Hot take alert!
A lot of midfielders have struggled to break Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka’s iron grip on the starting midfield roles at Bayern Munich. Corentin Tolisso, Marc Roca, Marcel Sabitzer, and Ryan Gravenberch are just some of the players that tried and failed to get significant playing time due to the aforementioned duo being virtually undroppable. It seemed that this duopoly had finally been broken as Goretzka started the season on the fringes of the squad while Pavlović was absolutely undroppable for head coach Vincent Kompany.
But things change. Pavlović broke his collarbone and Goretzka used that chance to cement himself in the starting lineup ahead of the Bayern academy graduate. Now Pavlović finds himself out with a serious illness and again unable to challenge for a starting spot. Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann, forced to omit Pavlović from his international squad due to the illness, spoke about Pavlović’s lack of game time and the illness, as captured by @iMiaSanMia.
“Pavlo is not playing enough. Now he’s out again for four weeks with mononucleosis, which is no fun. I had that once, too. It’s not a pleasant illness. He has to get through it and then be healthy. I think it had a lot to do with his tonsils, which were already removed. Sometimes you get sick, and you’re not immune to it; you can eat well and behave well. Still, it happens sometimes, and that’s the case with Pavlo. It’s a bit unfortunate that we’re now, once again, in the phase where international matches are taking place,” Nagelsmann said. “He’s a great talent, and I believe he’ll become a regular starter at Bayern again, or at least get more playing time than he currently has. Then he can also play a key role with the national team, but it’s always about playing time at the club, and some players aren’t getting enough of that right now. We have to get back to the playing time the players had before the EUROs.”
Having said all that, it may not quite be right to claim Pavlović was not getting a lot of game time at Bayern. Kompany eased him back slowly following the collarbone injury but the 20-year-old did start five Bundesliga games in a row. Who knows how much game time the poor guy will get as he is eased back again following the illness, but he remains firmly in Kompany’s plans and will eventually get to challenge the hegemony again.
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