Luis Díaz Faces Pressure at Bayern After Missed Chances
The numbers are brutal, and at Bayern they always are. Six big chances missed in three Bundesliga games. One goal. For Luis Díaz, the new season has started with a harsh spotlight and a rising sense of impatience inside the club.
According to Sport1, his performances so far have caused “bewilderment” in Munich. Not because he goes missing in games. Quite the opposite. He gets into positions, he stretches defences, he keeps appearing where it hurts. Then the moment comes – and the ball will not go in.
A heel-flick too far
The frustration boiled over in Elversberg. Bayern were level at 1-1 on Sunday when, in the 67th minute, Michael Olise slipped a perfect pass into the box. Díaz had peeled into space, the angle ideal, the stage set.
His first touch let him down, just enough to disturb the rhythm. Instead of resetting and striking cleanly, he improvised, trying to steer the ball into the net with his heel. It was the kind of finish that looks glorious when it works. This one didn’t. The chance vanished.
Josip Stanišić had already thrown his arms in the air in anticipation of the net bulging. TV cameras caught his celebration turning into disbelief in a heartbeat. As Díaz’s effort failed, anger flashed across the Croatian’s face. He lashed out in frustration, a raw reaction that said everything about how thin Bayern’s margin for error feels right now.
To Díaz’s right, Harry Kane had been waiting for the simple option – a square pass, a tap-in, 2-1. The England captain did not hide his annoyance either. He made his feelings clear to his team-mate in the aftermath, then did what elite strikers do: five minutes later he spun and buried the winner himself, 2-1 to Bayern.
The Elversberg miss came on the back of a goalless draw against Schalke, where Díaz was not alone in wasting chances against Loris Karius but still found himself at the centre of the debate. At Bayern, forwards are judged on the moments that decide games. Right now, Díaz keeps choosing the wrong side of that line.
A familiar pattern returns
This is not entirely new territory for the Colombian. In his debut season after arriving from Liverpool, he carried a reputation as a serial chance-misser for long stretches. The movement was there, the chaos, the threat – but the finishing lagged behind.
Then something clicked. He “flicked the switch,” as many around the club saw it, and turned into one of Europe’s most dangerous wide forwards, ending the campaign with 26 goals and 23 assists. That kind of output buys credit, even at Bayern. It also raises expectations to unforgiving heights.
This season, the story has regressed. FotMob’s data lists six big chances missed in just three Bundesliga appearances. In the Champions League against Bodø/Glimt and in the DFB-Pokal tie with VfL Osnabrück, he again found himself in promising scoring positions without adding to his tally. His only goal so far came on the opening day against VfB Stuttgart, rounding off a 5-1 win – a game in which he had already squandered two excellent opportunities.
So the pattern is clear: Díaz continues to get into the right areas, but the end product has deserted him. At a club that measures attackers by cold numbers, that quickly becomes a problem.
Eberl backs Díaz – for now
Inside Säbener Straße, there is irritation, but not yet panic. Board member for sport Max Eberl struck a more relaxed tone after the Elversberg game, leaning on his own history to defend the winger.
“Should I, as a former defender who never scored a goal, tell Lucho Díaz how he should score a goal better?” Eberl said, referring to his 0 goals in 104 top-flight and 111 second-division matches for Bochum, Fürth and Gladbach. “Lucho doesn’t have the momentum at the moment.”
He made a point of spreading the responsibility. “We missed several chances today. At some point his drought will end again too.”
That is the bet Bayern are making: that Díaz’s slump is a question of timing and rhythm, not of quality. His previous season suggests that when confidence returns, the floodgates can open quickly.
For now, though, every miss feels heavier. Team-mates’ body language tells its own story. So do the cameras. So do the numbers.
Díaz has already shown once in Munich that he can flip the narrative and silence the doubts. The question, in a season that will allow little patience, is how long Bayern are willing to wait for him to do it again.
