Michael Olise makes all the right noises at Bayern Munich after one-man debacle | Bundesliga

IIt’s easier said than done not to change when superstardom strikes. If anyone ever did it with aplomb – both in terms of meteoric rise and without blinking an eye – it was Michael Olise. After his near-single-man demolition of Werder Bremen on Saturday afternoon, which would have taken most players days to keep quiet about, it took the new Bayern Munich darling around half an hour to emerge from the dressing room. Encouraged by Jamal Musiala to spare a few words for the club’s in-house television channel, Olise was all but shoved in front of the camera by his younger team-mate, who then did most of the talking in describing the new arrival’s brilliance.

The first traces of Bundesliga Olise thus resemble Premier League Olise, at least on the surface. The difference is that ruthless excellence now takes centre stage in an all-star cast, and the first run has started with a bang. We’ll have to see if Vincent Kompany can lead Bayern to the trophies that eluded them last season, and perhaps Harry Kane’s comment during the week after a big Champions League win that his team needed to defend more thoroughly against better opponents is something to take to heart. For now, that’s nothing to worry about. Right now, Bayern are a force to be reckoned with.

After conceding 20 goals in a week (six against Holstein Kiel last weekend, nine against Dinamo Zagreb in midweek, which led to the sacking of their coach Sergej Jakirovic, and now this 5-0 win) they deserved a drink or two during the traditional Oktoberfest visit on Sunday, to paraphrase the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Olise arrived looking ice-cold, wearing angular mirrored sunglasses above the standard Bavarian Janker jacket. The regional paper also noted that Kompany had lifted any managed limits on beer consumption, trusting his players, although it feels like his group are still a long way from inelegance at the moment – ​​and their new star is leading the way, expertly walking the line between classic and forward-looking.

Olise’s goal to open the scoring in Bremen was decent enough, sparked by a pass from Harry Kane, but was hardly a warm-up for the whirlwind to come. It’s hard to name a highlight between the dribble and pass that set up Musiala’s goal, the cushioned lay-up for Kane at the end of a dazzling second half or his own shot into the top corner after a one-two with Serge Gnabry. Even Kompany found it hard to put such a high-level performance into words. “He has a very special talent,” the coach said. “He couldn’t have started much better for Bayern. He needs to keep going like that, but I don’t get the feeling he’s a guy who feels a lot of pressure. He enjoys football.”

The demands on the pitch have always been the easy part for Olise, a quiet man off the pitch. But a changing dimension in recent months has seen the 22-year-old deal with a barrage of things outside his typical comfort zone. His performances for the French Olympic team, both before and during the tournament, made it clear that he would not be able to keep ploughing along for long. Last month’s first senior call-up for The Blues attracted much attention from the media and the public, from an audience enchanted by his ability and fascinated by why a reserved young man from Hammersmith had chosen to represent France.

Olise did brilliantly, carefully explaining (in a second language) how holidays in France with his French-Algerian mother and watching Thierry Henry on television had fuelled his dream. He is already popular and beloved by the public, who can see how he overcomes his shyness to connect, and also the opportunities he offers to add imagination to a French midfield that sometimes lacks real craftsmanship. In recent months it has become clear how focused and ambitious Olise is behind his reserve. His new club-mate Mathys Tel was refused permission to go to the Olympics with France; Olise insisted that he be allowed to take part while he completed his transfer to the Allianz Arena.

Perhaps on the pitch, surrounded by a much better supporting cast – and he is good enough to eventually define the rest of Bayern’s players, because that may not seem such a big challenge – there is the best possible distraction from all the other things that are “part of the business”, as Musiala reminded him on his way to the cameras at the Weserstadion. The real business, in Olise’s mind, remains achieving those lofty goals. “You don’t see the real Michael from the outside,” Kane suggested. “(He’s) a fantastic player and a really good guy. He wants to get his numbers up – he wants goals, he wants assists.” Now that Olise is increasingly looking like he can control events on the pitch, the rest of the world will have to get used to him playing the game on his own terms off the pitch too.

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Let’s get this straight from the start; Bayer Leverkusen are still Bayer Leverkusen. A goal down in Sunday’s afternoon clash with Wolfsburg in the fastest time (with debutant Nordi Mukiele scoring an own goal), they led, trailed again at half-time and then of course snatched the points through a brilliant third-minute stoppage from Victor Boniface. But if the spectacle held the crowd in its grip and if Florian Wirtz continued his incredible form, an angry Granit Xhaka was in no mood to talk about either. “We have to be honest with each other,” he raged. “This is not good enough. A top team cannot concede three goals in 45 minutes.” Xhaka then challenged his team-mates by suggesting that their level of hunger, rather than the system, was responsible for their current defensive gremlins.

Elsewhere, there’s no doubt that, outside of Xabi Alonso, Sebastian Hoeness is the best coach in the Bundesliga. On a Sunday where the later match was built around the return of Waldemar Anton (who was booed relentlessly) and Serhou Guirassy to Stuttgart, their new team Borussia Dortmund were swept aside. Hoeness had already helped Stuttgart shoot out of the relegation places and into second place after losing a number of key players. Now they’ve done it all again, and on the back of a brace from Deniz Undav and a virtuoso display from Enzo Millot (who played for the French Olympic team alongside Olise), they’ve flattered BVB 5-1, if anything – all after Stuttgart gave it their all in an unfortunate defeat at Real Madrid in midweek. “I never want to see us like this again,” simmered visiting coach Nuri Sahin who – it should be clear by now – has his work cut out for him in rewiring Dortmund’s sporting culture.

Points at last for the promoted teams, with Holstein Kiel grabbing a late draw at Bochum thanks to substitute Shuto Machino’s late equaliser, while St Pauli’s titanic performance against RB Leipzig could easily have earned them a win rather than a goalless draw (“we brought more courage into the team,” said coach Alexander Blessin). Both are better off than Schalke, who squandered a three-goal lead to lose 5-3 at home to Darmstadt and sit third from bottom in Bundesliga 2 after sacking coach Karel Geraerts and technical director Marc Wilmots (Benedikt Höwedes has already turned down the latter post).