In the quarter-final second leg against Arsenal FC, coach Thomas Tuchel has to do without Alphonso Davies, who is suspended but is in poor form, and can choose from several options.
Bayern’s Alphonso Davies is suspended from the Champions League. IMAGO/kolbert press
Of course, relegation candidate 1. FC Köln cannot be compared with the Premier League leaders. The Cologne team doesn’t have Bukayo Saka and his class or speed on their right side of the attack anyway. Tuchel is still faced with the question of whether he will bring in Davies again in this Bundesliga game on Saturday afternoon and rest others or not allow himself to be looked at in Arsenal’s cards, or whether he will undertake a test run.
The natural alternative to Davies is Raphael Guerreiro. But the Portuguese will have difficulty keeping up with Saka’s pace and is therefore not the ideal opponent for the Englishman. Does Tuchel still risk it? In the 2-2 draw in the first leg, he substituted Guerreiro for the injured Serge Gnabry. Regardless of the personnel, the left offensive player will have to help defensively, as in London, i.e. double, in order to stop the nimble Englishman.
In addition to Guerreiro, Tuchel has other options for variation. Noussair Mazraoui knows the position from the Morocco national team. However, the regular right-back was recently injured and lacks match practice. Will he get it against Cologne? Konrad Laimer could also help out at left back in an unusual way. The advantage: The worker bee would free up space in midfield for Aleksandar Pavlovic, who should also collect minutes against Cologne after recovering from illness. The variant with Min-Jae Kim, who is fast but is a central defender and has recently appeared very unsettled, is less likely.
Either way: Tuchel will have to weigh things up, all possible constellations are not ideal. But that wasn’t the one with the weak Davies either – and it still went well. Sasha Boey, who was the left link of a five-man chain in the 3-0 defeat in Leverkusen, is missing due to a torn muscle fiber. But Tuchel probably wouldn’t have entrusted him with this position a second time.
2024-04-11 14:12:41
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