Mario Goetze. Thomas Muller. Thiago Alcantara. All three players are major parts of Pep Guardiola's dominant Bayern Munich side and are seen as major pieces for the future. The team also recently acquired Robert Lewandowski and rumor has it that Julian Draxler is also a player that Guardiola will look add. All of them are young, so one would assume that they are expected to play major roles in coming years as such aging veterans like Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery fade into the sunrise. But there is one player that may actually be more important than all three of them: Toni Kroos.
There were recent rumors that Kroos could be on his way out the Allianz Arena; Manchester United was rumored to have a huge interest in the young star. Adding to that speculation is the fact that he remains without a contract.
But then Wednesday happened. And Kroos put up a terrific performance against Arsenal, one that shocked the entire soccer world.
Kroos rifled a shot from outside the box early in the game that forced a huge save from Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczęsny. Later in the half he created the superb scoring chance for Robben that led to the penalty and red card for Szczęsny. But his night was not over. Kroos scored the opening goal with a rifle from right outside the box. And he continued to mesmerize with terrific passing throughout the evening. BBC reports that Kroos made 127 pass attempts in the Arsenal half and was successful with 96.1 percent of them. He also totaled 147 passes overall, the same exact number completed by all 12 Arsenal outfield players.
Kroos' stats have not been overwhelming in the Bundesliga; he has one goal and four assists in 19 matches. He also has two assists in the German Cup. A year ago he finished with six goals and eight assists throughout the entire season. A year earlier he scored four goals and nine assists.
But those stats do not tell the whole story. According to WhoScored, Kroos has a 91.6 passing success percentage in the Bundesliga and a 95.8 passing success percentage in the Champions League; Bayern Munich as a team has an 88 passing success percentage. More importantly, Kroos is third on the team in passing success percentage in the Bundesliga for players that have appeared in at least 10 matches this season. He also averages about 68 passes per game in the Bundesliga and a whopping 98 passes per game in seven Champions League matches this season; he ranks sixth on his team in the average Bundesliga passes per game.
And his stats indicate that he is trending upward in these stats. In 2012-13, he made 23 appearances and finished with an 89.7 passing success percentage in the Bundesliga; the year before his passes connected 87.6 percentage. The year before he completed 86.3 percentage of his passes and the year before he managed to complete 82.2 percent of his passes while playing for Bayer Leverkusen.
And he is only 24.
Should Bayern Munich let Kroos go? It is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine that Guardiola would release a player that is instrumental to system.