Now that Bayern Munich’s U-19s’ winter break has started, it is a great time to look back at the season so far and evaluate it. In this article, the individual performance of the members of Bayern’s U-19 squad during the first half of the season will be graded from 1-6, with 1 being the best grade and 6 the worst. This encompasses all the matchdays (1-14) in the U-19 Bundesliga, the performance and elimination in the single round of the DFB-Junioren-Vereinspokal that was played, as well as all the participation in the UEFA Youth League (the U-19’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League) up until the winter break. Not every player has played enough minutes to be fairly rated, however. So only players who have contested at least 270 minutes will be given a rating. Without further ado, here are the ratings:
Max Mergner: NR
18, DM, 64 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists
Poor Max Mergner has been out with a cruciate ligament injury for most of the season, though he was able to make his return before the winter break and showed some bright moments of quality in his limited minutes.
Can Paylan: NR
17, DM, 47 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists
Can Paylan is yet another player who missed most of the first half of the season through injury.
Christian Kouam: NR
18, CM, 84 minutes, 0 goals, 0 assists
Christian Kouam’s status is a huge mystery. After being a fairly regular member of the U-19 squad last season and even making some appearances for the U-23s, he just…completely vanished from the team. He has not appeared on the team sheet since matchday five, nor has he appeared on the injury list.
David Santos: 2
17, DM, 715 minutes played, 0 goal, 0 assists
Finally, we have a midfielder who actually played during the first half of the season. David Santos was perhaps not that high in the pecking order of the U-19s to start the pre-season, but quickly won coach Peter Gaydarov over and used the other injuries in midfield to carve out a regular role at the base of midfield. The portuguese U-17 European Championship runner-up is extremely composed on the ball, never hurrying his pass and playing with a serene calm that few possess whilst being pressed by others. He does not possess the greatest mobility and can be somewhat naïve defensively, but overall his performances for a couple of months was bright, before an injury kept him out of the last two months of the Hinrunde.
Veis Yildiz: NR
18, CM, 248 minutes played, 0 goals, 1 assist
Poor Veis Yildiz was caught between being too old for Bayern’s preferred age to be in the U-19s and considered to be not quite good enough to play for the U-23s, so, despite not picking up an injury, he barely played for either team.
Bogdan Olychenko: NR
17, DM/CM/AM, 254 minutes played, 1 goal, 0 assists
Despite his limited minutes, attacking midfielder Bogdan Olychenko has undergone impressive development from the summer to the end of the year. In the summer, the 5’5” midfielder was extremely unsure on the ball, easy to knock off of it and struggled to find the calm to play past an opponent’s press. As a result, his performances really poor and he played very few minutes early in the season. But he re-appeared for the last three. All of a sudden, the Ukrainian was playing deeper as a defensive midfielder. Furthermore, he was using his low center of gravity to push opponents bigger and stronger than him away, was running around the field like a terrier, seemingly covered every blade of grass on the pitch, using his dynamism to blow past opponents with the ball and demonstrating a much more mature decision making when passing. It was really impressive. But it was also just a three game sample size. Hopefully, Olychenko can keep this up for the Rückrunde.
Valentin Yotov: NR
18, AM, 0 minutes played
Valentin Yotov is another 18-year-old who did not play. He saw his contract extended to 2025 last summer but it does not seem as if he will be getting another extension.
Louis Richter: 2-
17, CM/AM, 771 minutes played, 0 goals, 2 assists
After recovering from an injury that kept him out for the first six matchdays, Louis Richter came into the team and he played fairly well. He participated in virtually every game he was fit for, including the ones in the Youth League and captaining the U-19 side for the last Youth League match against Shakhtar Donetsk’s U-19s, and benefitted from the multitude of injuries Bayern had in midfield. He was fine. But he did not stand out in any way, either.
Jussef Nasrawe: B
17, DM/CM/AM, 1561 minutes played, 6 goals, 2 assists
The main man of the midfield himself, Jussef Nasrawe, is last on our list. Oft chosen to wear the captain’s armband, Nasrawe is an incredibly gifted, technically brilliant footballer with an amazing left foot and a very good understanding of the game. Additionally, he takes responsibility for penalties and set pieces in general and does a good job with them. Having said that, these qualities did not always translate to the pitch in the first half of the season. Due to the unending injuries in midfield, in particular that of David Santos, the usually advanced midfielder had to drop deep to play as a defensive midfielder. At around 5’6”, Nasrawe struggled to physically compete in defensive duels and often lacked the defensive nous to really keep the defense secure.
But even on the ball, which is supposed to be his area of strength, Nasrawe was rather ineffective. He has this frustrating habit of taking a few more touches than necessary, resulting in the opposition team easily setting themselves up before the German has fully sorted the ball out. Nasrawe is capable of any kind of pass and he has a phenomenal understanding of directing possession, but the hesitancy he played with for large stretches of the season served to undermine the effectiveness of these passes and slow the team down.
However, Nasrawe improved as the season wore on and really started to grow into his role as defensive midfielder, allowing his immense quality to finally shine through. He has not fully eradicated his bad habits on the ball, but those signs of improvements are promising. Because when he does get rid of them, his immense quality on the ball resembles that of Joshua Kimmich. In my opinion, he has the potential to be a similar metronome in midfield to the one the Germany captain is for Bayern and it would be such a shame to see Nasrawe not realize that potential.
Overall score: 3+
This was hardly a banner Hinrunde for the midfield. Nobody actually excelled while most of the midfielders did not play for one reason or another. Still, with Santos returning from injury, Nasrawe adapting to his new role, Paylan hopefully returning to full fitness as well and Olychenko showing serious signs of improvement, there is hope that the Rückrunde will see some better performances from the midfield.
