Is that still the Bundesliga or is it already a lottery? Nobody knows what happens when the return series with the game FC Bayern against Borussia Mönchengladbach kicks off this Friday. Only one thing seems clear: not only the quality will be decisive, but also luck.
The times when Joshua Kimmich had to take on tasks on the football field that he actually didn’t want to take on should actually be over. Joshua Kimmich, a whole nation (with the exception of ex-national coach Joachim Löw) had agreed on that, that’s a man for the central midfield. There he has the best access to the game. At his club, FC Bayern, he has become irreplaceable in the role of the bilious driver. How much he is missing, when he is missing, the people of Munich experienced in the weeks before Christmas, when Kimmich was either in quarantine or infected with the corona virus. Well, he’s back at the start of the second half of the season. Nobody knows how fit he is. But it is needed more urgently than ever. Because of Corona.
The virus is raging massively at the record champions. Seven players are currently infected. Including captain Manuel Neuer, the central defenders Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Hernández and first round star Leroy Sané. With Corentin Tolisso and Omar Richards, two players have tested themselves before the start of the second half and with Kingsley Coman another could follow, but then there is no option. In Munich they are publicly relaxed about the situation, but they are also somewhat desperate. You would like to postpone the start of this second half of uncertainty. The comfortable position at the top of the table with nine points ahead of Borussia Dortmund does not change that. The German Football League has to decide. And it’s good that the rest of the league is measured directly at the largest club in the country.
Lewandowski as a Libero?
According to the statutes, FC Bayern is still able to play and could scrape together enough players to play against Mönchengladbach. And coach Julian Nagelsmann is definitely keen on this idea, because he is plagued by a desire for revenge for the surreal 0: 5 clap in the DFB Cup. But in view of the circumstances, is it even possible to take revenge against the footballers from the Lower Rhine, who have recently been in serious crisis in the Bundesliga? Well, actually the Munich team (as of now) still have a very good starting line-up together. Robert Lewandowski would be there, as would Thomas Müller, Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry. Benjamin Pavard can play, as well as Marc Roca, Marcel Sabitzer and the recently ailing Niklas Süle. Besides, and presumably also Kimmich. But where should he go? Again in the defense? That’s where it actually gets most stuck.
Kimmich can play right-back, even if he doesn’t necessarily like it. Kimmich can also give the central defender. Pep Guardiola once had this crazy idea. And it wasn’t bad. Nothing is yet known about Julian Nagelsmann’s plans. But he will have to improvise badly if the second half of the Bundesliga is really kicked off this Friday evening in Borussia-Park. Will he come up with just as wild things as VfB coach Joachim Löw once did, who tore Fredi Bobic out of the Stuttgart “magic triangle” in 1997 to use him as a sweeper against Bayer Leverkusen?
The virus is lurking everywhere
You can’t rule out anything. Because of Corona. Around 40 players from the Bundesliga are currently infected with the virus. No club has been hit as hard this winter as FC Bayern. It’s hard to tell whether that’s just damn bad luck, or whether some players were just too careless. And does not serve the cause. Allegations that the footballers had better not jetted around the world to go on vacation in the past few weeks, but rather stayed at home, are also somewhat absurd. This is also the opinion of Nagelsmann, who settles accounts with all those who are now looking for reasons why FC Bayern has hit harder than all the other clubs in the Bundesliga. The virus is lurking everywhere. And the risk of infection will be even greater (also because of the apparently much more contagious Omikron mutant) when the holidays come to an end everywhere, when the players’ children go to daycare or possibly also to school, when the women have theirs Follow jobs.
The gate on Säbener Strasse did not open at the beginning of the week.
(Photo: imago images / Sven Simon)
What kind of bubble would have to be created for the clubs in order to reduce the risk to zero? A huge one, one that can hardly be lifted. Physiotherapists, supervisors, bus drivers, they all have to go into this isolated world. And so this second half of the season becomes a great show of improvisation and an even bigger game of chance. Even with a vaccination rate of well over 90 percent in the clubs. So it will be decisive for the outcome of the season who is least hit by Corona. And when. Does the virus rage in a team in relegation battle when it goes against the top teams, where sensations are not very realistic anyway, or does the virus rage when the direct duels are pending? Or the other way around: Which inferior team might benefit from a massive outbreak at their opponent? Borussia, which is now in the table cellar, could be the first winner of such scenarios. The competition won’t like it.
And how do clubs react when the big decisions suddenly come up? About the Champions League, the Europa League, or just about staying in the league? Economic hardships and necessities are quickly mixed up in this. It’s about management and future planning. And how quickly will players be reinstated after an infection? Sure, there have always been major injuries too. But the pandemic is (still) a new dimension. It doesn’t make anything plannable. But there has to be a show.
The new absurdity
A look at the other leagues shows how absurd the dimensions can be. In Serie A there is a dispute between league, clubs and health authorities. While the league did not want to cancel games at the request of the clubs with a major outbreak, the authorities quarantined entire teams. In the end, the games were canceled at the last second. In Portugal, Belenenses Lisbon had to compete with nine men a few weeks ago. All other players were infected or were in quarantine. When there were only six footballers on the field shortly after the break, the game was finally canceled. What a grotesque thing. The traditional French club Girondins Bordeaux has only just been forced into a football absurdity by the rules. Although there were 21 corona cases (!) In the squad, the cup game against Brest was played and lost (0: 3).
The English Premier League is completely out of control. At Manchester City, the league leaders, there are currently 21 suspected cases, including coach Pep Guardiola. Games are canceled on the assembly line, teams put together squads that only serve the purpose of being somehow capable of playing. Quality is no longer the decisive criterion. But there is a huge difference between the Premier League and the Bundesliga: on the island, the willingness of players to be vaccinated is much lower than here. However, this is not a good argument for safe gaming operations in Germany.
Albas Luka Sima (middle) against two Würzburgers in a possible superspreader event.
(Photo: picture alliance / Andreas Gora)
The Basketball Bundesliga reported a vaccination rate of almost 100 percent at the start of the season, and the German Ice Hockey League also pointed to an extremely high level of readiness and prepared possible game failures with a point system in the table. And now? Now there is chaos. The last BBL game last year between Alba Berlin and s.oliver Würzburg seems to have turned into a superspreader event. The guests from Bavaria now report 13 positive tests, and the Berliners have eleven positive results in the team as well as in the coaching and support staff. Your game at the Braunschweig lions has been postponed.
Off to the Omicron Nebula
It is even more blatant in the DEL, the Iserlohn Roosters reported 25 corona cases in the team on January 4th and are therefore no longer able to play. Because of the incubation period, the team doctor warns that the number of positive tests could increase. After all, there seems to be no severe course in the infected so far. But the players (and, of course, coaches and supervisors) just drop out. And mostly for two weeks or more.
But the point is, if you are capable of playing, you have to compete. But what does being able to play mean in the Bundesliga? Banned or injured players are also able to play according to DFL regulations. The clubs had agreed before the season that games would be staged if “at least 15 licensed licensed players and / or amateurs / contract players entitled to play in the licensed team are available.” In addition to top talents from the second team (which plays in the regional league), the U17 junior national players Arijon Ibrahimovic and Paul Wanner will also be withdrawn from a DFB course in Spain to supplement the matchday squad against Gladbach.
Is it all still a competition or is it already a lottery? So far, no game has been canceled and rescheduled in the football upper house this season. But there is not much space in the appointment calendar either. After all: for the coming spring, several experts are very cautiously optimistic announcements about the pandemic. Until then, however, not only the Bundesliga will be a grotesque game of chance.