Cancelo Pavarzane was all playing and Bayern's big rotation was finally in hand

Sports Weekly All-media reporter Huang Sijun

Following a 3-2 defeat away at Borussia Mönchengladbach three weeks ago, Bayern once again rotated as many as five men after Paris Saint-Germain and was once again hit hard at the start (this time not with a red card in 8 minutes, but with a goal conceded in 2 minutes), but with a very different result. It only took half time for Bayern to basically settle the battle, completing another five-goal comeback against Augsburg in the second round of the DFB-Pokal, only to change the score from 5-2 to 5-3.

Pavard, Cancelo and Davies scored four goals and five defenders celebrating their goals was the best illustration of Bayern's victory.

Usually, such a big score means that the defensive digging hole is filled in front, but this time it was the defender who dug the hole and personally filled it back in the front court, and Cancelo, who was directly responsible for the opening goal, scored three goals in a row with Pavard. When "Bayern killer" Mojim Berisha scored twice from a penalty in the second half, Cancelo assisted Alfonso Davies' goal. Of the five goals, only Sane got a piece of the stars in front. From keeping two legs of clean sheets against Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar, to scoring enough goals from defenders in one game, Bayern won their eighth of their last nine official games and re-ended Borussia Dortmund by two points.

Unhappy Cancelo

Bayern eliminated Paris in the Champions League, and although morale was high, they also had to rotate again. In the pre-match press conference, Nagelsmann revealed that Matthijs de Ligt, Müller, Comand and Goretzka were all a bit tired, while Shubo Motin was out due to a back injury, so rotating five should be the "minimum cost". Sure enough, the coach rotated 5 people. But perhaps drawing lessons from the loss to Borussia Mönchen, and considering Augsburg's habit of fielding at least three strong centre-forwards and scrambling for penalties, the manager produced the strongest three-centre-back combination, Matthijs de Ligt did not rotate, and Pavard, suspended in midweek, replaced Stanišić.

After sitting on the bench for four games in a row, Cancelo is finally back in the starting line-up. In the last round of a 2-1 away win over Stuttgart, the Portuguese star sat on the bench for the entire match. During the next day's training, he unabashedly expressed his displeasure. Although Cancelo's quick assist to seal a 2-0 win against Paris in the second leg against Paris seemed to make him slightly happier, for Nagelsmann, how to arrange Cancelo's position on the field and how to make him happy and make the team stronger is the current problem.

On March 5, Cancelo was depressed during training.

After signing Cancelo in the last minute of the winter window, both Nagelsmann and sporting director Salihamidzic have publicly said that Bayern have coveted Cancelo for a long time. That being the case, Bayern should be well aware of his position and technical characteristics. As a result, when the boss switched between three central defenders and four defenders from the start of the match against Union Berlin, Cancelo suddenly lost his position, and the manager even made it clear that the Portuguese star was not suitable for right-back in this system, leaving the outside world scratching their heads. The manager's decision to use Stanišić as an alternative to Pavard was seen by some experts as a dangerous way to undermine the tranquility of the dressing room.

Before the match with Augsburg, Nagelsmann admitted that Cancelo was upset and made an interesting analogy: "When I was in Leipzig, there was a player like him. When he came out, he was the happiest man in the world. You think: cool, you can fish with him for two hours. I'm just giving examples, I don't really like fishing. It's a similar situation [with Cancelo], when he comes out, everything is fine. When he can't play, everything is not good. That's normal too. Some players can handle better, and there are players who can't handle it that well. ”

Nagelsmann thinks Angelinho's personality is similar to Cancelo's.

Nagelsmann was talking about another former Manchester City full-back Angelinho. After spending money on loan at Leipzig in early 2020, the Spaniard made a breakthrough in his career under the manager, becoming one of the best left-backs or left-wingers in the Bundesliga.

Ahead of the home match against Borussia Mönchen in late February 2021, Leipzig announced that Angelinho was absent due to muscle problems, but the Spaniard immediately tweeted that "muscles are fine, I'm healthy", but he quickly deleted the tweet. The boss offered a tactful criticism of Angelinho at the time, while also defending him, pointing out that he was such a person who wanted to keep competing and that he was annoyed that he could not play due to injury. More than a month later, Angelinho once again publicly contradicted the club on the issue of whether he could play, and the coach again tactfully criticized him and said bitterly: "I am the kind of person who is relatively relaxed, and I am not the kind of person who likes to punish." But he still has to learn, in case he has to talk to another coach later. ”

Kick the happy Cancelo

Another similarity between Cancelo and Angelinho is the position on the pitch, at least in Nagelsmann's eyes, both are better suited to play as wing-backs in a three-centre-back system to develop their attacking specialties. Since the arrival of Joao Cancelo, the boss has immediately switched to three central defenders, with Cancelo playing at right wing-back and also at left-wing-back. The problem is that there are only two positions left on the wing with three centre-backs and Cancelo has to compete with Davies and Comand. Comand is Bayern's most in-form attacking player in the nearly a month, and Davis was at a low point after the winter break, but since coming off the bench against Paris to assist Comand's goal in the first leg, the Canadian star has clearly recovered, and Cancelo has gradually fallen behind in the competition. Especially when the boss switched the formation to 4231 and 3142, Davis, who immediately changed to a left wing when attacking, was the most crucial link, and Cancelo had no place at all. In the 10-on-11 game against Borussia Mönchen, Cancelo, who had replaced Mueller early, played right-back in the back four in the small half, and the effect was obviously not satisfactory to the manager.

Cancelo scored from a small angle in the 15th minute to make it 1-1.

