Inside Bayern Munich’s crisis meeting: How Julian Nagelsmann asked his team to choose between Jamal Musiala and Thomas Muller

According to a report in Christian Falk’s podcast (via Bild), Bayern Munich had a recent crisis meeting after drawing three consecutive games in the Bundesliga. One of the major questions presented to the team was one that’s been plaguing the fanbase as well.

“Jamal Musiala or Thomas Muller — which one do you prefer?”

Per the report, Musiala himself stood up for Muller, saying that he could develop his creativity better with Muller’s experience at his side. We’re not told if anyone disagreed, but the coach clearly did not — in the next game, Julian Nagelsmann fielded a brand-new back three based formation that had Muller playing next to Choupo-Moting as a second-striker, with Musiala and Sane as advanced midfielders. It worked brilliantly, resulting in a comfortable 4-0 win.

We’ve covered the why and how of this very question on this blog, both before the Mainz game in a longform opinion piece, and after that game in our postgame podcast. If you want to listen, just go ahead and click play on the embed below, or listen directly on Spotify. It includes a detailed look at what Muller and Musiala can bring to the team together, plus a critique of Nagelsmann’s new setup.

In the end, the answer was always going to be obvious. Musiala or Muller? NO. It’s Musiala AND Muller. That’s really all there is to it.