Luis Diaz Faces Challenge Amid Bayern's Goal-Scoring Success

The gingerbread heart in Harry Kane’s hand said it all. “I got my 100th goal,” he grinned, drifting out of the Allianz Arena just after midnight, the last Bayern player to leave after a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin. Inside, the dressing room had been a carousel of speeches and milestones.

“The coach had us give a few speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said. “Michael scored his first hat-trick for us, Isi scored his first goal for Bayern Munich, I got my 100th goal, Serge Gnabry is back after his injury.” When asked whose speech was shortest, he laughed: Michael Olise’s, of course.

Joy everywhere you looked.

Except in the corner where Luis Diaz slipped out, silent, head clear but hands empty.

The odd man out in a night of plenty

Bayern’s forwards are feasting. Diaz is fasting.

While Kane, Olise, Gnabry and Ismael Saibari had concrete reasons to celebrate, Diaz walked away from another goalless night. He did not look broken, did not sulk, but the contrast could hardly have been sharper. In a team overflowing with good news, he is the one storyline stuck on repeat.

His last goal for Bayern? The 5-1 strike on the opening Bundesliga weekend against VfB Stuttgart. Since then, five straight matches without a goal contribution. Against Schalke, Osnabrück in the cup and Bodö/Glimt in the Champions League, he wasted clear chances. The low point came in Elversberg: teed up perfectly by Olise in the box, Diaz ignored the obvious finish and tried to improvise, ending with a tame backheel that infuriated Josip Stanisic.

Against Union, his cleanest moment was wiped away. He finished off what had been Bayern’s best move of the match, only to see the flag and hear the whistle. Offside. Again, nothing to show.

He had gone into the game with a promise hanging over him. “I think that goal will come in the next game,” he told Sky/RTL beforehand. “You also have to stay calm mentally so it does not weigh on you. The important thing is to keep working on it, to improve. I know that it is only the chance conversion. It is only the finish that is missing – and then it will be fine.”

The finish is still missing.

Numbers that tell a brutal story

The data underlines what the eyes already see.

According to Sofascore, Diaz has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga alone. After the first four league matchdays, his expected-goals figure sat at 3.1. The ball should have gone in more often. It hasn’t.

Around him, others are cashing in.

• Kane has three league goals from an xG of 2.17.
• Olise, sensational since his arrival, has four from an xG of 2.65 in the Bundesliga and eight goals plus three assists across all competitions.
• Then there is Saibari. He came on for Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union and scored his first Bayern goal from the left, adding to a tally of one goal and three assists in just 178 Bundesliga minutes.

Diaz, by contrast, is living off last season’s glow. And what a season it was: 51 games for Bayern, 26 goals, 23 assists. On top of that, 16 matches for Colombia with seven goals and three assists. A relentless schedule, crowned by a World Cup run to the last 16, but even there his finishing wobbled.

Back in Munich, that problem has only grown. Against Union he barely reached the positions where he usually thrives.

A break instead of a call-up

Now comes a pause. For Bayern, international football gives way to a trip to FC Augsburg on 10 October. For Diaz, it brings something rarer: rest.

Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo, in agreement with Diaz, chose not to call him up. Bayern’s board member for sport Max Eberl framed it as a necessary reset.

“Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” Eberl said on Friday, before explaining the decision. In South America, he argued, the international matches right now are “not absolutely necessary” for Diaz. After so many games, the player needs a breather.

Diaz will “first have a bit of a holiday and then get going again. He will have his programme. There is no need to worry that he will not come back fit,” Eberl added.

The idea is simple: unplug him now so he can be fully charged when Bayern’s calendar explodes again with midweek fixtures after the break.

The back-up he wanted but never got

The situation carries a curious twist. Diaz himself had predicted something like this.

In that same Sky/RTL interview, he openly admitted he would have liked competition in his position. “Of course I always want to play. But if someone is there who can help in my position: welcome. That helps a lot when things are not going well. Then the team-mate is there to help you – and that way you alternate. That is very important. I would have liked it. But fine, it did not happen. We are still good as we are.”

Bayern’s original plan aligned with that thinking. The club had intended to go into the season with a genuine back-up on the left. Instead, just before the transfer deadline, they loaned Arijon Ibrahimovic to FC Augsburg, a move that surprised the 20-year-old himself.

So are Bayern short on the left now that Diaz is misfiring?

“Where did Isi score his goal from today?” Eberl shot back on Friday when asked whether the club might revisit the idea of signing a left-sided attacker in winter. The answer was obvious: Saibari’s goal came from the left side of the penalty area.

Saibari is not a classic winger. He lacks the raw pace that defines the position, but his game intelligence, vision and technique allow him to slot into almost any attacking role. Gnabry, now back from injury, can also operate on that flank.

For the moment, Diaz’s starting place is not under immediate threat. Vincent Kompany is rotating heavily to keep his stars fresh and engaged. With more midweek rounds looming after the international break, minutes will be spread around.

But the pressure is there now, and it is real.

A familiar solution – and a familiar question

This is not the first time Bayern have prescribed a mid-season escape for Diaz.

In December 2025, suspended in the Champions League after a red card and simultaneously banned in the Bundesliga due to a fifth yellow, he suddenly had a free window. Kompany sent him away for a few days.

“I think it is simply sensible now that he is away for a few days and then comes back mentally and physically at one hundred per cent,” the coach said back then.

The move worked. Diaz returned recharged and delivered a strong second half of the season.

Now history repeats itself, only earlier and under different pressure. The team is flying. The goals are flowing. The speeches in the dressing room are getting longer.

When Bayern walk out in Augsburg after the break, the question will hang over the left wing: does Luis Diaz rejoin the party, or does this dip turn into something far more serious?