After all, it will be happy to forget how much mental strength such situations also require the rest of the players on the pitch. After all, it has to go on, there is not much time to process these bad pictures. And that is damn difficult. Almost out of self -protection you have to change a switch that hides what has just been experienced and let you work again. In a sport, in which you can still quickly be labeled as “mentally too weak” today, this is an enormous challenge. As a professional footballer, you are forced to master them. That sounds cold, that sounds insensitive – but unfortunately another option doesn’t stay during a game.
Now everyone at FC Bayern has to prepare for a long, long downtime of Musiala. It is quite possible that it will no longer be used this year.
The question now is: How does the German record champions compensate for this loss? Shortly after Musiala’s injury, an extension with Thomas Müller was brought into play, which actually played his very last game for Bayern against Paris. I say it very clearly: I don’t think anything about it. That would be the absolutely wrong way, both for Bayern and Müller. After all, as a player you also have a certain pride – and it would simply not fit Müller and his character, now again for half a year or a whole season, where he has already celebrated his own farewell so extensively.
After the game, he himself reacted with exactly the right words: Questions about further whereabouts in Munich felt “uncomfortable” in connection with the Musiala injury, and the word “tasteless” also came up. There is nothing more to say.
I now expect a clear and unmistakable reaction from the Bayern leadership around Max Eberl: there must be no transitional solutions or over-the-ended laying transfers. Instead, it must now be clear what I have already asked in my last column: Nick Woltemade has to be signed this summer. He can play in Musiala’s position, fill the gap that has opened up in the long term. Uli Hoeneß only said on Saturday about a transfer by the Stuttgart: “I would very much welcome it if it works this year – and if not, then next year.” That has changed suddenly.