March saw the final international break for the season disrupting the chaotic club calendar, however it also signalled the start of the run-in for many leagues around Europe, with several placings to be played for before the culmination of the season. With a few weeks break splitting the action along with some Champions League action, it’s been a very busy month of football.

One club who have essentially fallen foul of the busy calendar is Bayern Munich, who despite holding onto their Champions League hopes, they look out of the Bundesliga title race, ending their 11 years straight at the top of Germany football. While it’s yet to be full determined (although by the time you read this that might be confirmed for Leverkusen), Bayern do seem to be forced to look at the Champions League as their last hopes of silverware success.

Having said all that, their squad does still contain a huge plethora of talent and excitement, and we saw plenty of that this month. With 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, they were entertaining for neutrals even if their fans might not be so fond of this month, and with their 4 league games averaging 5.5 goals per game including an 8-1 hammering, it’s fairly clear why we’ve picked out a Bayern player as out POTM.

Jamal Musiala is undoubtedly the shining light of this Bayern side that even contains one of the world’s best strikers. At only 21 years of age he has reached 160 first team appearances for Bayern and 43 goals, along with 26 Germany appearances and a trophy cabinet containing every possible club title already, he is truly a star of the future and of now also. If only he’d decided to represent England at international level, we could have another of the world’s top attacking talents heading into the Euro’s this summer, however it does seem like Musiala will be the player who forms the future of this reforming Germany side.

In March, the 21 year old attacking midfielder produced a great run of form, with 4 goals and 3 assists for his side in those dominant victories that came. Although unable to help his side get past Freiburg and rivals Dortmund, he did feature heavily in those powerful displays against Mainz and Darmstadt. With 2 assists also in the international break which saw Germany beat France and the Netherlands, it may be a club season to forget for Bayern, but for Musiala this summer could see him add international silverware to his growing trophy cabinet.

If you have anything to add to our NextGoalWinner POTM decision, or disagree with our pick, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

March 1st: SC Freiburg 2-2 Bayern Munich – Bayern stumbled just 12 minutes into their first game of the month, as Freiburg took the lead early. They were level going into half-time, before Musiala made it 2-1 in the 75th minute with this first goal for the month and looked to give them the 3 points to keep them on the coattails of Leverkusen. That was until the 87th minute when Freiburg got the equaliser to leave Bayern with dropped points and allowed their title challengers to extend the gap at the top. For Musiala, he was the standout for Bayern as his 83 minutes on the pitch saw 1 goal from 8 shots, 100% shot accuracy, 88% pass accuracy and 8 duels won. With his side letting the game slip after he’d been withdrawn, the youngster could walk away with his head held high for his own efforts even with his team dropping off.

March 9th: Bayern Munich 8-1 Mainz 05 – Despite the slow start in their opener for the month, Bayern did make up for it as they won comfortably in the Champions League tie against Lazio to avenge the first leg defeat, and then returned to domestic action in style with an 8-1 drubbing of Mainz 05. With Harry Kane bagging 3, Goretzka 2 and Musiala, Muller and Gnabry adding the rest, it was a really efficient and clinical performance which they needed to build confidence in front of their own fans after stumbling a few times in the previous month. Musiala had his strongest outing of the month with his goal, 2 assists, 100% shot accuracy, 85% pass accuracy and 100% long ball accuracy just some of the stats from this impressive performance all-round.

March 16th: SV Darmstadt 2-5 Bayern Munich – After the demolition of Mainz, Bayern went into the international break with 18 goals in 4 games for the first half of March (including Champions League), as they avoided an early scare after going 1 down to Darmstadt to win 5-2. Musiala got them level at 1-1 and then added his second to make it 3-1 as he was the star man on the pitch yet again with his brace and assist making it 7 goal contributions (4 goals 3 assists) from the 3 league games. With 9 shots, 8 chances created and his 3 goal involvements he was a true handful with a man of the match performance as his quality shone through.

March 30th: Bayern Munich 0-2 Borussia Dortmund – After the international break where Musiala contributed 2 assists to help Germany claim some important morale boosting victories over France and the Netherlands, there was a poor end to the month as they lost 2-0 to their rivals Dortmund which essentially sealed the leagues fate for Bayern as they were outplayed by Edin Terzic’s side. Musiala had his league outing without a goal involvement for the month as he struggled to get into the game. Being withdrawn in the 63rd minute with his side 1-0 down, his stats didn’t make for spectacular reading, however despite this disappointing end and up and down month for Bayern Munich, Musiala did more than enough to claim the NextGoalWinner POTM award for March.