BFW Verbal Altercation Club: Bayern Munich’s Brazzo, Lothar Matthäus fire off jabs through the media

Bayern Munich and Germany legend Lothar Matthäus has established himself as one of the leading voices on Bayern Munich in the media.

When there is a hot button issue in Bavaria, Matthäus is there to provide commentary.

Most recently, the 60-year-old has been critical of Bayern Munich’s handling of the Niklas Süle transfer saga and has also knocked both Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Hernandez. Upamecano for his poor performances, Hernandez for his sometimes careless penchant for fouling opponents and how his salary might have put the club’s wage budget out of whack.

Bayern Munich sporting director Hasan “Brazzo” Salihamidzic has heard enough, though, and offered a retort to Matthäus’ critiques.

“Of course Lothar has to say something. Of course, he’s an expert. I’m not interested in what Lothar says and I don’t care. We stand by our players and we talk to them. But I don’t give a damn about what Lothar says,” Salihamidzic said to DAZN at Bayern Munich’s 1-1 draw with Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League (as captured by kicker).

Meanwhile, Matthäus said that he understands that Salihamidzic has to protect his players — and his decisions — but that does not make them any better.

“It’s my job as a journalist to evaluate the performances. Hasan, Julian Nagelsmann and Joshua Kimmich confirmed themselves that Bayern were not good in Bochum with open, critical statements after the game,” Matthäus told Bild. “Hasan is feeling the pressure as he is responsible for putting together the squad and especially the defense. With Hernández and Upamecano, price and performance simply do not go together, and Hernández could have messed up the wage structure in the team. The defense has a deficit in speed. It’s especially noticeable with (Alphonso) Davies out. Hasan not only wants to protect the players, but himself as he is in charge of the transfers. I understand that.”

For what it is worth, Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann offered a measure reply to the mini-controversey.

“Our job is to make such experts, who have nothing to do with the club, disagree again after three days. Our job is to make sure they have no reason to criticize like that,” Nagelsmann said at his press conference on Thursday (as captured by Tz).