FC Bayern Munich has repeatedly been plagued by staffing concerns in defense this season – but coach Thomas Tuchel can’t apparently hope for many new additions to improve the situation in the winter. At least that’s what Uli Hoeneß suggested.
“If we feel that we need additions by then, we will do something. But there certainly won’t be a big transfer offensive,” said the honorary president of the German record champions in an interview with RTL/ntv.
The 71-year-old explained that Bayern are “a commercial company” and want to “be healthy for the next ten years” – so he doesn’t believe in expensive and short-term new additions. Hoeneß spoke of “unwise statements” made by coach Tuchel, among others, which had led to great expectations among the public. The coach had called for reinforcements several times, for example in the defensive midfield. Hoeneß replied: “If you see every weekend what we have on the bench – only national players – then we don’t have a thin squad.”
In Dayot Upamecano, Matthijs de Ligt and Minjae Kim, there are only three central defenders of top international caliber in the FCB squad; Upamecano recently suffered a muscle injury against SC Freiburg and, according to media reports, will be out for several weeks. De Ligt only started running training again on Tuesday after a knee injury.
Hoeneß welcomed the fact that the Munich team recently refrained from signing former world champion Jérôme Boateng despite the lack of personnel in the center of the defense chain. The long-time Bayern professional shouldn’t have played in the Champions League anyway. And if Bayern bring in another defender during the winter break, that would mean “that Jérôme would practically only be signed for eight Bundesliga games,” said Hoeneß. “And that’s completely nonsense from an economic point of view.” He added that rejecting Boateng was “a sensible decision.”
