Tuesday night during the victory of Bayern Munich against Barça, the French reigned supreme on the lawn of Camp Nou and is a little more like the future as a central defender.
0 shot on target is Barça’s starving record for its clash against Bayern Munich. Despite the glaring shortcomings of this Catalan formation, the main reason for this ineffectiveness is none other than Dayot Upamecano. On the lawn of Culés, the 22-year-old central defender has torn everything off in his passage to sign an XXL performance which definitely launches his Bavarian adventure.
Physical domination and serenity
The Frenchman wasted no time in getting everyone to agree in Bavaria. Already impressive in Leipzig, Upamecano continues its momentum and has a dream start to the season. Under the orders of Julian Nagelsmann, who was already his coach in Leipzig, the defender has a series of high-level performances, first against Dortmund (3-1 victory) in the Super Cup, then against his former club this weekend. (4-1 victory) and finally against Barça (3-0), the French colossus was intractable in all aspects of the game.
Dominating physically, he silenced Memphis Depay, yet the designated offensive leader of this Catalan team. A performance full of serenity which testifies to the trust that reigns between the player and his coach. “He always told me what I was doing right and wrong and that’s my favorite thing about a coach. He knows how to show you your flaws. He is very intelligent and he has a vision of the game that I like», Declared Upamecano at the microphone of RMC after Nagelsmann’s signing at Bayern Munich.
If he impressed with his ability to plug the smallest spaces left at the disposal of the Catalans, his high-end performance is also illustrated by the statistics. In this match he was quite simply the Bavarian player to collect the most balls (9), to succeed the most tackles (4) but also to play and win the most duels (16 contested for 10 successful). Added to this is its undeniable quality in the relaunch. With 88.61% of successful passes, he notably allowed his team to often push back the Catalan block by playing vertically in order to break the pressing lines.
Promised to take over from Jérôme Boateng who left the club, Upamecano does not seem affected by the pressure linked to this mission. He himself had also confided to AS “Feel no pressure” after signing for Bayern. Succeeding a defender with a record as wide as that of the neo-Lyonnais is not an easy task, but it is clear that Upamecano has already put all the observers in the pocket. As evidenced by the prestigious score of 1.5 granted by the newspaper Kicker after his match against Barça.
The future of the Blues?
Inevitably, with performances of this level, all eyes are on the France team. The Blues, Upamecano have already known them three times and if his first selection had been very complicated, he had made up for it by scoring his first goal in the following match against Croatia (4-2 victory). Since then, the young central defender has had bad luck with several injuries, which each time forced him to leave the rally and ultimately not be called up for the Euro this summer. A non-selection experienced as a failure by Upamecano: “Yes I am a little disappointed. But I can’t focus on the things that I don’t have. I’m just thinking about working harder with Bayern and showing my performance on the pitch to help the national team in the futureHe told AS.
Today more than ever, the door to the France team seems wide open. After the failure of the Euro and the half-hearted September truce, the Blues are looking for new tauliers in central defense. In addition, certain factors work in its favor. Like the probable establishment of a 3-4-1-2 system that he masters perfectly, but also the fact that Naglesmann seems to want to install it alongside Lucas Hernandez in central defense, a player much appreciated by Didier Deschamps . While waiting to hope for better and more in the selection, Upamecano must continue to assert itself in order to prove to Deschamps that he deserves it.
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