DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Although Bayern Munich set the Bundesliga record by signing England captain Harry Kane, there’s still a big void in the team.
Kane wore the number nine jersey worn by Robert Lewandowski in the past. This comes with the hope of scoring goals among dozens. Transfer fees, which could amount to more than a hundred million euros ($110 million), add to the pressure. .
“I feel that duty. Any time a club spends a lot of cash on you, you feel like you have a duty to pay that money back,” Kane said in his presentation on Sunday.
Kane’s tenure at Bayern began with a surprise the day before, when the team lost to Leipzig 3-0 in the German Super Cup, a largely ceremonial duel between the league and cup champions. Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel criticised his players, not counting Kane. – saying that they had played “as if we had done nothing” the 4 weeks of preseason.
Kane fills the void left by Lewandowski at Bayern, but the search for a goalkeeper continues, as Manuel Neuer could miss the entire first part of the season. He broke his leg while skiing in December and underwent surgery this month. Bayern chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen admitted on Sunday that the club had tried, unsuccessfully, to sign Kepa Arrizabalaga from Chelsea.
Neuer, 37, has not played since last year’s World Cup. Bayern had substitute Sven Ulreich as their goal in the loss to Leipzig.
The question is whether a new goalkeeper is planned as an interim resource like the signing of Yann Sommer in January (he has since been sold to Inter Milan) or a more permanent replacement. Signing like David de Gea, a free agent since leaving Manchester United, may simply mean permanently relegating Neuer to the bench.
Tuchel also indicated the team needed a defensive midfielder, which could potentially mean more transfer deals at Bayern before the window closes on September 1.
In addition to Kane, new signings include defender Kim Min-jae of Italian champions Napoli, who made his Super Cup substitute debut. Dortmund full-back Raphael Guerreiro and Leipzig midfielder Konrad Laimer arrived on loose transfers, and defender Lucas Hernandez has left for Paris Saint-Germain.
Kane hopes to succeed where the signing of a big Premier League call-up failed. Sadio Mane left Bayern earlier this month for Saudi Arabia after a disappointing season following his arrival from Liverpool.
Last season at Bayern began with then-coach Julian Nagelsmann looking to do without a direct replacement for Lewandowski after the Polish striker left for Barcelona after 8 years and 344 goals with the club.
Nagelsmann tried to use Mane as a component of a flexible attacking line alongside Leroy Sané, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman, but in the end he turned to the deployment of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting in a more popular centre forward role: Lewandowski-era tactics without Lewandowski.
When Nagelsmann was ousted in March, Tuchel focused on the short term ahead of the expected off-season review. Tuchel says players such as Sané, Gnabry and Coman remain key to his plans.
“After the loss of Robert Lewandowski, on his shoulders fell the duty to score, perhaps everyone expected that suddenly they would score in double digits, which did not come about for various explanations. There is never an explanation of why in football. There are many explanations,” Tuchel said of Bayern’s pre-season trip to Singapore.
“Overall, I’m satisfied because the ethics of painting is smart, I’m satisfied because the quality is smart anyway, but the ethics of painting is smart and they work hard for the team. They are all team players and they are all reliable.
Getting through the season is not enough for Bayern, and squandering the Bundesliga name in favour of Dortmund would be a seismic surprise in German football.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews. com/hub/soccer