Bayern Munich: Nagelsmann banking on internal options to replace Robert Lewandowski
The senior squad at Bayern Munich left for the pre-season tour of the USA on Monday. After eight years, it will be the first pre-season for Die Roten without Robert Lewandowski. The Polish striker is also travelling to the USA in order to complete a transfer to FC Barcelona.
On Friday, Bayern and Barcelona finally reached an agreement for the transfer of Lewandowski. The Polish striker has become the club record sale for Die Roten as Barcelona paid €50 million, including bonuses for him. Lewandowski has been pushing for a move to Barcelona since the end of last season.
The club hierarchy at Bayern had initially insisted that Lewandowski would not be leaving this summer. However, the incredible bid from Barcelona and the Polish striker’s wish to leave played a big role in convincing Rekordmeister to complete this transfer.
Head coach Julian Nagelsmann faces a big challenge of finding solutions to replace Lewandowski. As things stand, the Bavarian club is not actively pursuing the signing of a striker. While talking to BR24 (via iMiaSanMia), head coach Nagelsmann admitted that the current squad has a good group of attacking players at Die Roten that can fill the void left by Lewandowski.
"“Robert Lewandowski had an outstanding eight years at Bayern. It’s a big challenge to replace him. I’m not worried right now, we are very well equipped offensively and I’m still spoiled for choice.”"
Nagelsmann also insisted that the new arrival Sadio Mane can also play the number nine role. The Senegalese forward played as a number nine for most of this year for Liverpool. He enjoyed great results after Jurgen Klopp decided to use him as a striker. Mane could well be used as a striker at Die Roten, depending on the type of opposition.
Apart from Mane, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Muller are the other versatile forwards in the squad. Both have played as a striker during their career, so Nagelsmann can bank on them to play in this role next season. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is the other traditional striker in the squad that can be used regularly in the number nine role.
Nagelsmann will ideally like goals getting distributed amongst all forwards in the first team. He can also use multiple systems next season that don’t exactly need a typical number nine. The upcoming friendlies in the pre-season will give much more clarity on Nagelsmann’s plans for next season.
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The German Champions are currently in talks to sign Matthys Tel from Rennes. The 18-year-old forward is set to be part of the first team if a transfer is completed in the coming days. He will be another support striker that can chip in with a few goals next season. It does look like Die Roten will be relying on better productivity in the final third from other forwards.