The German national players Jamal Musiala, Niklas Süle and Serge Gnabry currently have a difficult time at Bayern Munich, in the top game against Borussia Dortmund (3: 2) they all sat on the bench at first. The reasons for this are different.
As one of only 15,000 people admitted, national coach Hansi Flick enjoyed the privilege of being able to watch the top Bundesliga match live in the Signal-Iduna-Park on Saturday evening. If you look at the line-up of FC Bayern Munich, Flick’s French counterpart Didier Deschamps would also have been entitled to one of the coveted tickets.
There were more players who were eligible for his team than for Flicks. The end result was 5: 4. Flick’s successor Julian Nagelsmann decided on three at least somewhat contested positions in direct duels against active DFB kickers and for representatives of the Equipe Tricolore.
On the double six, in addition to Leon Goretzka, it was not the German child prodigy Jamal Musiala who replaced Joshua Kimmich, who had been in quarantine for what felt like an eternity, but Corentin Tolisso. In the back right Benjamin Pavard was preferred to Niklas Süle, before that Nagelsmann again trusted Kingsely Coman instead of Serge Gnabry. Vive la France! These decisions never came as a surprise; in fact, they underscored trends.
Corentin Tolisso instead of Jamal Musiala
Corentin Tolisso (27) is the positive surprise of the past few weeks at Bayern. Since his arrival in 2017, the central midfielder has been known to have been missing more than he was playing. At the beginning of this season it was calf problems that, surprisingly, he had never suffered from in Munich before. After his comeback at the end of October there were two lucky coincidences for the unlucky fellow: newcomer Marcel Sabitzer disappointed persistently, Kimmich did not get vaccinated. So Tolisso got a lot of playing time relatively out of nowhere, which he used relatively well.
“He’s a machine in a duel and wants to have a lot of balls. He has outstanding qualities that I want to see against Dortmund,” said Nagelsmann at the press conference before the top game. According to the coach, Jamal Musiala (18) would only have been considered for a place in the starting line-up if Kimmich and Goretzka, who was also slightly ailing, had failed in the central midfield.
Musiala’s prime position is actually that of another German national player anyway – Thomas Müller’s role as a playmaker. Annoying for him that this miller never fails and always plays. Musiala has not been in the starting line-up since mid-October. Nagelsmann recently referred to Musiala’s not so bad playing time of an average of 35 percent per game. But he also said that “I sucks” if this value does not increase by the end of the season: “Then we would end up promoting it too little.”
In fact, the value has actually decreased somewhat since these statements, Musiala only played 25 minutes against Dortmund. In stoppage time, he saw up close how Tolisso missed the culmination of his next good performance, in a counterattack he shot the ball from about 40 meters past the empty goal. After the final whistle, Tolisso was the first player Nagelsmann loved. Will such pictures also be shown in the coming season? Tolisso’s contract expires in the summer, Nagelsmann emphasized: “It’s never good when a player leaves for a free transfer.”
