Are full-back positions cause for concern at Bayern Munich?

On matchday one of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season against Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany unsurprisingly selected Sacha Boey and Alphonso Davies as his two starting full backs. Bayern’s defense, as a whole, showed vulnerability in this game but the attack did enough to come away with a 3-2 victory.

Whilst the central-defensive pair of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae was far from convincing, Boey at right full-back had an impressive first half, particularly in the attacking third of the field. He showed great awareness when he got to the byline, to set up Jamal Musiala for Bayern’s first goal. However, a poor tackle from him early in the second half led to a penalty and resultant equalizer for the hosts. Things didn’t improve much for Boey after he conceded the penalty and he was replaced by Thomas Muller just after the hour mark.

Meanwhile, Alphonso Davies played the entire game as a left full-back and even though there were no costly errors from him, his overall game seemed more lacking than that of Boey.

Jumping forward to matchday two for Bayern’s first home game of the season, both Boey and Davies were unused substitutes in the 2-0 win over Freiburg. Somewhat surprisingly Davies was replaced in the starting XI by Raphael Guerreiro, and even more surprisingly Joshua Kimmich, who played the previous game in midfield, replaced Boey on the right. Based on the events of matchday two we now try to identify the reasons behind Kompany’s early change of heart towards Boey and Davies and what it could mean going forward, starting with Boey.