The Dutch winger started in the Bundesliga leaders’ 2-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen and revealed his belief that the team have dropped in form lately
Bayern Munich must not lose focus despite their enormous advantage at the top of the Bundesliga, Arjen Robben has warned.
The Bavarians beat Bayer Leverkusen this weekend 2-1 thanks to a late Philipp Wollscheid own goal which added to Mario Gomez’s great solo effort in the first half and cancelled out Simon Rolfes’ equaliser.
Robben told Bundesliga.com: “Of course we can be happy with a 20-point cushion, but we must not lose our focus due to this big advantage and we’ve got to keep our concentration in the coming weeks.
“At the end of the day, we’re all doing it together. Our captain Philipp Lahm takes the lead, and there are a few other players who take the responsibility, but overall, the team has a really good character.”
Arjen Robben also revealed that he agrees with Uli Hoeness’ recent comments that Bayern have dropped in form lately, with their scraping through on away goals in the Champions League last 16 against Arsenal in midweek as a recent example.
“I think it [the criticism] was good. That’s why he’s president, and I think he’s right,” he said. “We’ve got to be self-critical.
“If something’s not good, then we’ve got to talk about it. There’s been a lot of praise from everybody in recent weeks with words like ‘world class’, ‘fantastic’ and ‘wonderful’ being used, but you’ve always got another game to come.”
The Netherlands international has not been a regular starter for the Bundesliga leaders this season but he insists that he is happy with the way he and many of his team-mates who have been on the fringes of the first team performed on Saturday afternoon.
“It was a totally different game to the Arsenal match,” he added. “We had several new faces on the field, but we wanted to prove ourselves again and we went into the game with the necessary aggression.
“We’ve beaten the third-placed side 2-1 away from home, so you’ve got to be happy with that.
“It’s hard to say [if we’re back to our best] because we played with a much-changed side. It may not have been the greatest of games, but we dominated from the beginning. We fought more in the second half and didn’t play as much football as we normally do, but we got a lucky break in the end and we won.
“I was a little bit surprised and didn’t expect [the rotation]. But it’s the coach’s decision.
“I don’t like the term ‘second string’ because all of the players deserve respect and we are all important. Of course there were changes to give those who have not played so regularly some action, and when you win, it’s all good.”