Bayern Munich hosts St. Pauli…are you ready?
If — by chance — you have been listening to Bavarian Podcast Works this season, you have become familiar with one host (me…it’s me) consistently asking why there have been so many injury setbacks and calling Bayern Munich on the carpet for its handling of injured players.
Let’s take a look at some of the more prominent cases:
- Aleksandar Pavlović came back too early from his broken collarbone and has not reached the same level he was at prior to his injury. In an unrelated case, Pavlović now has mono and is out for another extended period.
- Hiroki Itō suffered a metatarsal injury during the preseason, came back too early, and set his season back even more by injuring his foot again.
- Manuel Neuer injured his calf, came back too early, and — you guessed it — suffered a setback, which will likely cause youngster Jonas Urbig to play at least one of the Champions League games against Inter Milan. The re-injury now has Bayern Munich execs fretting the goalkeeper’s ability to get back any time soon.
- Kim Min-jae has been dealing with Achilles tendonitis since at least November and had a chance to rest for more than two weeks if Bayern Munich handled him properly during this international break. Instead, he returned to team training early — at a time where the club has already likely lost Dayot Upamecano for the season.
There is no doubt that each of these players made the conscientious decision to return — and there is no one implying that the players were coerced to return early. However, there is inherent pressure at a c lub like Bayern Munich for players to want to return as soon as possible so that they do no lose their jobs — no one wants to get Wally Pipp’d.
In these cases, someone needs to be charged with stopping the players from harming themselves. In many cases, that responsibility falls on the team physios and in other cases, it falls on the physios working in conjunction with the coach.
Per Abendzeitung journalists Mano Bonke, Philipp Kessler, and Hanna Raif (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), it appears that Vincent Kompany and the club physios might — might — not be as judicious as they need to be in convincing his players to take it slow:
Bayern’s new fitness department has done a good job so far in limiting the number of muscle injuries. So far this season, Bayern players have suffered 12 muscle injuries. In comparison, last year, there were twice as many by the end of April.
However, Vincent Kompany and the medical department are faced with another accusation: that they are sending players back to the training pitch too soon after injuries, thereby risking setbacks. The most recent example of that is Manuel Neuer, who resumed training with the ball too early and aggravated his calf injury. There are critical voices regarding the ‘superficial approach’ of some Bayern physios.
Yikes. This is not good, but the report goes on with more:
The biggest setback had occurred to Hiroki Itō in November. It is said that the intensity was too high too quickly – especially since it was already known before Itō’s move to Munich that he was suffering from metatarsal problems.
Dayot Upamecano’s recent knee injury is partly due to the heavy strain during the season. Recently, the defender has regularly struggled with hip and back problems, but had to play through pain. The same goes for Kim Min-jae, who has been struggling with Achilles tendon problems for months and hardly got a break. The medical staff usually leaves the decision to Vincent Kompany – and rarely, if ever, vetoes it.
Double yikes.
The cases of Min-jae and Upamecano are two to really hone in on. Both endured a heavy workload last season under Thomas Tuchel and also with their respective national teams. Both have also been used heavily by Kompany even though there have been capable options to lean on. Kompany could (should?) be managing the wear-and-tear for these players better. For the coach, who has been so good in some areas, rotation and injury management have not proven to be his strong suit.
The insinuation in the report that Kompany is the one making the final call should be taken with a grain of salt, but — if (somehow) true — it shows a level of (at least minor) dysfunction in these situations at the club.
Hopefully, this report just grasping at straws to figure out why there have been so many setbacks, but the fact remains — this is a problem and an issue that needs to be solved as soon as possible.
Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show Season 4, Episode 36
Bayern Munich’s preparation for the stretch run of the season hit some snags over the course of the last week thanks to some very untimely injuries.
Despite that, the club is pushing forward and even keeping one eye on the future as well. Let’s talk about all of that and more in this edition of the Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show:
- Let’s talk about what the losses of Bayern Munich stars Alphonso Davies, Manuel Neuer, and Dayot Upamecano mean for the rest of this season.
- Will Vincent Kompany learn anything from the slew of injuries he’s dealing with at the moment?
- It’s time for a transfer rumor round-up. Let’s talk about the most recent players linked to Bayern Munich, including Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, VfB Stuttgart’s Nick Woltemade, Chelsea FC’s Christopher Nkunku, Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons, Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams, Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola, and Mainz 05’s Jonathan Burkardt.
