Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry were celebrated at FC Bayern as the offensive duo “Sanabry”. In the meantime, they have become problem children in Munich, because: both are stuck in a slump in form.
FC Bayern is currently in the hot phase of the season, in which the course for success and failure is laid. While in the Bundesliga they have a comfortable nine-point lead over Borussia Dortmund five games before the end of the season, the Munich team is threatened with premature elimination in the Champions League.
This article comes from an author of the news portal fcbinside.de: In 2019, Vjeko Keskic founded the page from Bayern fans for Bayern fans. The independent website reports daily on current events at the German record champions.
Tomorrow’s quarter-final second leg against FC Villarreal is undoubtedly the most important game of the season so far. The Munich side have to make up for the 1-0 defeat from the first leg and Julian Nagelsmann is struggling with two delicate personnel problems just before this decisive game.
Nagelsmann despairs of Sané
Looking at Munich’s last two appearances, one quickly realizes that the Bavarian goal machine has started to stutter. Against Villarreal and Augsburg they failed to score a single goal in the first half.
The reasons for the lack of goals are complex, but Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry play a major role. The two wingers have been in a low form and slower for weeks, but the situation around the two DFB stars on the Isar is definitely coming to a head.
Sané was substituted early last Saturday in a narrow 1-0 win against FC Augsburg and looked visibly pissed off. After the obligatory handshake with Julian Nagelsmann, the winger disappeared into the dressing room in a rage. The FCB coach took note of Sané’s behavior, but then “didn’t want to make a headline out of it”. According to the 34-year-old, Sané is most annoyed by his current performance, but why it hasn’t been able to build on his strong form in the first half of the season for weeks is also a mystery for Nagelsmann: “I like Leroy very much as a person and as a player. Everyone knows he has incredible qualities. He’s self-critical enough and knows he hasn’t played well lately. I don’t know why.”
Gnabry is playing for his future at Bayern
Even with Serge Gnabry, little has happened in the past few weeks. The 26-year-old oscillates between the substitute bench and the starting XI and lacks any consistency in his performances. While he was able to score the important 2-1 against Freiburg after coming on as a substitute, he liked to radiate Villarreal and Augsburg zero goal threat.
Not only the Bayern fans are now annoyed by Gnabry and his fluctuations in performance, those responsible on the Isar also seem to be losing patience. As the “Bild” reports, sports director Hasan Salihamidzic took the winger to his chest after the Augsburg game and made it clear in a one-to-one conversation that much more was expected of him.
A further complication for Gnabry is that the contract talks with Bayern have been stagnating for months and his future with the record champions is still unclear. According to reports, the club and the player are too far apart when it comes to salary. In view of his current performance, it is questionable whether the FCB bosses are willing to improve their current offer again. According to “Bild” information, Bayern Gnabry offer almost 15 million euros per year. However, this should demand between 18 and 20 million euros. According to “Sport1”, those responsible on Säbener Straße are now more and more concerned with a sale next summer, because they don’t want to run the risk of losing Gnabry 2023 on a free transfer.
How does Nagelsmann react?
It will be exciting to see whether and how Julian Nagelsmann will react to the current low form of Sane and Gnabry. Currently only Kingsley Coman is set on the offensive wing positions. However, the problem is that the Bayern coach does not have many alternatives. One of them could be called Jamal Musiala. The youngster feels much more comfortable in the center, in the Müller position, but is clearly ahead of Sane and Gnabry in terms of form curve and has already played as a winger for Bayern in the past. Above all, his strength in one-on-one duels and high ball security could persuade Nagelsmann to take this unusual step.