Kane, Olise and Diaz: Bayern's formidable front three chasing Barcelona and Real Madrid greats

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They are cantering to another Bundesliga title, victorious in 23 of 28 league matches and scoring 100 goals in that time. Bayer Leverkusen stand between them and a first domestic cup final in six years, and they finally look like making a deep run in the Champions League, too. Their trip to the Bernabeu on Tuesday is for the first leg of the quarter-final against Real Madrid, who posed a formidable front three in the 2010s: Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale flanked Karim Benzema when they won three consecutive European crowns between 2016 and 2018. But now Bayern’s trio of Harry Kane, Michael Olise, and Luis Diaz are, statistically, the finest in Europe this season. They are chasing the greatness achieved by Madrid’s ‘BBC’ trio, who netted a combined 100 goals at their peak in 2014-15. There are seven instances since the turn of the millennium of three attacking players collectively hitting a century of goals across all competitions in one campaign. All played for Barcelona and Real Madrid. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar — the infamous MSN partnership — recorded 131 and 122 goal seasons in 2015-16 and 2014-15. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("[id='datawrapper-chart-3IxJ9']");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Kane, Olise and Diaz, a trio in their first season together, are on 86 goals (57 of those in the league). They could feasibly play 13 more matches if they reach the finals of the DFB Pokal and Champions League. Kane missed their Bundesliga win against Freiburg at the weekend, but is expected to feature against Madrid at the Bernabeu. It is almost inevitable that they will better the club and Bundesliga record from 1971-72, when Gerd Muller fired in 40 goals and second and third-top scorers Ulrich Hoeness and Franz Roth chipped in with 13 and 12. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); What makes them so effective? A few things. Kane, Olise and Diaz are all outstanding attackers — Kompany often talks about their “high individual quality” — and the trio can all create, too. Bayern, who sit only behind Madrid for highest wage expenditure, have phenomenal attacking depth. Talented youngster Lennart Karl, 59-cap Germany winger Serge Gnabry, and on-loan striker Nicolas Jackson mean that even when Kompany rotates, they have firepower. Diaz and especially Olise have ideal profiles to partner Kane. The England international has already produced his best-ever scoring season across all competitions (48 goals, 31 in the league) and needs 10 more Bundesliga goals to break Robert Lewandowski’s record from 2020-21. Kane has converted all 10 of his league penalties this term and has showcased every type of finish otherwise: tap-ins, long-range strikes, angled finishes, headers. His creative capabilities and all-round game became features at former club Tottenham Hotspur, as did the partnership with Son Heung-min. At Bayern this season, Kane is surrounded by so many good creators that he can be a pure goalscorer. Kompany exclusively plays a 4-2-3-1 with Kane at the top. It’s a case of picking three from Karl, Diaz, Olise, Gnabry, and Jamal Musiala to play behind him. In attack, they shift into a 3-2-5 to overload opponents. Full-backs become extra midfielders — sometimes Kompany plays a right-footer at left-back and the same inversion on the other side. Bayern attack more down the right. Olise likes seeing plenty of the ball and operates as an inverted winger, cutting inside to shoot and provide back-post inswinging crosses. Here he is scoring away to Atalanta in the 6-1 first-leg round-of-16 win. Right-back Josip Stanisic has made a supporting overlap run. Olise is one of five red shirts in the box in the image above. Bayern are effective at getting numbers into the penalty area and at having well-spaced attackers. They should get those crossing options, considering they control possession and territory more than any other Bundesliga team — and are more dominant than recent Bayern iterations, too. Their man-to-man pressing and aggressive counter-press are relentless, forcing opponents to cede possession and maintain waves of attack. The second of Bayern’s eight goals in a demolition of Wolfsburg in early January came from Olise finding Diaz at the back post. He had five different targets to aim at. Olise, who arrived from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2024, is thriving. He is the standout player across Europe’s top-five leagues for assists (18) and ranks second for big chances created. His inswinging corners from the right have been pinpoint, hitting front and back-post locations to set up 10 goals. In open play, he mixes between staying high and wide and moving infield to combine. Olise’s weight of pass is exceptionally consistent, even if he is reluctant to use his non-dominant right foot. He’s created 22 chances for Kane this Bundesliga season, the most of one Bayern player for another. Take two examples where he assists Diaz. The first is from a DFB Pokal quarter-final win at home to RB Leipzig. Bayern break through the press and Olise sees the opportunity to play direct, in-behind a disjointed defence. Diaz races through to score. Those straight runs between the centre-backs became a big part of Diaz’s game at Liverpool in 2024-25, where he regularly led the line. His off-ball running is a super strength, and he has the box instincts of a No 9 to arrive on time for crosses. Another Olise to Diaz combination came within a minute of the Colombia international coming on as a half-time substitute away to Hamburg at the end of January. Olise, faced up against a low block, plays a one-two with No 10 Gnabry and uses a short dribble to attract a centre-back and open up the through ball to Diaz. “We were criticised a little,” Max Eberl, Bayern’s director of sport, said of the Diaz signing recently. The club paid Liverpool €70m upfront for Diaz, who turned 29 in January. “We knew what we were doing. We were convinced he would be a perfect fit, not only because of his goals and assists, but also because of his attitude and intensity.” Diaz, with double-digit goals and assists in the Bundesliga and 37 goal involvements across all competitions (22 goals, 15 assists), is having his best-ever season. That goes for Olise and Kane, too. As a trio, they have elevated Bayern’s counter-attacking game. Kompany’s side lead the Bundesliga for fast-break goals and have already scored double (12) this term what they managed from transitions last season. That makes sense considering Kane, Olise and Diaz all thrived in strong counter-attacking systems in the Premier League previously, and Germany’s top flight is notorious for suiting teams and forwards who are good off turnovers. “Technically spectacular,” was how Diaz described Kane and Olise to Sky Germany in mid-February. “I’m very proud to be part of this attack.” Keep firing at this rate, and the trophies and records will surely come. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Liam Tharme is one of The Athletic’s Football Tactics Writers (and sometimes athletics). He graduated from Chichester University with an MSc in Sports Performance Analysis in 2022, and was previously an academy performance analyst. He was one of MHP Group's award-winning 30 Journalists to Watch in 2025. Follow Liam on Twitter @LiamTharmeCoach