football was cancelled: WWWWLLWWWWWWWWDWWWWWW.

Hansi Flick's record at Bayern since football got up and running again: WWWWW.

Robert Lewandowski? Top Bundesliga goalscorer with 30 goals, five goals clear of Timo Werner in second place. Thomas Müller? Now holds the record total of Bundesliga assists in a single season.

It would be easy to reel off more stats to really hammer home the point, but you get the picture, don't you?

If you really took pleasure in being difficult, you could argue that, since taking over from Niko Kovač, Flick can hardly claim to have been tested by Tottenham's reserves, a young Chelsea side and Bundesliga teams which unironically start Jonjoe Kenny.

But aside from the fact that Flick has made the minimum expectations look stylish with a previously struggling team, and that the Dortmund team a whole seven points behind him are really, really good, the story of Bayern's revival goes much deeper than stats.

The current Bayern Munich team has the deceptively simple quality of everything appearing to be in just the right place.

Thiago Alcantara's passing keeps Bayern moving through the gears while Joshua Kimmich covers, Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry hunt for isolated full-backs while Müller prowls around the hidden pockets of space, Alphonso Davies chases down the opposition wing-back with David Alaba calmly reading the game behind him.

It looks so easy with the talent Bayern have at their disposal, but creating a team where each player specialises in a certain role - and specialises well - is one of the hardest tasks in football.

Think about the struggles of Barcelona to find the best role for Frenkie de Jong, or the myriad tactical responsibilities that Paolo Dybala has had during his time at Juventus - Flick's achievement has been to find a defined place for everything, even the ethereality of Müller, within an attacking system that is so fearsome precisely because it makes everything simple for its constituent parts.

This is a quality which Liverpool also possess - the technically demanding roles of their front three basically roll off the tongue by now - but what about when Firmino is out of puff and Divock Origi has to come on (which, to be fair, hasn't always produced the worst results)?

There's no such issue for Bayern, who can now boast of an absurd strength-in-depth under Flick which arguably positions them as the most tactically flexible side in Europe at the moment.

Part of this is just to do with Bayern's financial muscle - there aren't many other clubs where Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perišić would be used as rotation options, nor are there many that can afford to play Álvaro Odriozola for a mere 91 minutes.

But Flick has been exceptional at bringing in unfancied signings in from the cold and finding a role for them as indispensable squad players - case in point, Leon Goretzka.

The former Schalke man looked lost in a sea of talented midfielders under Kovač, but Flick got him to hit the bench press (and then some), and he's ended up as Bayern's do-it-all deputy, dominant in his defensive duties in midfield and impressing with his ability to arrive late in the box and get on the end of crosses.

What should perhaps scare Europe's superpowers the most is that Bayern aren't even operating at full capacity.

Corentin Tolisso and the impressive Niklas Süle are still yet to return from lengthy injury layoffs,
Alexander Nübel will become the best backup goalkeeper in the Bundesliga when he joins from Schalke, and in addition to the likely probability of Leroy Sané bolstering Bayern's impressive forwards options, there are whispers of German football's wunderkind Kai Havertz stepping in as Müller's understudy.

If these revelations had your Barcelonas and Man Citys hiding behind the sofa already, there's worse news - Flick is leading one of the most impressive youth revolutions in world football.

Sarpreet Singh, Mickaël Cuisance and Joshua Zirkzee probably all saw themselves mostly playing for Bayern Munich II in the 3. Liga this season, but Flick has thrown caution to the wind in terms of player development.

Flick, speaking of his young players in a November press conference, told reporters after promoting Zirkzee, Singh and fellow youth players Leon Dajaku and Oliver Batista Meier: "We're convinced that these boys will develop in the best way if they train with the best players."

Since then, they have all vindicated Flick's faith, Zirkzee especially - not content with scoring a last minute winner against Augsburg with his first ever Bundesliga touch, he repeated the trick two days later, scoring an 85th minute opening goal with his first touch in Die Bayern's victory against Wolfsburg.

The sum total of Flick's achivements - streamlining Bayern's depth and quality to make things easier for the players - could be seen in their season-defining away victory in Dortmund.

Bayern were under siege by Lucian Favre's men for the first 40 minutes, but where they might have wilted Kovač, under Flick they knew that if hard-working players like Goretzka, filling in for Thiago, helped support the collective, their individual quality would tell, and sure enough Kimmich's majestic chip decided the game.

Europe - that was a warning. It'll be you next time.