Bayern Munich vs VfB Stuttgart: Lineups, team news, injuries, rotation before Barcelona, and more! (Updated)

We are now at a point in the season where rest is a luxury. Yes it’s only September, but the funky schedule in this World Cup year (thanks FIFA!) means that a four month stretch of games is being squeezed to fit into three. For Bayern Munich, a club that tends to play a ton of fixtures even in a normal year, the crunch is being felt acutely.

After consecutive draws against Gladbach and Union, Julian Nagelsmann needs all three points against Stuttgart to keep pace with the league leaders (Freiburg, in this case). However, the specter of Barcelona looms large at the Sabener Strasse, so the coach also needs rotation. Figuring this out will be a mess.

Team news

Kingsley Coman is confirmed out of the game with a muscular injury.

No other injury news to report right now. Joshua Kimmich suffered a gnarly bruise below his right eye in the game against Inter Milan, but Nagelsmann says he’s doing fine and will be ready to start. To be honest, even if the thing had swollen up to the size of a grapefruit, Kimmich would never accept a game on the bench.

As for the rest of the team ... it’s hard to predict who will start. The coach promises rotation, but didn’t elaborate on who exactly would be rotated. He mentioned Jamal Musiala, Mathys Tel, and Serge Gnabry as players who haven’t played recently, so maybe they’ll all make the starting XI this time. Joining them could be Thomas Muller, allowing Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane some rest after all the games they’ve played recently.

In midfield, Joshua Kimmich could pair up with Leon Goretzka for a change, allowing Sabitzer some rest as well. It could be a risky move to change up the midfield pairing at this stage, but Stuttgart have yet to win a single game this season and Barcelona come next. So maybe the rotation is more important.

Finally, in defense, we could see an unchanged backline from the Inter game. Alphonso Davies, Lucas Hernandez, Matthijs de Ligt, and Benjamin Pavard could all start. However the coach could definitely opt for Dayot Upamecano instead, just to give De Ligt a rest before the Champions League. Manuel Neuer as always, will start in goal.

Here is what the lineup might look like:

This could be horribly wrong in many ways. Hard to predict what “rotation” looks like at the moment.

Update

Bild predicts a lot more rotation than we do.

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