What is Hasan Salihamidžić doing?

When Uli Hoeneß let his anger out after Bayern Munich’s embarrassing 3:3 draw against Fortuna Düsseldorf, Hasan Salihamidžić scurried behind Hoeneß and disappeared. The recent poor performances of the squad have cast doubt on the entire sporting situation at Bayern; including the performance of Salihamidžić himself.

The record-breaking champions have crashed down to fifth place in the Bundesliga table and coach Niko Kovač is allegedly is on brink of a dismissal - yet the sporting director remains silent. Salihamidžić has not spoken publicly since the 2:3 defeat in Dortmund - a stretch of more than two weeks. Either Salihamidžić does not want to speak out, or he can’t anymore.

Bild recently questioned Brazzo’s capabilities within the club. The German publication also made it a point to compare him and his predecessor, Matthias Sammer. Sammer came to Bayern in 2012 when the club was in crisis and when Dortmund had just become champions for the second time.

Sammer provided structure within the Bayern organization (via hiring Jupp Heynckes), which helped the squad win a treble and set the foundation to win the next six Bundesliga titles in a row. The skeleton of Sammer’s squad is still present even today. The setting for Sammer, however, has certainly changed. Sammer works as an advisor to Borussia Dortmund, which leads the Bundesliga and is nine points ahead of Bayern.

What does this mean for Salihamidžić? The Bayern sporting director needs to be a better link between the players, coach, and leadership with the ability to immediately recognize negative behavior and tackle it quickly. Judging by the current state, he has failed to do that. The big question is this; has he even won over the locker room himself? Reports say that he has never done so, as the players see him more as a friend, rather than like a authoritative figure.

For now, only the future will tell if Bayern’s restructuring will include Salihamidžić, who still has a long way to go in matching the success of Sammer.