Worry about the sUPA meltdown…
Bayern conceded a harsh 2: 4 swatter in Bochum. It was 4-1 at half-time – the worst first-half beating in the league since 1975!
Nagelsmann was even too angry at half-time to raise his voice: “If you’re 4-0 down in Bochum, you don’t have to yell as a coach. Everyone must know that that was not enough. Every player at a certain level has to sit there and think: That was grits what we did for 45 minutes.”
Especially bad: the defense.
Upamecano is bad at 1: 1, Süle can be danced out in the middle. Upamecano owed the penalty to 1: 2 with a completely unnecessary handball. At 1: 4, the Frenchman is also tunnelled. Overall, the Bayern defense looks like a headless chicken coop in the first half.
That’s why there’s defensive fear at Bayern now!
There is a lack of a real defense chief and real leaders, like Alaba, Boateng, Hummels or Lahm have been in recent years.
The most likely head of the defense this season was Niklas Süle (26) – but he makes the departure to Dortmund! Dayot Upamecano (23), Lucas Hernandez (25) and Benjamin Pavard (25) are mostly great fighters, but not real leaders.
Hernandez would be most likely to assume the role of boss. Due to Davies’ absence, however, he currently has to go to the left and can’t really be the boss from there. Pavard is a rather reserved type, not a speaker.
And Upamecano is currently the biggest problem child. For the second time he made a total blackout game: he also made several mistakes in the 0:5 cup debacle in Gladbach. Just like now in Bochum, where he was completely beside himself again.
Coach Julian Nagelsmann (34) took him out at halftime, deliberately not wanting to criticize him explicitly: “We don’t have to talk about individuals, we didn’t do a top performance as a team.”
In fact, Nagelsmann had actually made the switch especially for Upamecano: a chain of four instead of a chain of three so that he didn’t have to choose between Upamecano and Süle and “Upa” didn’t sit outside for the third time in a row. Nagelsmann took the wrong tactic fully on his cap: “We had an idea that was not implemented well. I should have reacted faster, then Bochum would have had more problems. I did that too late.” After the break it happened again the last tried and tested chain of three – without Upamecano…
The Frenchman now worries Bayern – because the 42.5 million new signing should actually be the defense chief of the future. But that’s hard to imagine at the moment. In many games he fights and tackles hard – but these dropouts like Bochum or Gladbach shouldn’t be there all the time.
It is all the more important that Bayern bring in a top defender to replace Süle in the summer. Currently you have to worry about Bayern’s defense future…
