Hasan Salihamidzic not worried about Bayern Munich’s benched newcomers

None of Bayern Munich’s new signings other than Leroy Sane were in the starting lineup for the 4-0 win over Schalke in Gelsenkirchen, as was also the case for the recent wins over Augsburg and SC Freiburg.

Hansi Flick had experimented several times earlier in the season with starting both Bouna Sarr and Jamal Musiala, but other than that, most of Bayern’s new singings haven’t really played that much. Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, Marc Roca, and Douglas Costa have mostly been relegated to the bench or the stands.

Speaking after the comprehensive victory over Schalke 04, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said that isn’t too worried about Flick not using some of Bayern’s “newcomers” as often (Tz).

With such a star-studded squad full of depth, it’s a natural problem to have and Brazzo completely trusts Flick in his decision making process: “We talk to each other all the time, but he didn’t tell me [about the selections vs. Schalke]. Pavard and Hernandez as world champions sit on the bench with us. Coman is here, Tolisso is also world champion. Musiala is one of the greatest talents, (Tanguy) Nianzou too. I’m not worried about our squad.”

Nianzou, of course, has had numerous injury setbacks, so his case a little bit more delicate than the other new signings and fringe players. It will take time for him to integrate into the squad having had injury setbacks.

Of course, for the win over Schalke, Brazzo was sat on the bench alongside Flick with Pavard, Costa, Choupo-Moting, Lucas Hernandez, Roca, Kingsley Coman, Musiala and Alexander Nübel as available subs. It’s an incredible luxury to have at least a pair of World Cup winners on the bench and when you have that kind of quality available as substitutes, it makes it a lot harder for some of the newer or fringe players to get their chances.

The fact that Bayern has already been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal won’t help those players potential get chances and it’s also less likely in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Their best chances normally come when Bayern already has commanding leads in matches.

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