The in-form FC Bayern Munich has to continue to replace goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer and again Thomas Müller in its race to catch up in the Bundesliga. In the run-up to the World Cup, this also worries national coach Hansi Flick.
Manuel Neuer kicks the Champions League ball with a smile, bravely throws himself into a dangerous shot and jubilantly shows the winning fist. But the beautiful, ideal world on Instagram has little to do with reality: around three weeks before the World Cup in Qatar, the German number 1 is doomed to watch - like Thomas Müller again recently. No, Julian Nagelsmann tried to calm the concerned football nation with national coach Hansi Flick at the top: The World Cup is not in danger for the two professionals from Bayern Munich. But there was a big but in all his statements. "I'm not a clairvoyant," said Nagelsmann. Whether it's Neuer's shoulder or Müller's hip - in both cases you have to "calm down".
That means: Neuer and Müller are out of the game against FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday in the second-placed Bundesliga team's race to catch up. Even three days later in the sportingly meaningless duel with Inter Milan in the Champions League, the veterans have to pass. The goal for her comeback is the game at Hertha BSC on November 5th. But Neuer, who missed the last five competitive games, only played ten minutes on Thursday and not at all on Friday. "We don't want to build up any pressure," stressed Nagelsmann. He "firmly assumes" that Neuer will play the World Cup in Qatar, "but if he's still in pain in five weeks, he won't play it." Oops! No, no, reassured Nagelsmann again, it will work out.
Flick is planning for the start of the World Cup on November 23 against Japan with Neuer, the alarm sirens have not yet gone off at the DFB, emphasized managing director Oliver Bierhoff last Sunday. After all, Neuer has experience in a race against time: in 2014 he fought his way back into the goal in time after a shoulder injury, and in 2018 after a metatarsal fracture. "Don't worry, be happy," he wrote on Instagram on Wednesday. On the same evening in Barcelona, Müller gave an insight into his inner life. The hips, corona, gastrointestinal - "I'm just stopping around," he said: "I'm used to my body working. It's only been doing it in stop-and-go mode for the last few weeks, that's it obviously not satisfactory."
The 33-year-old has missed four of the last seven competitive games and has only been a joker three times. "It doesn't make sense, we have to take it out," said Nagelsmann and confessed: "It won't go away with painkillers either, it's not that easy for the head." The head coach has planned a whole week as a break.
The Bavarians are actually "in the flow" around the sudden goalkeeper Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, as the coach reported. "Against Barcelona it seemed like there was a swarm on the field marching in the same direction." Many "small gestures" among the players made him confident that the record champions would storm past Union Berlin to the top before the World Cup break. "The situation in the table motivates us so much," Nagelsmann believes, "that we will play against Mainz like we did in Barcelona." Even without Neuer and Müller.
