Lucas Hernandez becoming leader at Bayern Munich
In the past couple of years, Bayern Munich has been slowly and steadily bringing down the average age of the squad. The German Champions took some tough decisions and parted ways with senior players to make space for new young signings.
The central defense has seen the biggest upheaval during the last few summer transfer windows. Lucas Hernandez was the most expensive recruit in this position as Rekordmeister broke their transfer record to sign the French defender from Atletico Madrid in 2018.
Hernandez didn’t enjoy the best possible debut season, but he ended up winning a treble with Rekordmeister. The last two seasons have seen Hernandez grow as a player and become a key member of the squad. The standout performance for Hernandez has been the away game at Paris Saint-Germain during the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League during the 2020/21 campaign.
Along with steadily improving on the pitch, Hernandez is also playing a big role in the dressing room. According to Bild, Lucas Hernandez plays a big role in integrating players into the squad. Since he is good at speaking French and German, Hernandez has become the link man in the dressing room.
The current squad at Bayern is largely dominated by French and German players, so having someone like Hernandez in the dressing room definitely helps. Moreover, Hernandez also has a warrior-like attitude on the pitch, which probably makes him a very likeable player in the dressing room.
In the current dressing room, Manuel Neuer, Thomas Muller, and Robert Lewandowski are the key leaders. However, players such as Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich are also slowly becoming leaders due to their consistent performances on the pitch. Hernandez is entering the peak years of his career, so it is nice to see him taking up an important role in the dressing room.
The long-term vision for Rekordmeister is to see all players recruited in the last couple of summer transfer windows to become leaders on and off the pitch. Hernandez has stormed the tough period and become an important player for Rekordmeister. The Bavarian club will be hoping that other players in the squad of the same age group also turn leaders like Hernandez.
The French defender has played consistently under Julian Nagelsmann this season. He will have a big role to play in the second half of the season, but Lucas Hernandez will be missing the game against Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday after testing positive for coronavirus.