Lucas Hernandez to Bayern Munich? Q and A with Into the Calderon

It’s no secret that Bayern Munich are looking for defensive reinforcements, and recently one name has come to the fore — that of Ateltico Madrid and France defender Lucas Hernandez. The story about the transfer was first broken by Marca, and then corroborated by Mohamed Bohafsi, a journalist known to be extremely reliable for French players.

The info from @marca regarding Hernandez’s arrival at Bayern is not unfounded. The player has a clause approaching €80m! He has an offer from Bayern Munich in his hands and he is interested! Advanced discussions between the player and the German club.

Now, it seems more and more publications are reporting that Hernandez’s transfer to Bayern is a done deal, and it will be announced once the winter window opens in January.

With all that in mind, we decided to sit down with our friends over at Into the Calderon and have a chat about the kind of player Lucas Hernandez is. Thanks to Jeremy Beren for taking the time to answer our questions.

#1: What kind of defender is Lucas Hernandez? What are his biggest weaknesses as a player?

Lucas is a switchblade of a defender, capable of putting in an influential shift as a left-back or as a center-back (his natural position). His speed is blinding and honestly really underrated and he’s learned the dark arts of physical defending from Diego Godín and co.

He is still a bit unpolished with the ball at his feet so he is somewhat susceptible to a press, but he’s only 22 and he will continue to develop. In short: he’s good and he can handle himself against anyone.

#2: What is Hernandez’s role in Simeone’s setup? How would he deal with playing as a center-back in a possession-based system?

Lucas has more often than not been deployed at left-back since his playing time shot up last season — but he will play as a CB if someone is injured or suspended. Center-back is the position Atleti supporters and journos figured he would end up at during his prime, and with increased exposure in a possession-heavy system he’ll grow with the ball at his feet.

#3: Hernandez will reportedly be out for six weeks with a knee injury — is his injury history a concern?

Lucas’ injury history is something to watch. He had a couple hamstring injuries last season which cost him about a month, and this latest knee injury has kept him out two weeks already. In addition, he re-injured his hammy in November and missed two weeks then.

Takeaways:

To be quite honest, some of Jeremy’s answers make for grim reading if you’re a Bayern fan. The comments about his speed and physicality are encouraging, but being susceptible to a press is a big blow considering that we have Liverpool looming on the horizon.

Of course, being only 22 years old, Hernandez has plenty of time to fix this problem, and it’s likely that a few training sessions at Bayern should eliminate it entirely. Medhi Benatia, for instance, greatly improved his passing range and accuracy after transferring in from AS Roma. If Hernandez comes here, would he be ready in time for the February Champions League games? We don’t know.

The real issue here is the injuries. The winter break is like a second preseason for the players, and an opportunity for January signings to integrate themselves into the team. Because of his knee injury, Hernandez will miss all of it.

The comments about the hamstrings are deeply concerning — coming back to the Benatia comparisons for a bit, we Bayern fans know first hand how recurrent injuries can ruin a great defender. In addition, Benatia cost us just €28m — Hernandez’s price will be almost triple that number. For a club like Bayern, you don’t want to spend that kind of money to buy a player that will spend the majority of his time out of commission. We have enough injuries on our plate as it is.

All that being said, it’s unheard of for Bayern Munich to spend that kind of money on anyone, let alone a central defender. The club management are notoriously tight with the money purse, so if they see fit to splash €80m on the Frenchman, then they must see something we don’t.

In the end, every football transfer is a risk. Bayern will have to weigh the options and do what they think is best. I, for my part, want Lucas Hernandez here at Bayern, simply for the message it sends about the project we have here. Hopefully, if we go through with it, it works out for us.