Sadio Mane on Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting after Bayern Munich’s 5-0 win over Freiburg: “What a player!”

Bayern Munich leapfrogged SC Freiburg in the Bundesliga table with their thoroughly convincing 5-0 victory over them at the Allianz Arena, and the score line perhaps even flatters Christian Streich just a bit. Bayern very easily could’ve scored more than five goals, but Julian Nagelsmann can be delighted with the fact that there were five different goal scorers on the night; Serge Gnabry, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Leroy Sane, Sadio Mane and Marcel Sabitzer.

Rotations based on injuries, suspensions, and resting some players ahead of the DFB-Pokal clash against FC Augsburg saw Nagelsmann field a starting attacking four of Choupo-Moting as the lone striker with Sane, Mane, and Gnabry behind him. It was the first time we’d seen this sort of starting lineup from Bayern so far this season, but it worked wonders against Freiburg.

Speaking after the big win, Mane had high praise for Choupo-Moting, who did exceptionally well to spin his defender in Freiburg’s box after controlling Sane’s outside of the foot pass to slot one past Mark Flekken and make it 2-0 to Bayern. “What a player! He played well for us and was a big part of our win today. He fights a lot, wins almost all of his duels. He’s good at hitting the balls. A fantastic game from him,” he told Tz’s Philipp Kessler.

He did have injury problems that kept him out of most of the beginning of the season thus far, but Choupo-Moting has still only made a total of eight appearances for Bayern thus far this season. Most of the aforementioned appearances have been as a substitute, as the start against Freiburg was his first start of the season. Despite not having a plethora of minutes under his belt, he’s still proven his worth, scoring twice and assisting once from his appearances, carrying on in the same vein as he had when most often serving as a backup to Robert Lewandowski.