The good news for FC Bayern: The Champions League quarter-finals are only three weeks away! There is a good chance that Davies and Goretzka will be healthy again by then. It would be better…
The fact is: Compared to Real Madrid, Manchester City and Liverpool, FC Bayern is currently not on an equal footing.
2: 4 in Bochum, 1: 1 in Salzburg, 0: 1 half-time deficit against bottom Greuther Fürth (final score 4: 1), 1: 0 in Frankfurt, 1: 1 against Leverkusen, 7: 1 against Salzburg, 1: 1 in Hoffenheim – this is not a series that makes bosses, team, coaches and fans happy or scares the international competition.
Coach Nagelsmann seems to want to prove two things:
1. It also works without a back four!
Heynckes, Guardiola, Ancelotti, Kovac and Flick have all won the nine championships including two trebles since 2013 with a back four. That’s Bayern DNA. Nagelsmann tried it again in Hoffenheim with a back three, although Upamecano, for example, would have been ready. Only once in the past nine games did Bayern keep a clean sheet.
2. Lewandowski, Müller, Gnabry, Coman & Sané are on the pitch at the same time!
The Bochum debacle did not lead to Nagelsmann writing off this hurray variant. That may work at home against the Austrian champions, but against the greatest in Europe there is a risk of downfall.
Three more weeks until the quarter-final first leg in the premier class – hopefully with Davies in the back four and Goretzka as Kimmich’s partner…
