Winner in the first leg at the Parc des Princes (0-1), Bayern Munich prepare for their round of 16 return against PSG on Wednesday (9 p.m.) escorted by doubts, particularly about their two offensive stars Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané, overwhelmed by the reviews.
Doubts do not only accompany PSG before the knockout round of the Champions League return to Bayern on Wednesday (9 p.m., on RMC sport). If the Bavarians took an advantage by winning the first leg (0-1) at the Parc des Princes, they do not present themselves as formidable executioners against the Parisians. Two of their attacking stars are thus the targets of criticism for their recent ghostly performance: Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané.
“I didn’t feel like they showed they wanted to be in the team”
On Saturday, they played one half each in the victory in Stuttgart (1-2), Sané replacing Gnabry at the break, without either of them really seizing their chance to start in Bayern’s eleven on Wednesday at the start. ‘Allianz Arena. “Nagelsmann doesn’t even have to think about using new players on Wednesday,” former club legend Lothar Matthäus said on Sky Sport Germany. They didn’t come forward. I didn’t feel like they showed they wanted to be in the team.”
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Publicly cropped by his executives for attending Paris Fashion Week in January, Gnabry has scored just one goal since the post-World Cup recovery (eight before). Same record for Sané (one goal), also below since the World Cup in Qatar. The cut penalized the duo whose goal/minutes played ratio dropped dramatically: Gnabry scored a goal every 80 minutes before the World Cup, he is currently at one every 240 minutes. Sané now needs twice as much time to score. Both wingers are derided for their dilettanteism and lack of involvement, two inadmissible factors at a club like Bayern, built to win it all.
“If you bring players in and they stand there for 30 minutes, the others talk about it, warns Dietmar Hamann, former German international on Sport1. You have players, when the scoreboard advances and that they see that one of the two enters… It can put a bad atmosphere in a team.”
“Above all, it’s a question of character”, abounds the austere Stefan Effenberg, former Bayern legend who contrasts the behavior of the two stars with that of one of the team’s captains, Thomas Müller. “He was a substitute in Paris and he reacted without grumbling or complaining, notes the former midfielder. Against Mönchengladbach, he also had to go quickly to the bench (due to the expulsion of Dayot Upamecano, editor’s note) He is an absolute professional that you can rely on 100%. I hope that Gnabry and Sané take inspiration from him a bit, that they will do better in the future and that they have the same attitude as Müller.”
