Christoph Freund expecting Matthijs de Ligt to get more minutes for Bayern Munich

So far this season, Matthijs de Ligt has only clocked a total of 36 minutes in the Bundesliga from Bayern Munich’s opening four matches. He also only played 45 minutes of their 3-0 DFL-Supercup loss to RB Leipzig before the Bundesliga season got underway as he’s clearly been out of favor with Thomas Tuchel. The manager has been showing a preference to using a center back pairing of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae and de Ligt has only been used as a substitute.

To the Dutchman’s credit, he hasn’t kicked up too much of a public fuss with his lack of starts and minutes, but he was coming back from a calf problem in the first couple of weeks of the season. The only full, 90-minute shift he’s clocked since the last day of the 2022/23 Bundesliga season was for the Netherlands’ 2-1 Euro 2024 qualifying win over the Republic of Ireland during the international break, for which he was grateful to have gotten under his belt as he hopes for more minutes and starts under Tuchel at Bayern.

Speaking on De Ligt’s current situation, new Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund said he is completely understanding of the defender’s frustration with his lack of minutes, but genuinely feels his fortunes will change. Champions League play resumes this week and Tuchel will need to make rotations and have all the depth available at his disposal that he can get as Bayern push across three fronts. This will certainly give de Ligt more opportunity.

“He’s a really important part of the team. We have three world-class center-backs and we will need them all. The situation is of course not easy for him at the moment, he wants to play. But I’m convinced he will play a lot more games within the next few months. He always gives his all in training,” Freund recently told Bild (via @iMiaSanMia).

In Bayern’s 2-2 draw with Bayer Leverkusen, De Ligt was brought on for Konrad Laimer in the 85th minute to play as a defensive midfielder, which is a role he played when he was much younger. Regardless, it gives a clear indication of where he stands in Tuchel’s current pecking order with the fact that he wanted to play him out of position just days after it had come out that the manager felt the Dutchman was too slow in his buildup play.

Hopefully, for De Ligt’s sake, he can improve upon the things Tuchel wants him to and see more time on the pitch as opposed to the bench.

Photo by Roland Krivec/DeFodi Images via Getty Images