Daily Schmankerl: Bayern Munich to launch nine-figure bid on FC Barcelona’s Pedri in 2024?; A prediction for Bayern vs. SC Preußen Münster; Son Heung-min garners praise without Harry Kane; The Bundesliga’s fastest defenders; + MORE!

Bayern plotting nine-figure pursuit of Barca star? (The Hard Tackle)

Bayern Munich has long been rumored to be a fan of FC Barcelona midfielder Pedri — and per at least one report, the Bavarians will go hard after the 20-year-old next summer:

Bayern Munich will reportedly look to sign Barcelona’s midfield mainstay in a deal worth €100-120 million next summer.

According to a report by Spanish outlet Fichajes, Pedri is the subject of interest from Bayern Munich. The Bundesliga champions want to bolster their midfield unit in the 2024 summer transfer window. And they are ready to fork out between €100 million and €120 million to land the Barcelona midfielder.

Pedri has come leaps and bounds since joining Barcelona from UD Las Palmas three years ago. The 20-year-old spent his formative years with three clubs before graduating from the Las Palmas youth division. And the youngster’s progress at the Gran Canarian outfit alerted several high-profile clubs before Barcelona came calling.

But Barcelona will unlikely entertain offers to part ways with the 20-year-old Spanish international. Pedri is one of their best players, meaning it is hard to see them cashing in on the youngster unless their financial situation worsens considerably.

It would be unwise to think there is a ton of legitimacy to this rumor. If you wanted to play Devil’s Advocate with the “news”, however, it would be curious to where Pedri would fit. There are wide assumptions that Joshua Kimmich is going to get squeezed out of his favored No. 6 role in January and this type of investment in Pedri (who would conceivably play the No. 8) would totally push Kimmich out of the mix.

Again, the whole scenario is extremely unlikely as it would seem very unlikely that Bayern Munich would splurge on this kind of move next summer, especially for a player who might not start over an established veteran like Kimmich.

For now, we can consider it...rubbish.

(Editor’s Note: This segment is also brought to you by the guy, who thought Harry Kane would never move to Germany)

A prediction: Bayern Munich vs. SC Preußen Münster (Bavarian Football Works)

Man...what a dope. For the second week in a row, this nitwit forgot to put the “English Week” game in the Weekend Warm-up, so you get a bonus prediction via the Schmankerl, so let’s get to it.

Bayern Munich is coming off of a 7-0 destruction of VfL Bochum and is a heavy favorite in the DFB-Pokal match against SC Preußen Münster. The biggest question for most Bayern Munich fans is not even if the Bavarians will win, but how will Thomas Tuchel send out his squad.

Matthijs de Ligt is banged up and will miss the match and this looks like a good chance for Tuchel to give Leroy Sané a blow, as well. Given the team’s success running a 4-4-2 against VfL Bochum, we can assume that Tuchel will roll with that again — only this time it will look a little different.

It feels like Daniel Peretz will get his first start and that the backline should look something like Noussair Mazraoui, Kim Min-jae, Dayot Upamecano, and Alphonso Davies on the backline. However, injuries to Upamecano and Min-jae could shuffle things a lot. Frans Krätzig deserves a start, but Tuchel might still think it is a little too risky to try in this spot — unless he has to move one (or both) of the outside-backs into a central role.

In the midfield, Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka should be the duo, with Konrad Laimer getting a day off. Kimmich, Goretzka, and Laimer could also be candidates to drop into center-back roles should the injury situation really turn out to be dire.

The attack, however, is where things get interesting. Serge Gnabry and Mathys Tel seem likely to get the call on the outside, while Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala should get a shot as the striker pairing (which might seem odd, but it just seems like that even if the lineup is listed as a 4-2-3-1, it will function more like what we saw against VfL Bochum on Saturday).

Needless to say, that will be more than enough to get the job done.

Prediction: SC Preußen Münster 0-8 Bayern Munich

Side note: SC Preußen Münster typically has some great kits. The green/black horizontal stripes (hoops) are better than this season’s version of the vertical stripes, but they are cool nonetheless.

