No Lewandowski and Haaland: rotation a must at Bayern and Dortmund

The Bundesliga clash between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund is just a week away. Coaches Hansi Flick and Lucien Favre have been struggling with rotation as they are handling not only league games, but also Champions League and international fixtures.

Berlin (dpa) – The tough football schedule, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, has been a topic all season in the German Bundesliga and other leagues.

Coaches such as Bayern Munich’s Hansi Flick and Borussia Dortmund’s Lucien Favre have already pointed out the importance of rotating the squad, but this has becoming even more evident as the season goes on.

On Saturday, Bayern and Dortmund dethroned RB Leipzig and went joint top on points ahead of their showdown next weekend.

Munich rested Robert Lewandowski and Leon Goretzka while Dortmund took no chances on Erling Haaland in connection with knee problems as before focusing on the big clash for the German title they also have mid-week fixtures in the Champions League.

“We always talk about stress control, and we not only have to talk, but also put it into practice,” Flick said around Bayern’s tight 2-1 win at Cologne.

The treble champion coach made six changes from the starting line-up in Tuesday’s 2-1 win at Lokomotiv Moscow. The most notable one was Lewandowski replaced by newly-signed Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.

“We always expect him to be 100 per cent there, to score goals. This is a lot of mental tension. The rest is good for him,” Flick explained.

The squad rotation, however, may not be enough as it seems to affect the quality of the game. Like in Moscoe the talks at Bayern were about a “laboured victory.”

“It was a laboured victory,” Thomas Mueller said in Cologne. “It wasn’t a glitzy or glamorous performance. We’ll take it as it is.

“I don’t think it’s a new level of quality. The passion was there to take the victory with us. Not criticising ourselves, but we’ve definitely been better.”

The dilemma was particularly clear once Bayern couldn’t improve as usual after Dominick Drexler’s late goal, and could become a bigger issue for the upcoming Champions League game against RB Salzburg and the league fixture in Dortmund.

“Right now we have a game every four or three days plus a lot of trips with four away games [at Moscow, Cologne, RB Salzburg and Dortmund],” Flick explained. “That is a psychological and mental burden for the players.”

Gladbach coach Marco Rose made three changes after their 2-2 against Real Madrid and Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann brought four new men in after a 5-0 meltdown at Manchester United for their Bundesliga game Gladbach won 1-0.

Favre also rotated five new players into the Dortmund line-up after their 2-0 Champions League win against Zenit St Petersburg.

Top scorer Haaland was one of the absent after complaining about knee problems. During the game Favre got another headache as Mats Hummels limped off with a thigh-muscle problem after scoring the two winning goals against Arminia Bielefeld.

The defender now hopes to “to win the race against time” and be fit for Wednesday’s match at Club Brugge, a game described as “very, very important” by team-mate Julian Brandt.

“We have a good chance to get a result. In the Bundesliga, it will of course remain very tight,” Brandt said.

The season started later than usual but must be completed by the end of May because the postponed Euro 2020 tournament is due to start in mid-June 2021.

“It takes a lot, not only physically, but also mentally,” Favre said. But this is our job, we got to work with that, we got to prepare ourselves. We can’t change that.

“But it’s a very intense rhythm. A colleague from France said it’s a lot for the players, especially with the international breaks.”

And the next national team duties are not far away either as another triple-header with friendlies and the completion of the Nations League group stage looms from November 11, with teams like Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig having many internationals within their ranks.

Right after that follow another three straight mid-week matchdays of Champions League action in a relentless schedule.

That is obviously not only limited to Bundesliga clubs as Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola also named it “so demanding” after a third straight game away from home in a week, and ahead of their big Premier League clash next weekend with champions Liverpool.