The two World Cup winners have contributed massively to Munich’s dire defensive record this season and there are mounting calls for them to be dropped <\/p>\n
The regime change\u00a0at Bayern Munich is not going smoothly. Niko Kovac\u2019s job is in peril just a few months after taking over from adored treble-winner Jupp Heynckes.<\/p>\n
President Uli Hoeness wanted Heynckes to remain as Bayern boss\u00a0this season but the coach\u00a0opted for retirement instead. The veteran has\u00a0already managed Bayern four times \u2013 most recently as a rescue act after Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s tenure drew to a premature close \u2013 and he could well be answering the phone for a fifth time in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Bayern are again in a tailspin; the stability that Heynckes provided\u00a0as the club roared to a sixth consecutive Bundesliga title is gone. They are languishing in fifth place in the Bundesliga and already nine points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n
Article continues below<\/span> <\/p>\n Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over <\/p>\n They lost the Klassiker before the international break and their poor form continued over the weekend with a 3-3 draw at home against Fortuna Dusseldorf, which must have felt like a loss with the equaliser coming in the 93rd minute.<\/p>\n Kovac may well be the first victim of Bayern’s crisis but, in truth, this is a team which is falling apart from the inside out. The core of the squad remains the same as 2013, when they won the Champions League under Heynckes. If a week is a long time in football then what is five years?<\/p>\n The continued presence of Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, David Alaba, Javi Martinez, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Thomas Muller in the line-up is testament to the club\u2019s consistency but the time has come to question whether a few of those are past their sell-by date.<\/p>\n In particular, German World Cup winners Neuer and Boateng have been in pitiful form for Bayern over the past few weeks. Legitimate questions now exist as to whether they will ever get back to their dominant best.<\/p>\n Neuer has long been regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world but the forcefield that once seemed to cover him has disappeared. Neuer has conceded a remarkable 14 goals from the last 17 shots he\u2019s faced. That\u2019s not just bad; that\u2019s Claudio Bravo bad.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In terms of goals conceded, this is Neuer\u2019s worst run since becoming a Bayern player. He has failed to keep a clean sheet in each of his last eight games, an unwelcome record last hit in 2010-11, when Neuer was still at Schalke.<\/p>\n Bayern haven\u2019t had a run of games like this, in terms of goals conceded,\u00a0since 2000. Moreover, this is the first time since 1994 that they\u2019ve gone four Bundesliga matches without a win. Neuer is a problem but he’s not the only problem.<\/p>\n \u201cManuel\u00a0is\u00a0not so stable this season\u00a0because the defence is not so stable,\u201d Fortuna coach Friedhelm Funkel told Sky <\/em> on Saturday. \u201cHe is still our best goalkeeper in Germany. He can\u2019t do anything about the goals.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, in a good phase, he might have saved one or two, because he\u2019d play a bit more successfully. People know that now too. Bayern have conceded 17 goals, and that is in just 12 games. They\u2019ve sometimes done that after 34 games!”<\/p>\n Dusseldorf should be the type of game Bayern win easily, particularly from 3-1 up. But there is a great vulnerability about them at the moment and it all stems from their defensive woes.<\/p>\n Neuer cannot be relied upon as he once was but Bayern are so soft through the centre of their defence. There is little any goalkeeper could do, given the quality of the chances being surrendered by Boateng, fellow world champion Mats Hummels and Niklas Sule at centre-back.<\/p>\n Boateng might well have provided a good assist for Muller on Saturday but his defensive work was dire. He turned his back on the cross which first permitted Dodi Lukebakio to score from close range. His contribution for Fortuna\u2019s second,\u00a0meanwhile,\u00a0was woeful.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I see how Boateng tried to play the offside trap on the second goal \u2013 my dear fellow, that was alarming,\u201d Funkel said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo coach in the world can do anything about\u00a0Boateng playing\u00a0the offside trap only because he\u2019s too lazy to run after his man. He takes two steps forward and wants to get out of a race with Lukebakio. That shouldn\u2019t happen with such a world-class player.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Both Neuer and Boateng have suffered significant injuries during the past couple of seasons and are performing a long way beneath their once world-class standards. Neuer\u2019s metatarsal injury towards the end of 2017 kept him out for the best part of a year, while numerous thigh and hamstring injuries appear to have caught up with Boateng.<\/p>\n Indeed, there were discussions over the summer about Boateng leaving the club for Manchester United or Paris Saint-Germain but he remains on the books. But for how much longer?<\/p>\n Neuer has a capable deputy in Sven Ulreich \u2013 even if he messed up in the Champions League semi-finals last season \u2013 and some Bayern fans are asking for his inclusion.<\/p>\n And if Bayern had a bigger pool of talent in the centre of defence, then Boateng would probably be taken out of the firing line too. But Sule and Hummels have been having their struggles too and it\u2019s an area in need of drastic reconstruction in one transfer window or another.<\/p>\n In that regard, Kovac is paying the price for Bayern\u2019s negligence in the summer transfer window. This is a team which clearly had holes in it given their Champions League failure against Real last season but where major changes were needed, only tweaks came.<\/p>\n Loyalty is an admirable quality, but someone has got to get hold of the situation and recognise that this club and these players are not what they once were.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The two World Cup winners have contributed massively to Munich’s dire defensive record this season and there are mounting calls for them to be dropped The regime change\u00a0at Bayern Munich is not going smoothly. Niko Kovac\u2019s job is in peril just a few months after taking over from adored treble-winner Jupp Heynckes. President Uli Hoeness…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n