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Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus has criticised the club’s recent transfer activity, questioning why players like Eric Dier and Kieran Trippier are being targeted.
The Bavarian giants have signed Dier on loan until the end of the season, even though the versatile 30-year-old was warming the bench at Tottenham Hotspur. Kieran Trippier has also been linked with a surprise move to the Allianz Arena, with discussions underway with Newcastle over a permanent transfer that could be worth £12m.
Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel is under increasing pressure after the weekend defeat to Werder Bremen left the club seven points adrift of surprise Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen, and the German has turned to the transfer market in order to bolster his struggling squad.
Matthaus, who spent 12 years at Bayern and made over 400 appearances in all competitions during an illustrious career, has openly questioned the calibre of player being looked at by his former employers and criticised the sales of Benjamin Pavard and Josip Stanisic in the summer when, in his opinion, there was no clear plan to replace them.
“Bayern need more depth and reinforcements, but are these players reinforcements? Eric Dier wasn’t necessarily a key player at Tottenham recently,” Matthaus said, quoted by GOAL. “I remember Uli Hoeness (Bayern’s honorary president) once saying that, ‘We won’t be bringing in any more players who are sitting on the bench at other clubs’. The latest transfer looks different.
WILL THE JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW DELIVER?
“Kieran Trippier would be a similar case. That’s not Bayern Munich for me. Bayern should focus on reinforcements or on the young players. Aleksander Pavlovic sat out against Bremen and wasn’t substituted. When he did play, he was always outstanding. Bayern Munich have very good youth players and Christoph Freund (Bayern’s sporting director) is responsible for that. He has a good network.”
He added: “In the summer it was said, ‘We can let Pavard and Stanisic go and get someone else instead’, and then they didn’t get anyone else. As a result, they’ve got problems at right-back and in the centre. They thought, ‘We’ll manage that’. No, they reacted too late. The team can’t find itself.”
Bayern have been attempting to sign Nordi Mukiele on loan from Paris Saint-Germain – the Frenchman is capable of playing at right-back and centre-back like Pavard – but haven’t been able to get a deal over the line. That’s led to conversations with Newcastle about Trippier, who had been one of the club’s most consistent players before a flurry of recent defensive errors.