To reinvigorate Cancelo, Nagelsmann had an in-depth conversation with him this week and even talked about similar personal experiences — Nagelsmann lost his father at age 20 and Cancelo lost his mother at age 18. The boss believes that the dialogue has worked well and Cancelo has shown good form in training again, which is why he will be allowed to start this game. Due to Cancelo's rotation of Comang, Bayern's formation changed back to a three-centre-back and five-back. As a result, just two minutes into the game, Cancelo, who came to the center of the penalty area to make up for it, was easily picked up by Berisha and swung around, watching the opponent's left-footed low shot through the bottom right corner of the goal.

Fortunately, Cancelo quickly made up for it in attack, and he and Sane formed an effective response on the right flank on several occasions. In the 7th minute, his low left-footed shot from the right side of the penalty area after dangling Mas Petersen was saved by Jikiewicz. In the 15th minute, he received another pass from Sane and inserted it into the right side of the box, still facing Peterson, Cancelo first dunked with his right foot, then dangled his opponent with his left foot, and a low shot from 10 meters away from his right foot bounced into the inside of the far post, scoring his first goal since joining Bayern, 1-1! Not only was the pressure on Cancelo effectively released, but Bayern also broke out immediately. Just four minutes later, Mane, who got his first chance to start after recovering from injury, brilliantly hooked a corner kick to help Pavard sideways right-footed from the edge of the penalty area to make it 2-1.

Pavard scored a 2-1 comeback goal in the 19th minute.

An even more exciting goal came in another corner kick that followed. Matthijs de Ligt's header was blocked high by Berio in the penalty area, and Pavard quickly jumped on the right side of the box and volleyed a right-footed volley into the net, changing the score to 3-1 in the 35th minute! It was the first time Pavard scored in his career, having scored six goals in all competitions this season, setting a career high. And since the 2018 World Cup 1/8 final against Argentina with a right-footed volley in front of the penalty area, the right-footed volley has become the French defender's hallmark. Of the 11 goals he scored for Bayern, five were right-footed volleys! Musiala revealed after the game: "We were talking at half-time that he might complete a hat-trick. ”

Pavard scored twice with a brilliant right-footed volley.

In addition to the "windfall" in attack, Pavard's recent defensive performance is also obvious to all, especially in the first leg with Paris, which became a big winner in the change to three central defenders. The 2018 World Cup winner has always preferred to play centre-back rather than right-side, but his performance at centre-back has always been unconvincing in the back four, and this development bottleneck has also led to his inaction. Now, with an important turnaround on the pitch, Pavard's prospects for Bayern seem clear again. The boss praised him after the game, "He played more in his favorite position and played well. I know he's comfortable here. For his part, Salihamidzic said: "He is one of the players who has been doing well in the last four to six weeks and he goes to training every day with a smile on his face. As for other things (such as renewal negotiations), let's go and see. ”

"April will be exciting"

In addition to Cancelo and Pavard, Sane, who has recently been criticized for his negative attitude, poor competitive form, late training and even missing the team bus, also scored with a header before half-time to instantly open the score to 4-1. In addition to this confidence-restoring goal, Sane's dribbling and deep passes in the game finally regained his first half feeling. The boss said: "He has some situations that he can handle better, but he is always a threat when he has the ball on his feet and can dribble quickly. Most of the offensive today was launched through him. It has to do with desire, and he showed it today. So I'm satisfied. ”

Sane returned his smile with a goal.

In order to make good use of Sane's "sensitive genius", Nagelsmann has been painstakingly since he came to Bayern. The day before the game, the Bild reporter said that Sane was late for training, and the coach immediately said at a press conference, "I didn't see it. He made an appointment with the physiotherapist at 10:15 today and he arrived on time and also attended the training. But I didn't stand in the doorway to check the players arrived. I found out that you Bild people are morality police. Another German international, Gnabry, who has been scolded recently, said after the game: "I can't avoid all the points of view from TV. But sometimes I think it's a bit too much. In my opinion, it doesn't make much sense to blame two people. But as an athlete, you have to deal with the outside world targeting you or your teammates. ”

After changing sides, Augsburg made four changes in one fell swoop and relied on Berisha's penalty to make it 2-4 in the 60th minute. Then it was Joao Cancelo who stepped up and assisted Davis with a well-fitting diagonal shot. He played only 8 games for Bayern, with a total of only 434 minutes, and this "senior cargo" contributed 1 goal and 4 assists. Not only did he have both goals and assists, but he even received his first yellow card of Bayern's career and played the full game for the first time after Davis was replaced by Mazraoui, who had returned from pericarditis.

Mane's barbed assist was quite spectacular, but he was unable to score a goal.

Cancelo and Pavard and Sane, who also played 90 minutes, were arguably completely happy, but Mane, who was replaced by Terre after 71 minutes, was clearly unfulfilled. Despite a brilliant assist (Sane's goal was also linked to his pass), the Senegalese star added an awkward offside goal at the start of the second half, coupled with a right-footed push and kick with an unguarded shot in the middle of the box, to the regret of both Muller and Blind, who were warming up outside the line.

However, in the mixed interview area after the game, Mane was in a good mood. Asked about rival Borussia Dortmund, he laughed and said: "They will lose today. As a result, more than two hours later, Borussia Dortmund were held to a 2-2 draw by bottom Schalke 04 and Bayern re-established their points advantage. Nagelsmann said: "The league situation is tight. Then came the Champions League draw, and then the German Cup. With eight or nine games to play in April, it's going to be an exciting month. ”