After a difficult time for him, Dayot Upamecano convinced in the 4-0 win of his FC Bayern Munich against VfL Wolfsburg – in three roles.
After Julian Nagelsmann had been talking about Dayot Upamecano’s strong performance in the 4-0 win against VfL Wolfsburg for a while, he wanted to remind one thing. “He’s still a young player, I keep saying that,” said the Bayern Munich coach. “Because you’ve seen him in the Bundesliga for so long, you sometimes forget that he’s not yet 28.”
In fact, the Frenchman has only just turned 23, but has already played 127 Bundesliga games. Very few of his appearances are just boring average, instead genius and madness like to alternate. In Nagelsmann’s eyes, this has something to do with his age. At times, Upamecano is reminiscent of the young Jerome Boateng, who would later grow into a permanent stabilizer in the central defense of FC Bayern.
At Upamecano, however, it was known that the madness took over again: In the top game against Borussia Dortmund (3: 2) he had blundered several times and then also seemed insecure against FSV Mainz 05 (2: 1). He was then criticized, on Tuesday in Stuttgart (5-0) he was just sitting on the bench. It is quite possible that Upamecano would have stayed there for the game against Wolfsburg had Niklas Süle not had several physical problems.
FC Bayern Dayot Upamecanos three roles against Wolfsburg
So Upamecano returned straight to the starting line-up – and relatively unexpectedly made one of his best games so far for FC Bayern. And not just as a central defender, but also as a director and goalscorer. Genius!
Because Wolfsburg was extremely low, Upamecano moved up extremely high just like his teammates. Or did the other require one thing? Again and again he came deep in the opposing half to the ball (138 ball actions, best value), even his average location on the field was considerably beyond the center line. From there, Upamecano tried to crank the game in the style of a director with vertical passes. It worked best just before the end, when he initiated Robert Lewandowski’s goal to make it 4-0 with an ingenious chip on Jamal Musiala. “He didn’t bring two or three in the first half,” analyzed Nagelsmann. “That was the training effect that he gave himself, that the ball came then.”
By the way, Upamecano’s appearance as a goalscorer was already behind him at this point, in the meantime he had hit with a head to make it 2-0. It was his first goal for Bayern. “Finally,” said Nagelsmann. And because he was already on the subject, he demanded in general: “We have to get our defenders to be dangerous for goals.” Where is that supposed to lead? In the season so far, his team has already scored an average of 3.3 goals per game.
In his causal role as central defender, Upamecano was hardly challenged against harmless Wolfsburg. Nevertheless, according to Nagelsmann, he was “very concentrated in the remaining defense.” “We had good control. Sometimes that’s more important than 20 chances.”
FC Bayern Munich: three-way battle in central defense
For Upamecano it was the conciliatory end to a varied half-year: The move for 42.5 million euros from RB Leipzig to Munich. The devastating opening game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, strong performances including assists at Bayer Leverkusen and against TSG Hoffenheim, the low point in the 0-5 debacle in the DFB Cup in Gladbach in mid-October and finally the weak performances in December. Perhaps also to be considerate of his age, Nagelsmann attested Upamecano “a stable first half of the season” and only “two weaker games” without specifying them.
In fact, the coach did not give any of the three central defenders more game minutes than Upamecano (1832), whom he already valued and, above all, can assess from his Leipzig days. Süle has 1472 minutes and Lucas Hernandez 1470, in Stuttgart they had convinced side by side. Who of the three will prevail in central defense in the long term does not currently appear – just like before the season – not yet foreseeable.
