It’s an old adage that great people are only truly great when they’re able to think about their own end. When they are aware that at some point they will have to place their task in someone else’s hands, in the most competent hands possible, which they are best able to help choose. So you have to say clearly that the great footballer Philipp Lahm couldn’t have been that great after all. When he decided in the spring of 2017 to give his job to someone else in the future, he left it at that. He didn’t tell his surprised employer which feet could follow him, but luckily it only took FC Bayern five years to find a new right-back.
Philipp Lahm was probably quite tall after all. At least he was so style-defining in his position that the Munich team quickly realized: It’s no use looking for a new lame. There weren’t any very good successor candidates, and good ones like the Brazilian Danilo or the Italian Matteo Darmian were incredibly overpriced. So Bayern first let native-born midfielder Joshua Kimmich play there and later native-born central defender Benjamin Pavard.
When the Munich team announced the signing of their new right-back Noussair Mazraoui from Ajax Amsterdam this week, the FC Bayern sports director said a true sentence. FC Bayern knows “how difficult the right-back market is,” said Hasan Salihamidzic, summing up the past few years. He could also have said: There is actually no such thing as a right-back market.
Willy Sagnol’s half-field crosses once gave FC Bayern a German championship
Even the most hardened transfer market scanners can recognize this riddle, but cannot explain it. Experts suspect that the best right-footed players are put into central midfield when they are young, and what’s left at the back right then plays what’s left.
Mazraoui, 24, is “the type of player that was wanted by all of Europe,” said Salihamidzic, which is also a very true sentence. The Moroccan is seen as a fast, forward-pushing winger who doesn’t ignore the role’s defensive profile. The player is particularly attractive because it does not cost nothing, but at least no transfer fee due to an expiring contract. The coach Julian Nagelsmann can now commission the three-man defense he adores with a somewhat clearer conscience, for which he has repeatedly had to justify himself in the club. For three-man chains, coaches need doubly talented players in the outer positions: They have to be able to defend in a classic way and widen the three-man to a five-man chain; but they must also charge up the flank and be able to win a sprint or dribbling duel.
Alphonso Davies can do that, but he plays on the left. On the right side, Nagelsmann’s players have only been able to do one thing (Pavard, defend) or the other (Gnabry, storm). Bayern believe Noussair Mazraoui can do both the Pavard and Gnabry parts.
Until Philipp Lahm’s departure, FC Bayern was mostly able to rely on their right-backs, starting very early on with Werner Olk through to Stefan Reuter and the Brazilian Jorginho, who was spectacularly reliable, even if coach Franz Beckenbauer audibly abused him on the sidelines ( “Are you Brazilian or do you have a wooden foot?”). Right-back Willy Sagnol even secured a whole championship for FC Bayern by constantly shoveling half-court crosses at Michael Ballack’s head.
The conflict between Salihamidzic and ex-coach Flick was sparked by the right-back position
But it was only after Lahm’s departure that Bayern really noticed that full-backs aren’t marginalized just because they play on the sidelines. The full-back position at FC Bayern has had a certain domestic political impact in recent years, it was the role that was always a bit disputed. It always annoyed those responsible when the media diagnosed a certain vacancy on the defensive sides and therefore a certain imbalance in the squad. That culminated in that contemptuous “Bernat!” exclamation by Uli Hoeneß, which translated means something like: What are you reporters doing, we’re only talking about full-backs here!
The conflict between sports director Salihamidzic and former coach Hansi Flick also flared up on the right: When Flick publicly called for new players in January 2020, he was primarily concerned with a right-back – to have Kimmich move permanently to the headquarters. Flick only got the Spaniard Alvaro Odriozola from Salihamidzic, whom he considered just as useless as the Senegalese Bouna Sarr, for whom successor Nagelsmann is hardly used.
Hasan Salihamidzic used to play at right back, and now the recently controversial sporting director is hoping that he has found a solution there that can cement his reputation as a squad planner somewhat. They are obviously proud of Noussair Mazraoui in Munich, and that’s just the beginning. A central defender is to be signed as well as a central midfielder whose name is already known: Ryan Gravenberch, 19, is a club colleague of Nousair Mazraoui at Ajax Amsterdam.