Hansi Flick was there at the time, in Salvador, Fortaleza and Recife. He was an assistant on the coaching bench of the German national team when Jérôme Boateng defended right behind in the preliminary round of the 2014 World Cup. Flick was also in Port Elizabeth four years earlier when Boateng made a serious impression at the 2010 World Cup in the game for third place in the back right. Flick is also there now, on the training ground of FC Bayern, where he sees every day how amazingly close this Boateng has come to its former form – but of course: as a center-back, no longer as a full-back.
So Flick would never come up with this idea: use Boateng in the test against Olympique Marseille this Friday (4 p.m.) and in the Champions League game against Chelsea on the Saturday after next to the right. Although he desperately needs someone who can do that at least a little.
You don’t have to be among the top ten players in the world to be irreplaceable. Frenchman Benjamin Pavard, 24, is probably not even the best right-back in the world, but his position in the Munich squad is similar to that of Robert Lewandowski. Whereby, Lewandowski was irreplaceable for years, meanwhile Flick could put Serge Gnabry in this position with a good conscience. But where’s the Gnabry for Pavard?
Flick doesn’t see a better alternative to Kimmich
The Bavarians have still not named Pavards Blesur exactly, there is talk of a “ligament injury to the left tarsus”, the downtime demonstratively leaves the Munich open. The French The team writes of a ligament tear and whispers of a four to six week break – in this case, even this special game season for Pavard, which was extended to the end of August, would be over. However, Flick has not given up hope of being able to use the Frenchman in the course of the Champions League tournament in Lisbon (Aug. 12 to Aug. 23).
Whereby Flick would now scold mildly with such a sentence: Before anyone thinks of Lisbon, his team should please bring their 3-0 lead to the goal in the second round second leg against Chelsea.
When it comes to who should replace Pavard, there is a considerable amount of head, not only because the full-backs in modern football are much more than just those on the edge. Bayern play a choreographed football under Flick again, the full-backs are involved in the game patterns at the highest level, you can’t just put anyone there. And Flick thinks: neither does Alvaro Odriozola, the loan player from Real Madrid – which makes things very delicate internally.
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