Weekend Warm-up: Bayern Munich needs to keep Hansi Flick happy; Bundesliga predictions; and MORE!

What a week for Hansi Flick.

After seeing his team battle back from a 2-0 deficit against Borussia Dortmund, the Bayern Munich manager was thrust back into the spotlight almost the second that Joachim Löw announced he would be stepping down from his role as Bundestrainer.

Flick, of course, was Löw’s right-hand man for Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad and is largely credited with putting together the game plan to neutralize Argentina’s Lionel Messi in the tournament’s finale.

Since taking over at Bayern Munch, though, Flick has had an even more impressive run of success as he powered the Bavarians to a “sextuple” by rehabbing a somewhat broken roster and fixing the interpersonal dynamics that existed both in the squad and with the relationship recent managers have had with the front office.

It would seem that keeping Flick happy — and in his role as manager with Bayern Munich — should be a top priority for just about everyone on the supervisory board at the Bavarian club.

With that, however, some concessions will have to be made.

Despite the improved communication and relationship, Flick has talked about the disagreements he has had with regard to personnel decisions just enough for us to know that he, indeed, wants a lot more say in the players he will be in charge of managing.

While no coach deserves full autonomy, Flick does deserve more input than he has been given to date. For that to happen, sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidzic is going to have to make some concessions.

Credited with several deft moves, Salihamdizic has shown a great prowess — at times — for identifying talent. Still, no one is perfect and there could be arguments made regarding the strategy on some of the players he’s pursued, some of the contracts he’s signed, and also with some of the players that he has let get away. Overall though, Salihamidzic deserves a lot of credit for his moves.

You could fill a book laying out all of that, but for the purpose of this discussion, let’s just say that the voices powering Bayern Munich’s “embrace debate” philosophy might have to relent and give Flick a louder voice within that room.

Flick is just that important.

There has rarely been a manager who has been able to communicate so effectively and earn the respect of the players like Flick has done. He’s made bold line-up decisions, managed difficult personalities, and developed title-winning strategies with such aplomb that his value to Bayern Munich really cannot hold a monetary designation at this point.

Flick succeeded where so many others — including Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, and Niko Kovac — have failed. The 56-year-old has cracked the code to succeed on Säbener Straße and simply put, should be treated like the gem that he is.

Flick has already won everything there is to win on the club scene. Let’s think about that...he’s only been at the helm for a little over a year! Does that mean he is already seeking a new challenge? Probably not, but the World Cup is only played every four years and if Flick has any burning desire to make a run at winning one of his own (as manager), he will likely have to do it within the next two or three cycles.

Factoring in all of that, Bayern Munich should do everything it can to keep him at the helm for as long as humanly possible.

Anything less would be a failure.

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Peaky Blinders is back filming

If you are a Peaky Blinders fan like myself, you’ve been eagerly awaiting the start of production for the new season...and now that wait is over as we have some video:

The show was slated to start filming the news season in January, so we can assume they hit that benchmark and are continuing to work on the season.

One of the great — and probably cheesy — things about Peaky Blinders is the slow motion shots of Cillian Murphy just walking and nailing a heater. I cannot pinpoint why this is so cool, but it is on just about every level.

It’s not as if Murphy’s Tommy Shelby elicits warning shouts like Omar Little’s infamous “Omar comin’” cries from anyone in the immediate area, but it is super-cool nonetheless.

Now, we just have to wait for the episodes to be finished and released in late 2021 or early 2022.

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Hype music: “F****** in the Bushes” by Oasis

Whoa...this is a family website (clutches pearls)!

A few weeks back there was a good discussion on the movie Snatch in the comments and one of the absolutely standout scenes where Brad Pitt’s character Mickey enters the ring to fight in an underground boxing match.

Aside of my own admiration for the move itself, this Oasis song — while not your typical Oasis fare — was used in an astounding manner and is just awesome. The immediate hard opening just sets the tone for a banger of a song.

Oddly, this is essentially an instrumental with some sampled in quotes, which contain a bit of NSFW verbiage included — but enjoy anyway!

And, yes, I had to find a You Tube video that did not fully spell out the title.

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Predictions

Let’s be honest, this is a game that Bayern Munich should dominate from the outset. It’s not that Werder Bremen is devoid of talent or has a bad manager; it’s just that Bayern Munich is that good.

With Robert Lewandowski closing in Gerd Müller’s record, this would seem like an optimal game for the Polish Hitman to chip away at his nine goal deficit — and I expect him to do so, even with a lot of extra attention from the Werder Bremen defense.

Simply put, if a motivated and hungry Bayern Munich side arrives at the Weserstadion, then the Bavarians should have their way with Die Werderaner.

Prediction: Werder Bremen 0-4 Bayern Munich

Other Bundesliga predictions include:

• FC Augsburg 1-3 Borussia Mönchengladbach
• Mainz 05 1-2 SC Freiburg
• Union Berlin 3-2 FC Köln
• Wolfsburg 3-1 Schalke 04
• Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Hertha Berlin
• Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Arminia Bielefield
• RB Leipzig 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
• VfB Stuttgart 1-2 Hoffenheim

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Prediction records

Last week was another flop in a season that has seen too many. While my record is “up” overall, I wouldn’t say this has been a successful season when it comes to picking games.

Let’s hope this week is better.

Last Bundesliga match day record: 3-6

Bundesliga postponement game: 1-0 (Werder Bremen 2-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld)

Overall record: 117-109*

Guest predictors’ record: 23-4

(*includes DFL-Supercup, DFB-Pokal, Club World Cup, and Champions League)