Maybe it’s just a friendship service. FC Bayern not only signed Sadio Mané, but also, as was recently announced, a good friend of the offensive player in Désiré Segbé. Segbé is reportedly not quite as talented as Mané, so he will probably be used much more in the second team’s attack, but that too is questionable. Segbé is already 29 years old and therefore doesn’t fit into the current concept of the regional league team at all.
Last Sunday, Bayern played the regional league derby against Türkgücü Munich, their first team was just over 19 years old on average. Bayern won with difficulty 3:2. The aim should be for these youngsters to have two or three full seasons of men’s football behind them before head coach Julian Nagelsmann focuses on them – or even in the focus of second or third division teams, who are now awarded far more often than they used to . Conversely, this training goal means that advancement is not a priority. Even if the club would of course not defend themselves against this. But even on the FC Bayern campus, they quickly noticed that other teams are tackling this goal with greater zeal, such as SpVgg Unterhaching (even if they claim there that they are not in such a hurry).
However, the 3-2 win against Türkgücü also made it clear that many players still need some time to be successfully introduced to adult football. The defence, where the average age has fallen particularly sharply compared to the previous year, often looked unsettled. On the other hand, seven goals after three games doesn’t sound so bad at first. But the 2-0 defeat against newly promoted Ansbach eight days earlier made it clear that the offensive hadn’t found a way to counter opponents who were at the bottom either.
There is one main reason why Bayern are not striving for promotion with all their might this time: The quality of last season is not even remotely available when you look at the entire squad. Jamal Musiala, Gabriel Vidovic, Nemanja Motika or Bright Arrey-Mbi – these are just a few of the players who were born in 2003 and would not learn anything in the regional league. In attack, in particular, the callousness is currently missing. Against Türkgücü’s defense, which was positioned very far forward, no goal was scored for a long time, even with clear counterattacks.
Successor to Luka Modric? At least on campus they think a lot of Zvonarek
Some important regular players were missing recently, the South Korean Lee Hyun-ju, for example, is expected back soon after a corona infection. Without signing expensive external players, the squad is already being improved with players who were not necessarily intended for the U23, just to be on the safe side. So Vidovic was activated again, and 17-year-old Lovro Zvonarek was used on the left wing. The young Croatian already had to listen to being the successor to Luka Modric, and they also think a lot of him on campus. “Great performance,” said the sports director of the campus, Holger Seitz, about the blond boy after the derby. Zvonarek himself says: “I can still learn here, it’s great, all the players are very strong.” After Türkgücü took the lead, Zvonarek scored the equalizer to make it 1-1. In Croatia he became a regular player in the first division at the age of 16 and is said to be in great demand at the moment. Whether he stays with Bayern is primarily decided by Nagelsmann. It is possible that he will be awarded at the end of the transfer window; but if Bayern’s U23s continue to struggle in the league, it may happen that Zvonarek has to endure a few more regional league games.
Another point that puts the promotion goal into perspective: the trainer is also still in training. Martin Demichelis is a big name, but he has big shoes to fill as a U-23 coach. His most prominent predecessors over the past ten years are Sebastian Hoeneß, Tim Walter and Erik ten Hag. Demichelis says of himself: “I’m only at the beginning of my second career.” In all probability, the 41-year-old will only receive the highest coaching license in a few weeks, from the Italian association. The former central defender has his former team-mate Hasan Salihamidzic to thank for his secure training position. He had brought him to the campus three years ago at very short notice as a U19 coach, because Miroslav Klose didn’t want to take over the A youth at all and had prevailed.
The Youth League is also not entirely unimportant to the campus managers this time. The U19s were eliminated last year as the last group in the preliminary round, and this time they definitely want to prevent this disgrace. The plan is to always have the best possible team on the field, which could be at the expense of the regional league team. Of course, 17-year-old Zvonarek should also play in the Junior Champions League. If he’s still there.