Nobody would have expected that on Friday (September 30th, 2022, live ticker at sportschau.de) in the supposed Bundesliga cracker between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, the fifth in the table would receive the 15th. The Nations League games were no encouragement either.
Manuel Neuer was just missing this discussion. The ex-world goalkeeper already missed the two Nations League games against Hungary (0: 1) and England (3: 3) because of a corona disease, voices promptly popping up in the media landscape that make you think about the number one in the Call for national team. The “mirror”, for example, is upset that despite ter Stegen’s permanent top performances, the goalkeeper question at Hansi Flick “cemented” be and “not even questioned anymore” will.
Kimmich and Gnabry seem burdened
A lot of that is certainly true, but Bayern’s real crisis really can’t be pinned down to Neuer. With six goals conceded in seven games, he is still decent and has prevented even worse. The fact that the Bayern game against Leverkusen after four winless league games in a row is already groundbreaking is mainly due to the attack and midfield. And there is an interaction between the club and the national team.
Leon Goretzka, who like Neuer had to leave the DFB early due to the corona virus, had no chance to position himself better for the fight for the Bayern regular places through the international matches than in the course of the season so far.
With the exception of Jamal Musiala, who was outstanding against England, the mental strain on his team-mates was evident. Joshua Kimmich is still miles away from his usual class and charisma, the same applies to Serge Gnabry: both seem to be carrying a backpack, unfree, uncreative and with completely unfamiliar technical glitches.
Sané and Müller disappeared
With Leroy Sané, the national team might even have been counterproductive. He came to Hansi Flick as one of the few in good form, then played diligently but unluckily against Hungary – and dived completely against England and acknowledged his substitution in the 68th minute in a demonstratively bad mood.
You would never see such body language with Thomas Müller, but the trip to the Nations League was anything but a fountain of health for him too: against Hungary he was completely unrelated to the game and colleagues, against England he sat outside for 78 minutes while Kai Havertz collected the possibly decisive points for the World Cup starting eleven in his position in the second round.
Schick and Hložek still in the low
The Bayern professionals, with the notable exception of Musiala, continued to get caught in crisis mode, which Hansi Flick addressed almost sympathetically: “Often the national team was the place where you took things in a different direction. That’s why we also hoped that we could support the clubs.” But the hope remained.
It will certainly not be a great consolation for Bayern that things are looking even worse at Bayer. Leverkusen has only one win of the season and is level on points with the penultimate Wolfsburg. In the cup, the final stop was in Elversberg.
After all, scored the connecting goal
Encouragement Nations League? Not really either. Bayer’s Czech attackers Patrik Schick and Adam Hložek started side by side against Portugal, but lost 4-0 – and Schick even missed a penalty.
Schick then scored against Switzerland on Tuesday evening (September 27th, 2022) – but even his goal to connect could not prevent the Czechs from being relegated from Nations League A. In addition, the attacker was little involved in the game and had hardly any contact with the ball. Hložek even stayed on the bench for 90 minutes this time.
Four Holland defenders – none nominated
In the Leverkusen defense, four Dutchmen were happy about the Oranje victory against Belgium and a place in the Final Four – but only on the Bayer training ground: Neither Mitchel Bakker, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Jeremie Frimpong or Daley Sinkgraven had it in the Squad completed by Louis van Gaal. Also not nominated this time were Callum Hudson-Odoi for England and Moussa Diaby for the French, for both it will be tight for the World Cup.
After all: Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký did very well with Finland and secured second place in Nations League B, Group 3 with a 1-1 win over Romania and a 2-0 win in Montenegro. However, just like Neuer at Bayern, Hrádecký had not been the problem in Leverkusen before.