19. Arjen Robben
After overcoming a short period of injuries, Robben opened up his 2016/17 campaign on a high for Bayern as he scored on his return to Bundesliga action in a 3-0 win against a tricky Hertha Berlin squad in only a short 25 minutes of action off the bench. Robben also soon found his footing in the Champions League as he lead Bayern to a 4-1 victory in which he scored in (MOTM performance), against a tricky PSV Eindhoven squad. However just before the winter break, Robben showed a slight dip in form, which caused some concern in the Bayern camp. To make matters worse Robben came off injured in the 45th minute of Bayern’s pivotal fixture against RBL. In the end it didn’t mean much, as Bayern ran away 3-0 winners.
After the break, Robben took a few games in order to get back into rhythm, but he soon came good in a crucial period for Bayern. Turning up big in some extremely key Bundesliga fixtures against Dortmund (H) and RBL (A) as he propelled Bayern to victory in both games, which would build onto Bayern’s slim mid season points lead. Despite Bayern’s shortcomings in the Champions League, Robben scored a pair of crucial goals in the Champions League in the round of 16 against Arsenal (home and away), while also setting up the penalty that Lewandowski would then later convert against Real Madrid (A). At the end of the season Robben was crowned his 6th Bundesliga title for his hard work, further cementing his place as an all time great for Bayern and the game of football.
Robben put up a complete performance against bitter domestic rivals Dortmund. More notable for scoring his classic “cut in”, Robben also caused the Dortmund backline havoc by stretching and attacking the channels with pace, allowing for Bayern to shuttle the ball up the field quickly via Robben and to create many goalscoring opportunities in their 4-1 win at home. For his efforts, he was awarded MOTM.
Robben was on the mark for Bayern this season in the Bundesliga, with his hot goalscoring and creative form he helped the Bavarian giants break the record for consecutive Bundesliga crowns won (5) and lead the club to its 27th Bundesliga title.
Surprisingly enough, Robben’s success this season heavily relied on keeping a relatively clean medical bill as he only missed a total of 6 competitive games in the whole of last season for Bayern, which for his standards, is incredible. Also due to both injuries occurring earlier on in the season, Robben was able to get into and maintain a peak level of world class form for the complete second half of the season without any injuries halting his game, unlike in many previous season with Bayern (2014/15 especially). This allowed him to flourish immensely.
Robben re-signed a contract with Bayern just recently (January 2017) which will see him stay with the Bavarian giants until 2018.
By: Orges Saliu/@DerGuardiola