Is it bad luck or inability? In the game at 1. FSV Mainz 05, goalkeeper Yann Sommer looked unhappy again. Bayern were deservedly leading 1-0 against the home side, the first half clearly went to Thomas Tuchel’s team. Hardly anyone reckoned that the outsider Mainz would get another chance. But things turned out differently.
When the hosts attacked, Bayern couldn’t get the ball out of the danger zone. That was the first mistake in this situation. The keeper committed the second. Sommer was unable to hold on to a shot by Jae-Sung Lee and unhappily fended it off to the front. Ludovic Ajorque stood there and just nodded the ball into the goal. The equalizer was followed by two more Mainz goals, without Bayern showing any significant resistance. Sommer was not solely to blame for this, but he played a key role in initiating the defeat.
Like so much in the current Bayern crisis, summer is now being questioned. Suddenly the 34-year-old sees himself in the role of the scapegoat, although he had switched from Borussia Mönchengladbach to Munich as a hopeful replacement for Manuel Neuer. He was even considered a serious competitor for number one when Neuer returns for the new season after recovering from a broken leg.
Nobody talks about that anymore and the goalkeeper made a big contribution to it. In the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Paris Saint-Germain, the Swiss had foolishly frittered away a ball, and it was only thanks to a sensational save by defender Matthijs de Light that PSG failed to score.
In the games against Manchester City, Sommer showed bad passes and inaccuracies in interaction with colleagues when the opponent pressed. Under pressure, his susceptibility to errors increases noticeably. If the space is tight, the keeper lacks the overview and the necessary ball security for precise passes. “For me, the goalkeeper was hopelessly overwhelmed today. The goalkeeper made the team feel insecure today – and not only today, also in the last few weeks,” said “Sky” expert Dietmar Hamann after the first leg defeat against Manchester City Defense bears some of the blame is just as much part of the truth, in the end it stays with the goalkeeper.
The wobblers reinforce the impression: summer is not the stability factor that it should be in the current situation. “Yann Sommer doesn’t even begin to have the class of Neuer as a goalkeeper,” judged the “kicker” hard. That may be an exaggeration because no one can say whether Bayern weren’t in the same trouble with Neuer. He has proven at Bayern that Sommer can play better and hold on to victories with his saves, but what does that count if the negative impression outweighs it?
It can be assumed that Sommer imagined his engagement at FC Bayern Munich in a completely different way. He wanted to be German champion (he still can), win the cup and maybe even win the Champions League. The move in January seemed to make sense. The Swiss national keeper, one of the best in the Bundesliga and coveted on the international transfer market, had shown outstanding performances on the line, especially in the games against Bayern. His reflexes are among the fastest in existence.
Instead, he woke up in a nightmare. Coach Julian Nagelsmann, who supported the transfer, was fired in a hurry, the team lost two of the three titles and lost the lead in the table to Borussia Dortmund. The chairman of the board Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic are in the crossfire of criticism, the entire club seems to stagger. The new coach Thomas Tuchel is at a loss and there is speculation in the media as to whether substitute goalkeeper Sven Ulreich should not rather return to the goal. Sommer’s contract runs until 2025. It is not known whether he regrets the change. He did not comment on the question.
Sources: “kicker”, “Frankfurter Rundschau”
