Unusual date: In the middle of the first round of the DFB Cup, Bayern Munich is up against RB Leipzig in the Supercup – a fact check.
The Winter World Cup in Qatar influences the schedule right from the start of the season – the fact that the Supercup is being held right in the middle of the start of the competitive game and the two participants are therefore sitting out the first round of the cup until the end of August is new. The last unique selling point of this first stress test between champions and cup winners on Saturday (07/30/2022) is the kick-off time alone: When the ball rolls in the Leipzig Arena from 8.30 p.m., the eleven cup games of the same day (probably) have already been whistled.
New top stars only at Bayern
The football fans in the country can look forward to a whole series of new faces – but FC Bayern has signed all the top stars. Sadio Mané came from Liverpool FC, Matthis de Ligt from Juventus Turin, Ryan Gravenberch and Noussair Mazraoui from Ajax Amsterdam and forward jewel Mathys Tel from Stade Rennes. They should all be in the squad on Saturday – possibly even in the starting XI with the exception of Tel.
Leipzig was extremely cautious on the transfer market, but can celebrate the contract extension with exceptional striker Christopher Nkunku, who was courted in half of Europe.
Trouble because of Konrad Laimer
Just like Bayern Munich, Leipzig wants to add more. While the “Bulls” national player David Raum from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is the desired player, Bayern have been digging for weeks on a Leipzig player of all things: Konrad Laimer could play for the lawn ballers for the last time in the Supercup – and that annoys RB managing director Oliver Mintzlaff very much.
“I hope that Bayern will find other ideas and not always bring our players”, scoffed Mintzlaff. The anger is understandable: Before Laimer, the entire coaching team around Nagelsmann, defense chief Dayot Upamecano and captain Marcel Sabitzer had recently switched from the Elster to the Isar.
Goretzka is missing, Coman can play
In terms of personnel, it looks relatively relaxed before the first scan of two title candidates. Leon Goretzka will be out for several weeks at Bayern due to a knee injury.
Winger Kingsley Coman, on the other hand, is there. There were doubts about his eligibility to play because the Frenchman was banned for three competitive games on the penultimate day of last season in the Bundesliga game because of a red card. According to the DFB, this only applies to championship and/or DFB cup games.
Robert Lewandowski and the Question of the Game
How does Julian Nagelsmann intend to replace the 50 competitive goals that Robert Lewandowski, who has moved to Barcelona, has regularly scored for Bayern in recent years? The Supercup could provide initial information – a double lead of Mané and Serge Gnabry is conceivable, or one of the two as a central striker and Thomas Müller, as usual, with all the freedom in front of, next to, behind and around him.
The possible lineups
Bavaria: Neuer – Pavard, de Ligt, Hernandez, Davies – Kimmich, Gravenberch – Coman, Müller, Gnabry – Mané
Leipzig: Gulácsi – Gvardiol, Klostermann, Orban, Angelino – Laimer, Schlager, Olmo, Forsberg – André Silva, Nkunku