The surprising move from Portugal international Joao Cancelo to FC Bayern in the winter was greeted with great applause from many quarters. After the first few weeks, record national player Lothar Matthäus is already questioning the loan transfer.
Joao Cancelo moved to Bayern Munich on loan from England champions Manchester City in the winter. At the Sky Blues, after the World Cup, he had moved down the hierarchy with team manager Pep Guardiola and was so dissatisfied with his new role as a bench presser that he quickly ran away. A real coup for FC Bayern, which also secured a purchase option for the full-back, who can be used on the left and right.
Striking: Cancelo had no difficulties adjusting to his lightning debut in the DFB Cup (4-0) and was immediately one of the best players on the pitch. But it is also striking that since then the two-footed defender has only appeared three more times in a starting line-up for head coach Julian Nagelsmann.
Most recently, against 1. FC Union (3-0) and against VfB Stuttgart (2-1), others were given the lead. Quite a few fans were quite surprised when backup Josip Stanisic received the starting eleven mandate twice in a row in the league and not the newcomer. A circumstance that now also caused astonishment for ex-Munich Lothar Matthäus.
FC Bayern: First frustration with new signing Cancelo?
“If I supposedly wanted this player for so long, then I have to know whether he fits into my system or not,” wrote Matthäus in his column for “Sky”. Because: Nagelsmann had switched from the usual system with a back four to a three-man defense in the past few weeks. The right flank was then plowed by offensive forces like Kingsley Coman or Serge Gnabry. Alphonso Davies is set on the left wing.
According to Matthäus, it now “looks like he (Cancelo, editor’s note) doesn’t quite fit into Julian Nagelsman’s plans”. It seems “that Cancelo in the back three cannot play the defensive part as a central defender, who helps to build up the game”.
It should be obvious that Cancelo is not happy about his role as a bench presser. “Bild” wanted to have observed during the training of the substitutes that the first frustration had already built up with the winter newcomer.