Uli Hoeneß: Bayern Munich are “for sure” missing a #9

Oh, no: it’s that time of year week again. Bayern Munich have failed to score more goals than the other team — this time knotting it up 2-2 with Borussia Dortmund in Der Klassiker — and the question on every pundit’s lips: whither Robert Lewandowski? (Scoring nine goals in eight La Liga matches for FC Barcelona, but that’s beside the point.)

Bayern legend Uli Hoeneß weighed in for Bayerischer Rudfunk, and the ole striker pulled no punches in addressing the elephant in the room.

“One thing is for sure, I think we’re missing a #9,” Hoeneß proclaimed (via @iMiaSanMia). “It was a difficult decision to let Robert go, with the risk of not scoring certain goals anymore — like Modeste’s yesterday. I think we have to think about this topic at least in the medium term.”

It’s a somewhat direct admission from the bosses at Säbener Straße — where Hoeneß’s voice still carries weight, as does his position on the supervisory board. One gets the feeling that it’s the sort of thing Bayern bosses never would have liked to say this season — and had Bayern’s prolific scoring ways of the early season not yielded to profligacy, they’d have been rather happy not to.

“Julian and the team have to compensate somehow differently. The money was no longer there,” Hoeneß added — noting that in the summer transfer window, spending priorities had dried up the budget elsewhere, namely big-money moves for Liverpool’s Sadio Mané and Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus. “If we were to sign a top striker, we would have had to do it properly.

“But the beginning of the season against Frankfurt & Leipzig showed we can also do without.”

Can Bayern capture that late-summer magic again? The course of the club’s transfer market future may depend on it.

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