Photo by Andreas Schlichter/Getty Images

Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Podcast: Season 3, Episode 11 (Bavarian Football Works)

Bayern Munich is fresh off of a nervy 4-3 win over Manchester United in the Champions League and will have to quickly re-focus itself to do battle with VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga.

With the English week making things a complete jumble for the podcast schedule, Bavarian Podcast Works has, once again, pushed the Preview Show into the Weekend Warm-up, so listeners are not overloaded with our content.

Given all of that, this is what we have on tape for this episode:

• A preview of Bayern Munich vs. VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga, including some thoughts on how the lineup might change and what the score might be.
• Examining why Thomas Tuchel’s lack of a rotation is a bad idea for the long-term prospects for this season.
• Harry Kane is a nicer, less bitter version of Robert Lewandowski
• We are seeing the best of Leroy Sané, aren’t we?

Son praised sans Kane (The Boot Room)

After Tottenham Hotspur earned a 2-2 draw with Arsenal FC over the weekend and pundit Garth Crooks heaped some praise on the work that Son Heung-min is doing without his old buddy Harry Kane.

“This was an impressive Tottenham performance against their North London rivals. To go behind twice away at Emirates Stadium having had the most shocking penalty decision awarded against you takes some steel and Son displayed plenty of it,” Crooks told BBC Sport. “Since the departure of Harry Kane to Bayern Munich, I detect a maturity in Son’s game I haven’t seen before – I also see a better team player this season. Both of Tottenham’s goals were brilliantly taken by Son.”

Fastest defenders in the BuLi so far (kicker via @iMiaSanMia)

So far, Bayern Munich has the three fastest defenders (according to their clocked speed during matches) and four of the top 11:

Bavarian Podcast Works: Postgame Show — Bayern Munich 7-0 VfL Bochum (Bavarian Football Works)

Well then.

Bayern Munich have done it again. Tasked with facing VfL Bochum, the Bavarian giants proved their giant status with a third 7-0 drubbing in just the last two seasons, and this performance may be the most convincing of all of them.

In a game that Bochum seemed to never be in, Bayern simply ran through the motions in high gear without skipping a beat, looking sharp throughout.

In this podcast, we go over the many factors that went into Bayern’s domination over Bochum:

• A look at the starting XI and the systemic changes Thomas Tuchel employed from the previous few matches.
• Where the system’s changes found new spaces and pockets for players to get creative and score from.
• How the team’s defensive resilience and focus came back to the fore.
• Why fans should be excited about Bayern and what we’ve learnt about the ever-evolving system.

Six Bayern players recognized for efforts (@WhoScored)

A whopping six Bayern Munich players (Matthijs de Ligt, Kim Min-jae, Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman, Joshua Kimmich, Harry Kane) were recognized by WhoScored.com for their performances in the team’s 7-0 victory over VfL Bochum:

German outlet kicker named Noussair Mazraoui, De Ligt, Sané, and Kane to their Team of the Week:

Cancelo = Krazee-Eyez Killa (@nocontextfm1)

João Cancelo...what is up, man?

Bavarian Podcast Works — Flagship Show: Season 6, Episode 11 (Bavarian Football Works)

So another week of football has gone by, and Bayern Munich have won two games in a row. In the meantime, Germany have hired Julian Nagelsmann (thanks to some financial help from the Bavarians) and we have reports that Matthijs de Ligt is unhappy with his situation (shock, horror!). Overall, a mixed week of events but the main subject of discussion are the two coaches — Tuchel and Nagelsmann.

In this episode, INNN and Marcus discuss the following:

• What do we think of Thomas Tuchel at Bayern Munich so far?
• How the games against Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen speak against the current coach.
• Is Tuchel causing problems in the dressing room?
• Marcus makes an unconvincing defense of Tuchel so far.
• The philosophical difference between hiring and firing coaches.
• How important is the RB Leipzig game next week?
• How can Tuchel improve the team going forward?
• Is Julian Nagelsmann capable of fixing Germany?
• What happens if he can’t do it?
• What is the leadership issue at Germany? Is Gündoğan the right choice of captain?
• What should Germany do if Nagelsmann can’t fix things?
• A quick look at the Preußen Münster game in the DFB Pokal coming up.