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In Part #1 of this story, we saw Bayern Munich and Germany great Lothar Matthäus breakdown why Thomas Müller has somewhat fallen off the radar under Thomas Tuchel.
Matthäus, however, was not done there. He went further into why playing Jamal Musiala and Müller together probably will not work under Tuchel.
“The playmaker is Musiala and the wingers are Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman. So if you left out a central defensive midfielder — in this case Leon Goretzka — Musiala would have to play as attacking No. 8,” said Matthäus (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “I wonder what the ideal game and opponent for Müller would be after what Tuchel said. The important games against Manchester City were not, nor was a game against the team bottom of the table.”
Matthäus could be on to something. A little piece of Müller’s game — and value to the club — died the day that Robert Lewandowski transferred to FC Barcelona. From there, Bayern Munich has toyed with using Müller as a No, 9 in both a one-striker system and a two-striker system. The position was not a fit and with the club’s strong commitment to Musiala blocking a return to his normal No. 10 role, things have been dicey for the 33-year-old.
Surely, however, Müller still has something to offer the club, right? It is not as if the team is lighting it up with the Raumdeuter coming off of the bench. Matthäus also has some thoughts on that.
“When you do the analysis after the season and the coach explains to both the team and the people in charge what he wants for the coming season, I would be surprised if Müller suddenly becomes a regular starter again,” Matthäus said. “And then we probably reached the point where Müller at least has to take a very close look at the transfer market. The fans won’t like that, because he is the identification figure par excellence for FC Bayern.”
Sadly, that could be where Müller is headed. Still able to produce, but with no platform to show that in Munich, we could finally see the day that Müller dons the kit of another club.
