Lothar Matthäus lauds Hasan Salihamidžić for Bayern Munich’s summer transfers, squad strengthening

This has been a crucial summer transfer window for Bayern Munich, and as his contract as sporting director was up for renewal, Hasan Salihamidžić has passed the summer’s test with flying colors, and the window still isn’t closed. With Robert Lewandowski’s anticipated and eventual departure from the club, the onus was on Brazzo to ensure the club brought in ample reinforcements, and they did that for virtually every position. Julian Nagelsmann was able to welcome added depth in defense, midfield, and attack.

In full, Bayern brought in Noussair Mazraoui, Ryan Gravenberch, Sadio Mané, Matthijs de Ligt, and Mathys Tel, and while not all of those players have started and played a whole lot of minutes as of yet, Bayern’s performances have been strong to start the season with three competitive wins on the trot. Despite losing their star striker, they’ve looked a true force to be reckoned with in attack, and had it not been from a rare miscue from Manuel Neuer at Deutsche Bank Park in the 6-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, they would’ve had two clean sheets recorded by now.

In his recent column for Sky Sports, Lothar Matthäus expressed his jubilation for the job Brazzo has done this summer with the players he’s been able to bring in to the club. Bayern knew how big of a transfer window this was going to be, sensing that Lewandowski already had one foot in FC Barcelona, and they brought in a caliber of players that will all individually improve the club in their own ways. “I give Hasan Salihamidžić a grade of one for his transfer market activities. The purchases and sales Brazzo has made in this transfer period up to now are great,” Matthäus wrote (Tz).

With the quality and depth they’ve added this summer, Matthäus sees Bayern having high chances of competing for another historic treble and there’s a very strong balance in the squad from back to front. “From today’s perspective, everything at FC Bayern simply fits from front to back. The current starting eleven is doing it outstandingly. And players like [Leon] Goretzka, de Ligt, [Kingsley] Coman, [Leroy] Sané, Gravenberch, Mazraoui or Tel are virtually still up front,” he enthused.

He also recognized the fact that the added depth has provided more competition for minutes in virtually every position on the pitch. Nagelsmann has put out the same starting eleven for the wins against RB Leipzig (DFL-Supercup), Frankfurt and VfL Wolfsburg, but there were certainly be rotations in the near future. The right back position is a perfect example of the club benefiting from the competition for minutes as Benjamin Pavard, feeling perhaps slightly threatened by Mazraoui, has enjoyed a flying start to the season, having scored in both the Supercup win over Leipzig and the Bundesliga win over Frankfurt.

Photo by S. Mellar/FC Bayern via Getty Images