Luis Diaz's Goal Drought at Bayern: A Struggle to Find Form
In the Bayern dressing room, the soundtrack was laughter and loud music. After a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin, there was no shortage of reasons to celebrate.
Harry Kane, the last to leave the Allianz Arena just after midnight, walked out with a gingerbread heart iced with “100” in his hand and another milestone to his name. Inside, the players had just been made to speak.
“The coach had a few of us give speeches in the dressing room,” Kane said. “Michael scored his first hat-trick for us, Isi scored his first goal for Bayern, I got my 100th goal, Serge Gnabry is back after his injury.” He grinned as he added that Michael Olise’s speech had been the shortest of the lot.
The mood was light. For most.
A few metres away, Luis Diaz slipped out without a word. No gingerbread, no microphone, no celebration. In a night full of winners, he cut the figure of the unlucky man in the corner.
A drought that will not break
The question almost feels cruel now: when did Luis Diaz last score for Bayern Munich?
You have to go back to the opening day of the Bundesliga season, when he made it 5-1 against Stuttgart. Since then, five games. No goals. No assists. Little to cling to.
The problem is not that he disappears from matches. It is what happens when the chances fall his way.
Against Schalke, Osnabrück in the cup and Bodö/Glimt in the Champions League, Diaz passed up a series of clear openings. The most glaring moment of the lot came last week in Elversberg: Michael Olise picked him out perfectly in the box, only for Diaz to ignore the obvious shot and try something elaborate. It ended in a tame backheel and visible fury from Josip Stanisic.
Against Union, his big moment seemed to have arrived. Bayern’s best move of the game, a crisp attack, ended with Diaz finishing cleanly. The stadium roared. Then the flag went up. Offside. Again, nothing on the scoresheet.
This was the game in which he had publicly promised to turn the corner. Speaking to Sky/RTL before the match, Diaz had said: “I think that goal will come in the next game. You also have to stay calm, mentally, so it does not weigh on you. The thing is to keep working on it, to improve. I know it is only the finishing. Only the final touch is missing – and then it will be fine.”
The finish is still missing.
Numbers that tell a harsh story
The contrast with his team-mates is brutal.
According to Sofascore, Diaz has already missed six big chances in the Bundesliga this season. After the first four league matchdays, his expected goals stood at 3.1. His return: zero since Stuttgart.
Kane, by comparison, has three league goals from an xG of 2.17. Olise, the star of the early season, has four from an xG of 2.65. Across all competitions, the Frenchman already sits on eight goals and three assists. Ismael Saibari, who replaced Diaz in the 63rd minute against Union, has one goal and three assists from his first four Bundesliga appearances, all in just 178 minutes.
The numbers underline what the eyes already see: everyone around Diaz is making their chances count.
And yet, this is the same player who dragged Bayern forward last season. Across 51 club games, Diaz delivered 26 goals and 23 assists, then added 7 goals and 3 assists in 16 matches for Colombia. He reached the World Cup last 16. He played, and played, and played.
That workload is now being used as a shield.
Special leave, again
Diaz will not get his chance to reset the narrative until 10 October, when Bayern travel to Augsburg. The international break stands in the way – and this time, he will not be part of it.
Colombia coach Nestor Lorenzo, in agreement with Diaz, has left him out. The idea is simple: stop, breathe, recharge.
“Some would be glad if they had a dip like his,” Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl said on Friday, trying to lower the temperature. “In South America, the international matches are not absolutely essential now and it is simply good for the player at the moment. He has simply had a great many games. So in that respect it is nice.”
Diaz, Eberl explained, will “go on a bit of holiday first and then get going again. He will have his programme. There is no need to worry that he will not come back fit.”
Curiously, Diaz himself had almost predicted such a scenario before the season even truly settled. In that same Sky/RTL interview, he openly admitted he would have welcomed more competition in his position.
“Of course I always want to play,” he said. “But if there is someone there who can help in my position: welcome. It helps a lot when things are not going well. Then your 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 good as we are too.”
The missing back-up that might not be missing
Bayern’s plan had been clear: bring in a proper back-up for Diaz on the left. Then, late in the window, they sent Arijon Ibrahimovic on loan to Augsburg, a move that surprised the 20-year-old and left Diaz as the only natural left-sided option.
So will Bayern revisit the idea in January?
“From where did Isi score his goal today?” Eberl shot back when asked if the club might look again at a left-wing alternative in winter.
The answer was obvious. Saibari had struck from the left side of the penalty area. He is not a classic winger – he lacks the raw pace – but his intelligence, vision and technique allow him to float across the frontline. On top of that, Serge Gnabry can also cover Diaz’s role.
For now, Diaz’s starting place is not under immediate threat. Vincent Kompany is rotating heavily, determined to spread minutes among his stars. After the international break, a run of midweek fixtures will demand exactly that.
The Colombian, then, has time. But he also has company breathing down his neck.
A familiar reset button
This is not the first time Bayern have sent Luis Diaz away to clear his head.
In December 2025, a Champions League suspension and a fifth yellow card in the Bundesliga left him unavailable on both fronts. Kompany seized the chance and told him to disappear 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.
Diaz returned refreshed and tore through the second half of the season.
Now the club is pressing the same reset button, only much earlier in the campaign. The dressing room is celebrating Kane’s 100th goal, Olise’s hat-trick, Saibari’s breakthrough and Gnabry’s comeback. Diaz walks past it all and into a short, enforced pause.
The last time a mid-season holiday changed everything for him. This time, with the competition sharper and the margins finer, can it rescue his season again?
