Berlin: Bayern Munich head coach Jupp Heynckes is demanding new strikers join his football club as early as in the next winter break.
“I will talk to the club leaders soon to discuss what options we have when it comes to new strikers,” the 1974 world champion said. Heynckes has expressed concern several times over the lack of centre-strikers in the squad in Munich.
The 2013 treble-winning coach said a back-up for Robert Lewandowski is helpful to secure the club’s season goals.
In advance of the 2017-18 season, Bayern leaders decided to abandon plans to increase the club’s box-strikers.
The 72-year-old coach ran out of options for the job up front and had to call up rookie Kwasi Okyere Wriedt in Wednesday’s 5-4 penalty win over RB Leipzig in the German Cup.
The striker problem is increasing as Thomas Mueller and Frenchman Franck Ribery are sidelined due to injury. James Rodriguez, Kingsley Coman, and Arjen Robben have lacked the best shape due to minor injury problems in the last weeks.
Chilean Arturo Vidal seems to be far from best shape at present and is in the headlines due to reports about trouble in a local discotheque. Only 19-year-old Fabian Benko would be available for Heynckes to ease the team’s difficulties.
Bayern’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the club is aware of the problem but is still in doubt about the quality available in the winter break.
“It is a problem to get the requested quality at that stage of the season. And, a new striker would have to be comfortable to mostly sit on the bench and only occasionally be on the pitch. We would have to tell him, we want you, but Lewandowski is doing 95 per cent of the games,” the former German international commented.
Pundits such as former Bayer Leverkusen sports-director Reiner Calmund and former Bayern Munich midfielder Thomas Strunz spoke about Bayern taking a high risk by not having enough strikers.
Calmund recommended at least getting one more striker in the next winter-break.
“I can’t understand that Bayern takes that much risk. Just imagine Lewandowski is out due to an injury when the knock-out stage of the Champions League has to be played next year,” Calmund emphasised.
Strunz said he considers Lewandowski as Bayern’s weakest point when it comes to an injury. “Mueller has played this position, but it is not his best part. Bayern needs a box-striker to secure its goals,” Strunz told German media.
An additional striker enables the coach to change to a tactical system with two strikers, Calmund said.
In 2013, when Heynckes and Bayern won the treble, the side could count on the abilities of three spearheading strikers such as Mario Mandzukic, Mario Gomez, and Claudio Pizarro.
To have that many options was one of the main reasons for the stunning success, Heynckes said.
This season Bayern’s European rivals have more options and can give their number-one striker a break when needed, Heynckes stressed.
“We have to take things as they are at the moment, but we can change them in a short while,” he said.
