*** Warning: this is a long post about my personal oppinion on our squad planning next season. Sorry in advance for any grammatical mistakes as English is not my 1st language.

As an avid fan for more than 15 years, it pains my heart to once again see our team in a sad state similar to the dark days of 2007 and 2008. Personally, I wish we could hit the "in case of emergency, call Jupp" button but what done is done. The only thing we can do is to look to the future. Some say we need an overhaul like in 2009 or 2012. However, Bayern is a club famous for maintaining both footballing success and financial stability and we don’t have to break such a sacred tradition. Please hear me out, I do believe in the current squad and with some tinkering and right decisions from BOTH the board and the coaching statf, we can still achieve greatness next season.

I/ Transfers and the Management

1/ Transfer out

- We need to offload players who have little impact on the squad such as Sarr and Mane. I’m sorry to all of our fans from Africa but the truth is both of them do not contribute much and are taking too much wage money.

- We should loan out Gravenberch, who need game time to realize his potential.

- If the right offer comes in, we can sell Sabi/Goretzka and Gnabry/Coman/Sane but that is not necessarry.

- Either Nubel or Sommer can leave.

- Cancelo should not stay. Don’t get me wrong, he is an amazing player who can add so much to our squad, especially his pin-point accurate crossing. However, we already have Davies and Maz as wing-backs, so adding another high-profile, high-maintenance player into the mix woudn’t make sense financially.

2/ Transfer in: I think we only need to add one striker to our squad but it must be the right type of striker.

- A new striker is a must. However, we must take into account what type of striker we need. Bayern has always had a striker who is both physically and mentally strong. Say what you want about Wagner, Gomez and Lewy but their desire to win cannot be denied. As for physicality, it is not just strength, speed and arial prowess but also the resilent to withstand rough challenges and still keep the ball to get the shot across. Players like Lewy, Mandzukic, Gomez, Toni and even Wagner are all great at this aspect. ECM is also another great example of poccessing the appropriate attributes for this role despite not being a clinical finisher. Therefore, I believe that we should not go for the likes of Muani, Thuram or Osimhen. We need someone who can hold his own in the box, so I believe that Vlahovic or Kane should be the rigght choice. I would not go for Kane as he is almost 30 and too expensive, so Vlahovic is the most sensible choice.

- If we sell any of Sabi/Goretzka/Gnabry/Sane/Coman, we may need to find replacement. De Jong, Kroos, Gundogan, Rice, Mount or Kovacic can be options for the CMs while promoting Wanner and Ibrahimovic can be the answer to the wingers. If we absolutely need a winger, Berrisa from Ausburgh or Grifo from Freiburgh or Burkart from Mainz can be suitable fringe players.

3/ The board need to take the blame for this mess. As a goalkeeper myself, Kahn has always been and always will be my hero, but his taking miscalculated (or uncalculated risk??) cost us the whole season this year. Brazzo also needs to take responsibilty for this mess toghether with the fact that we are paying too much unjustified salary momey.

4/ The coaching staff and Tuchel must learn from their tactical mistakes this year. I understand that Tuchel may not prefer high-pressing system but his systems do not work either. The biggest mistake they made this season is their claim to make performance based choices of line-up. For so many matches, Manes has been ineffective, Goretzka has been invisible, Musiala has been bullied to the death, Upa has made costly mistakes while Coman seems to have hit the wall this season and Kimmich has been painfully average, especially at set-pieces. Yet they do not get benched or at least reprimanded by the coach. At Bayern, there used to be no undisputed starters except Neuer and Lewy, mainly becaue they have no worthy challengers on the bench. The coach need to have the gut to bench underperforming players. I don’t understand why he benched Muller after the 1st match he underformed and kept using Mane and Goretzka. He kept letting Kimmich take corner-kicks despite recieving almost nothing from it. He kept using Moose as a CAM despite seeing him struggling against opponents’ CBs and CDMs.

II/ The squad: As mentioned above, only in-form players should play (even Neuer and Muller are no exception). The players must feel the competitiveness for the spots and give everything on the pitch

1/ GK: Neuer will return and challenge for the 1st place. It will be interesting to watch the 3-way battle among Neuer, Nubel and Sommer. If possible, we should keep Sommer and let Nubel go.

2/ DEFs: I have not seen such a stable back-line for years. Currently, Davies-MDL-Pavard-Maz should be the starting back-line but that can easily change with Lucas, Upa and Stanisic challenging them. To be honest, Blind should stay. His experience, calmness and versality (he can play CB, LWB and Deep-lying Playmaker) are indispensable because we are having too many hotheads. In case of emergency, Coman could be used as a wingback.

3/ MIDs:

- CM: If we are to play Kimmich as a box-to-box then we need proven players like Sabi as a holding mid. Sabi played well there early this season. Laimer has proven his ability as a CDM against us while we can never cross out Goretzka arial prowess and physical presence. Furthermore, they are all threat from outside the box (if the coach allow longshots of course). These players are all international players, they can communicate well and they are all influential players. Therefore, Gravenberch should go on loan. Splashing cash on Rice or De Jong seems unnecessary.

- Winger: Gnabry and Moose are starters now based on their form but Coman and Sane can also challenge for the starting spots. If any one of them play badly, he gets benched.

- CAM: Muller doesn’t always play anymore but if he is in form, he is the best choice as the number 10. Moose can replace him if he is having a bad day. Wanner and Ibrahimovic can also be promoted to support.

4/ Strikers: Vlahovic (if we get him) and ECM will battle each other for the starting spots.

In the end, the most important thing next season is the most in-form players always play.