Dayot Upamecano never thought about leaving Bayern Munich despite defensive signings

Dayot Upamecano quite arguably had a much improved season last season from Bayern Munich compared to his maiden season with the Rekordmeister in 2021/22 after joining from RB Leipzig.

He still had his negative moments and Thomas Tuchel didn’t shy away from placing some blame on the Frenchmen for at least one of the goals conceded at Manchester City in the Champions League, but on the main, he’s cut a much revamped figure this past season. Considering the managerial switch, too, Upamecano fared quite well for himself, having to get used to Tuchel’s systems after making massive strides under Julian Nagelsmann.

Naturally, one could assume that Upamecano feels slightly threatened by the fact that Bayern has already brought in two defenders this summer in Raphael Guerreiro from Borussia Dortmund and Kim Min-jae from SSC Napoli. He’d be much more fearful of losing out on minutes to the latter since he’s a natural center-back, but the French international has recently said that the defensive arrivals have not once made him possibly think about a summer exit from Munich.

“I didn’t think for a second about leaving FC Bayern. I will fight for my place,” Upamecano recently told Bild (via @iMiaSanMia). He also went on to laud Bayern’s new center back signing, saying that his presence in the squad will only help everyone around him get better, especially in the back line. “He is a very good reinforcement, he makes us better. This competition belongs to international top teams. I accept that, I’m ready to fight for my place,” he explained.

Upamecano was largely aided for minutes by Lucas Hernandez’s long-term injury last season and he paired quite well with Matthijs de Ligt for large portions of the season. Of course, though, both Nagelsmann and Tuchel do like to toy with back three or back five systems, either of which affords the lineups to have the presence of three center-backs starting. We could see that from time to time with Tuchel, but one would have to assume that Min-jae could supplant Upamecano in the middle of a back four alongside De Ligt. The Frenchman will certainly have his work cut out for him this season and the margin for error is razor thin.