FC Bayern Munich after winning the DFB Cup: And now everyone on the bench

The double scorer looked upset. “I was already there,” Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting said on the television monitor of the scene where Düren’s David Pütz only nodded his balloon behind the line after a good hour. But there was no goal-line technology or interjection from Cologne, the video basement was not busy that night.

After all, it was only a first-round match at DFB-Pokal and therefore Choupo-Moting’s performance in his debut in the Bayern jersey despite two goals and a forced penalty was so impossible to overestimate. as the debut of the other three newcomers.

Overall, the foursome, newly signed in early October, made a very solid debut, but each and every one of them also revealed sizable deficits, making it clear in this emotionless 3-0 against the fifth division team of the North Eifel that the four newcomers are now the Will take on the role for which they were hired: substitute players on the bench. It is not enough for more.

There is a big problem

The biggest standout, of course, was ex-Hamburg-Nuremberg-Schalke-Mainzer Choupo-Moting, whom Bayern were able to get for free from Champions League finalist Paris Saint-Germain. On Thursday he showed his qualities as a great center forward who can be terribly annoying as an opponent because he is always in front or on his feet. Someone who is also passionate about working backwards, but who, compared to Robert Lewandowski, lacks acceleration, speed and ball handling.

With the other three players it was still a problem sometimes. Douglas Costa initiated the creation of the first Munich match and, as in the early years of Munich from 2015 to 2017, he offered complicated and beautiful actions, but he remained stuck, as did Bouna Sarr, whose Choupo-Moting pass finally reached 1 : 0 retrieved. The right-back, who was bought by Olympique de Marseille as a substitute for Benjamin Pavard, didn’t really find his way into the game and made a lot of mistakes.

And Marc Roca, the acclaimed defensive midfielder for Espanyol Barcelona, ​​who also signed shortly before the transfer window closed in Munich, looked largely like a foreign body, with no connection to the game, without the presence that de otherwise it would find in the sixth position of outstanding players like Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka know it. It was clearly lacking.

“So far I am satisfied in the first step”

Coach Hansi Flick was cautious in evaluating the newcomers. “Today they have had the opportunity to show what they can do. They have seen good approaches in all the players, so far I am satisfied in the first step. We will give them the time they need to be 100 percent.”

Then Flick talked about the lack of practice in matches and that new players also need to adapt and get used to Bayern’s philosophy of play. However: many bad passes were created unnecessarily. Instead of unrestricted throwing the ball into an opponent’s legs to an independent teammate, that has nothing to do with a special tactical basic lineup, which was just plain bad at times.

Flick knows that despite the very good approaches, he will still have a lot of work to do with the newcomers and of course he knows that their place is initially in the reserve role so that they can be used over and over again if necessary. . Either because a regular player is injured or because he has to be saved due to the heavy workload. In short: then you can bring it in, as Niko Kovac once said about Thomas Müller, “when necessary.”

Müller was one of the few veterans that night, at the final whistle the FC Bayern players were among others Angelo Stiller, Leon Dajaku and Daniels Ontuzans, who took to the field for Armindo Siep, who seriously injured his ankle, and even Fiete Arp could play. Jamal Musiala, the last in action in the Bundesliga, looked like a veteran by comparison.