- A brief Entertainment Rundown.
Song of the Week: “People Who Died” by The Jim Carroll Band
“People Who Died” was released by The Jim Carroll Band way back in 1980 on the album, “Catholic Boy.” There was a major resurgence for the song in the 90s when the movie The Basketball Diaries was released. The flick was a biopic based on the life of Jim Carroll, who the band was named after.
The Basketball Diaries starred a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg. The movie was a bit of cult hit at the time. Bruno Kirby, Lorraine Bracco, Ernie Hudson, Patrick McGaw, and Michael Imperioli also had roles.
The song was also more recently featured in the Suicide Squad 2 movie. Enjoy:
Barcola back on Bayern’s radar?
According to a report from Sport Bild’s Christian Falk and Tobi Altschäffl (via @iMiaSanMia), Bayern Munich could be looking at Paris Saint-Germain attacker Bradley Barcola once again:
Bayern are currently watching several profiles of attacking players. Bradley Barcola is one of the attractive options for the club, and could be the reason Vincent Kompany and Christoph Freund were at the Parc des Princes ten days ago. Bayern did not want to reveal the reason for the visit when asked by @SPORTBILD.
Bayern Munich was reportedly kicking the tires on Barcola last summer, but he could be extremely tough to pry away from PSG.
Entertainment Rundown
Daredevil: Born Again — Episode 5
I have hopes for this series, but it is letting me down so far. Let’s discuss:
- Let’s just get this out of the way — having a show about Daredevil, which does not heavily feature Daredevil is sort of a miss. It would be one thing if there was an episode or two of that, but this has gotten excessive.
- This episode, in particular, was annoying because it really felt like a space filler — something I abhor in any series. In fact, The Sopranos had so many of them (at least one per season + almost whole Kevin Finnerty season) that it left a bad taste in my mouth. I still rate it as one of the top three shows ever, but between the space fillers and the cop out ending, it did lose a few points in my mind…but I digress. Don’t get me wrong…I love The Sopranos, but it had flaws.
- The overall plotline is building to something…what that is remains to be seen, but it needs to be good. Asking viewers to buy-back into this series after it was pulled away from Netflix was a big request, but making them endure this slow burn of a build-up has not been easy.
- I still like the acting and look and feel of the show, but there have been misses with the actual episodes and for as much as I want this to be good, it has not lived up to expectations just yet.
Rating: 5.00/10.00
Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show: Bayern Munich vs. St. Pauli
Bayern Munich is looking to get back on track against 15th place St. Pauli after dropping points in consecutive Bundesliga matches.
Vincent Kompany will have to work around the numerous injuries on the squad and try to balance keeping players sharp vs. giving them rest. We will dive deep into that and more during the Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show. Here is what we have in tap:
- A look into where each team falls in the Bundesliga table and some discussion on the recent form of each side.
- A look at the injury/suspension situations for both teams.
- A guess at Bayern Munich’s starting XI.
- A prediction on the match.
Predictions
Bundesliga
Bayern Munich is banged up, but it is facing in the 15th-place St. Pauli — a team that will be totally outgunned.
Still the specter of that massive Greyhound bus that St. Pauli is about to park in Bayern Munich’s attacking end could present an issue for the Bavarians, who have not always handled that situation well this season.
The feeling here is that Bayern Munich will get an early goal, open the game up a bit, and then settle into completely controlling the match for a hard-fought victory.
Prediction: Bayern Munich 3-0 St. Pauli
Other Bundesliga Predictions:
- Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 VfL Bochum
- Wolfsburg 2-0 Heidenheim
- Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-3 RB Leipzig
- Holstein Kiel 1-1 Werder Bremen
- Hoffenheim 0-1 FC Augsburg
- Eintracht Frankfurt 1-2 VfB Stuttgart
- SC Freiburg 1-0 Union Berlin
- Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Mainz 05
Prediction Records
- Last Week Bundesliga: 4-5 (Through Matchday 26)
- Overall Bundesliga: 109-125
- UEFA Nations League: 92-79
- Champions League: 96-80 (Through Matchday 12)
- DFB-Pokal: 43-17
- Total: 332-301
- Perfect Picks: 52 (when the score and winner is predicted exactly)
