{"id":654716,"date":"2025-05-14T08:30:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=654716"},"modified":"2025-05-14T08:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:30:34","slug":"bayern-munich-centre-back-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/05\/14\/bayern-munich-centre-back-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Bayern Munich Must Fix Their Biggest Problem Before Club World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

This season is not quite over, and yet Bayern Munich must plan well ahead for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup<\/a> and for the next term that is set to start in August. The biggest task for these upcoming challenges has to do with building a team for the summer tournament in the States, and beyond. Aside from maybe finding a suitable backup for star striker Harry Kane, the most pressing part of that squad-building has to be dealing with the Bayern Munich centre-back problem. The team neither have quantity, let alone quality, in those crucial positions at the moment.<\/p>\n

The Bayern Munich Centre-Back Problem<\/h2>\n

Dayot Upamecano<\/h3>\n

Dayot Upamecano has been injured since the March international break, but will likely regain his fitness in the near future. Despite a difficult start to his Bayern career, when he arrived from RB Leipzig in 2021, he earned his place as the leader in the Bayern Munich defence under coach Vincent Kompany this season.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: How Bayern Munich Can Cope With Alphonso Davies and Dayot Upamecano Injuries<\/a><\/p>\n

His contract expires next summer, and possible extension talks between Upamecano and the club began early this calendar year, but have stalled ever since.<\/p>\n

Eric Dier<\/h3>\n

Eric Dier was seen by many as an emergency transfer when he arrived at the Bavarian capital in January 2024. Nonetheless, the former English international has proven his doubters wrong quite soon, as he became a dependable starter next to Matthijs de Ligt in then-Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel\u2019<\/strong>s side, which reached the semifinals of last season\u2019s Champions League, narrowly missing out on the final.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> The Five Greatest Thomas M\u00fcller Matches Including Title Decider<\/a><\/p>\n

As De Ligt was inexplicably sold to Manchester United last summer, and Kompany preferred Kim and Upamecano as the partnership in the heart of his defence, Dier patiently waited his turn and performance whenever needed. Yet, he and the club could not agree on a new contract and will therefore part ways in the summer.<\/p>\n

Kim Min-jae<\/h3>\n

Kim joined Bayern in 2023 with much fanfare, after having won the prestigious Serie A Defender of the Year Award during his time at Napoli. Yet, after two seasons in which his individual errors have cost Bayern dearly in key matches, including in the Champions League, the club hierarchy seem ready to let him move on.<\/p>\n

The only issue is, selling Kim would not solve the Bayern centre-back problem unless a suitable replacement comes in quickly.<\/p>\n

Josip Stanisic<\/h3>\n

After a very successful loan spell at Bayer Leverkusen last season, Stanisic returned to Munich with high hopes and expectations. Unfortunately, an injury caused him to miss the first half of the season. The versatile Croatian international<\/a> defender did fairly well in the spring, though without ever showing anything spectacular.<\/p>\n

Hiroki Ito<\/h3>\n

Ito joined Bayern last summer from VfB Stuttgart. He got injured in preseason, seemingly recovered in spring, only to get hurt again. The Japanese international can play either on the left or in the centre of defence. It is unclear, however, when he will become available again.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong> Top 5 Franz Beckenbauer Accomplishments<\/a><\/p>\n

Potential Solutions<\/h3>\n

The club need to prioritise the positions at the heart of their defence in the transfer market this summer. Jonathan Tah of Bayer Leverkusen is always being discussed as an option, especially as a free agent this summer and now that his Barcelona move<\/a> seems to have fallen through.<\/p>\n

In terms of youngsters, at the club’s youth campus, there is not much at the CB position.<\/p>\n

Tarek Buchmann is a 20-year-old hopeful, technically already listed as a professional, but has not played there in a competitive game as of yet this season. He has made two appearances for the Bayern Reserves in the Regional League, but injuries have hampered his further development.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the club will address this issue, and even Tah and Buchmann may not be enough. In any case, there will be no progress in Europe until the Bayern centre-back problem is solved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This season is not quite over, and yet Bayern Munich must plan well ahead for the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup and for the next term that is set to start in August. The biggest task for these upcoming challenges has to do with building a team for the summer tournament in the States, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4762,"featured_media":649331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1364,4,378,7188],"tags":[53,4085,123,32158,9384],"class_list":["post-654716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bayern-munich","category-bundesliga","category-champions-league","category-rumours","tag-bayern-munich","tag-dayot-upamecano","tag-eric-dier","tag-hiroki-ito","tag-kim-min-jae"],"modified_by":"Henry Chung, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4762"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654716"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654754,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654716\/revisions\/654754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}