It is tough to argue with Bayern Munich’s record thus far, having won all four of their competitive matches thus far between the DFB-Pokal and Bundesliga. They sit atop of the league table on nine points with a goal difference of +8. Perhaps the only downside of their record thus far is the fact that they have only recorded two clean sheets; one against SSV Ulm in the DFB-Pokal and one against SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga.
Defensively, there is still work to be done for Vincent Kompany’s side, but the new manager no longer has Matthijs de Ligt to choose from in the center of his backline. The towering Dutch defender was offloaded to Manchester United during the summer transfer window in what was a move that did not go down too well with the majority of Bayern fans. Optics were made worse when the only defensive signing of the transfer window, Hiroki Ito, went down with an injury during a preseason friendly.
So far, Dayot Upamecano and Kim min-Jae have been Kompany’s go-to center backs, a contract from the pairing of De Ligt and Eric Dier that had become the favorite of previous manager Thomas Tuchel.
Over the weekend, after Bayern’s 6-1 win over Holstein Kiel, board member for sport Max Eberl was asked about the rationale for letting De Ligt leave the club during the summer window, especially since it was something not well received by the Bayern faithful. There had even been a petition mass-signed by Bayern fans urging the club not to sell him.
“I followed it (the fan reaction), including the petition. I know that many fans identify with him. Nevertheless, I had to make this decision because we also had to sell players. We felt more comfortable with Upamecano and Kim because they can defend higher up the pitch. And then an offer came in for de Ligt,” he explained on Sport1-Dopplepass (via @iMiaSanMia).
For what it is worth, Bayern’s front office did make a point going in to the summer transfer window of trying to alleviate the club’s collective wage bill, but De Ligt and fellow defender Noussair Mazraoui were not really a big part of that burden. Before the pair of defenders left for Manchester United, De Ligt was the ninth-highest earner at the club and Mazraoui was the fifteenth-highest earner. Leon Goretzka, Kingsley Coman, and Joshua Kimmich are all still on higher wages than De Ligt was and all three were potentially candidates for sale over the summer.
For De Ligt, he has since said that a reunion at United with former AFC Ajax manager Erik ten Hag was not the sole reason he did decide to leave Bayern this summer, but more of the fact of how big and historic of a club the Red Devils are. For him, it was a new challenge he was not willing to pass up despite his affinity for Bayern.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s massive 6-1 blowout of Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga? Great, then we have just what you need with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Postgame Show, which is available on Patreon, Spotify, or below:
