Does Bayern Munich need to make like the champions and go the way of Paris Saint-Germain — frequently rotating players in a less-than-competitive domestic league in order to make a bid for Champions League glory?
Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen doesn’t think so.
“Competition is really good for us and we need a challenge in the league,” Dreesen explained for SPORT1-Doppelpass, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “I remember well during Pep Guardiola’s time with us, we played Augsburg in 2015. I don’t remember which
matchday it was, but we had qualified for the Champions League semifinals — and he played with a B team against Augsburg. We obviously lost — and also lost the semifinal.
“I don’t think it works like that. I don’t think you can calculate it that way. And I also don’t think you can fine-tune workload management so precisely that the players are exactly at their peak and able to deliver their full 100% [in the Champions League]. That’s why competition is good for us. It pushes us to perform even better.”
BFW Commentary
Clearly, the concept of going easy does not fit into Bayern’s mentality.
But…Bayern has been rotating. Kompany’s prioritizing the Champions League already, and his substitutions have already resulted in dropped points. While Bayern took care of business, emphatically, against Norwegian giant-slayers Bodø/Glimt, Bayern drew 0-0 to Schalke and escaped with a 2-1 win over SV Elversberg — two newly-promoted Bundesliga sides. Harry Kane and Michael Olise started from the bench in the former, while Joshua Kimmich, Luis Díaz, Manuel Neuer, and Alphonso Davies took their turn in the latter.
And PSG’s results speak for themselves. Bayern’s full-throttle approach last season saw early fireworks and then the slow creep of fatigue later on. It isn’t something you can guarantee to avoid, but for sure the Parisians were the fresher and sharper side when the two titans came together in an intense semifinals bout.
Perhaps that is the tricky road for Vincent Kompany and co. to navigate this season: how to rotate without feeling like rotating. Can he pull it off?
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