Bayern Munich’s Thomas Müller sorry for costing Chris Richards an assist

Chris Richards, an American prodigy, had a memorable first start with Bayern Munich. He played 65 minutes in Bayern’s 4:3 win against Hertha Berlin and managed to assist to Robert Lewandowski’s second goal. The fact that he almost got two assists on his first full start, speaks volumes of his performance, but — VAR stepped in and disallowed Thomas Muller’s goal.

The unfortunate thing for the young USMNT hopeful is that he was subbed off early. Richards remained on the ground, holding his calf. In the end it seemed like a cramp and hopefully nothing worse.

Here is Richards’ assist for Robert Lewandowski, if you missed it:

Richards’ assist for Müller’s goal was ruled offside, but showed his passing acumen and vision. The Raumdeuter was unfortunately just a few centimeters ahead of last man in Hertha’s defense. After the thrilling match was over, Müller talked to Bundesliga.com and expressed his remorse for not converting that chance and denying Richards his first assist.

“If I weren’t so clever as to stand offside, Chris would’ve had two assists today,” Müller joked. “Let’s hope he can build on this and I hope he hasn’t hurt himself, I don’t know what happened.”

Richards impressed many before being subbed off. Besides the one assist, the right-back won five duels, created two shots on goal, all of his crosses were accurate, and had the second-most touches of any Bayern player before he left the field.

“He’s good because he’s brought his talent from the USA and because Bayern have taught him very well so far,” Müller said. “But it goes without saying there’s plenty of room for improvement.”

Müller continued explaining that Bayern has some good quality youngsters, but they need time to get experience.

“It was his first start in the league, but it’s nice we can bring the youngsters because we see they can keep up with the flow in our game,” said Müller.

The signing of a new right-back seems imminent as Bouna Sarr is in Munich for his medical exam. It will be interesting to see what Hansi Flick has in store for Richards moving forward.