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Defensive reinforcements are on the top of Thomas Tuchel’s wish list for this January.
Much had been made of Thomas Tuchel’s persistent desire for Bayern Munich to sign a defensive midfielder both last summer, and this coming winter. There were some differing opinions amongst the club’s front office, but Tuchel has stuck to his guns and the club very nearly signed João Palhinha from Fulham in the Premier League at the end of the summer window.
Palhinha reportedly still would be in favor of a move away from Fulham, however, priorities have changed a bit for Bayern. Bouna Sarr’s recent ACL tear in his left leg has compounded what has already been a chaotic season of injuries to the back line for the Rekordmeister — and this is in a season just after the club sold Benjamin Pavard and sent Josip Stanišić out on loan to direct rivals Bayer Leverkusen.
According to information from Sport1’s Kerry Hau (as per @iMiaSanMia), Bayern is now prioritizing defensive reinforcements for this winter’s transfer window, and they are considering that to be far more urgent than signing a defensive midfielder at this point. It is understood that the club is trying to look for candidates that can play both wide-back and center-back, just as Pavard was able to do for the club before he was sold to Inter Milan. This is a big part of the reason why Bayern was recently linked with Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Bayern was also keen on signing Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah over the summer window it what would have been a reunion with Tuchel for the defender, but that fell through and a move for this winter is also looking unlikely. At this juncture, there are not any concrete defensive candidates despite the club having a specific profile of what, exactly, they are looking for.
The club also needs to account for temporarily losing both Kim Min-jae and Noussair Mazraoui in the beginning of 2024 for the Asian Cup as well as the African Cup of Nations, respectively. It will be a big loss to not have the pair of defenders for the time periods they are away with South Korea and Morocco.
Because of the pressing need for defenders now, in hindsight, loaning out Stanišić is looking more and more like it was the wrong move. He had a proven track record with Bayern and can play both right-back and center-back. In a pinch, he could probably even feature at left back if required.
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