Coach Vincent Kompany of FC Bayern Munich had to restrain himself briefly after taking the lead in the Bundesliga. “If we carry on as we are now, we might end up… erm… actually, I don’t want to say that. Just carry on,” said the coach, who was viewed critically before the season, with a grin after his third Bundesliga game as coach of the record champions.
After the furious 6:1 (4:0) win at newly promoted Holstein Kiel, the Munich star ensemble is in first place, something the spoiled Bayern fans had to wait almost a year for. For captain Manuel Neuer, however, one fact was even more important than looking at the table: “We have the winning mentality back. We are not resting now.” Of course, it is still too early to forget the overwhelming season of the defending champions from Leverkusen.
Eberl defends Goretzka’s ousting
Now the record champions are where they believe they belong. The start to the season went perfectly: the cup win against second division newcomers Ulm, three wins from three league games – and almost everything else sounds good too. Harry Kane scored three times in Kiel, Jamal Musiala defied criticism from TV expert Dietmar Hamann with his goal after 14 seconds and Leroy Sané is back in the squad after his groin operation. Sounds harmonious. But FC Bayern wouldn’t be FC Bayern if there weren’t some hardships.
The big loser in the still young season is midfielder Leon Goretzka. The 29-year-old is in a difficult position under coach Kompany. FCB would have liked to sell the top earner in the summer. But nothing came of it. In Kiel, the 57-time national player, who is currently of no use to national coach Julian Nagelsmann, was not even in the squad.
Sporting director Max Eberl defended Goretzka’s ousting. “I like him a lot, even if he’s obviously angry at the moment. I understand that too. But that’s part of football life,” Eberl told TV channel Sky. “We communicated clearly from the start that we would have a very balanced squad. Leon knew beforehand that we had a player in Alex Pavlovic who has now become a national player and that we would now make a transfer with Palhinha,” Eberl explained. “The fact is that the competition at FC Bayern is fierce,” he added.
Matthäus: “I miss him in the squad”
Former professional and Sky expert Lothar Matthäus was surprised. “I miss him in the squad. Everyone praised him for how he trained this week. We also heard that Kompany praised him highly. I’m obviously surprised that he’s not in the squad at all,” said the record-cap international.
Goretzka was not part of the squad in the first round of the DFB Cup in Ulm (4:0). He was in the squad for Bayern’s victories in Wolfsburg and against Freiburg. But he was only substituted on shortly before the end of the game against Breisgau.
Freund: “We always want to be at the top”
“If it’s not Leon, then someone else isn’t in the squad,” said Kompany, trying to defuse the situation. Goretzka missed Bayern’s extremely confident and composed performance in the north. Holstein captain Lewis Holtby and attacker Benedikt Pichler rightly spoke of a “class difference.”
But the truth is that Bayern have not yet faced any real tough opponents. Dinamo Zagreb, their opening opponent in the reformed Champions League on Tuesday (9 p.m./DAZN), and then Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, do not fall into this category. Only after that will the first major showdown with double winners Leverkusen take place on September 28th.
“That was a good start, but now things are moving at a rapid pace,” said sports director Christoph Freund, for whom the status quo should quickly become a habit again: “We always want to be at the top. That is our goal.”
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