João Cancelo made 154 appearances for Manchester City, scoring nine goals and providing 22 assists.Image: Press Association / Martin Rickett
analysis
The reactions on Monday afternoon ranged between disbelief, respect and great horror. FC Bayern is reacting to the current earnings crisis with three draws from the first three games in 2023 and is loaning full-back João Cancelo from Manchester City.
Why is this so amazing? The 28-year-old was one of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City’s most important players until the World Cup break. Cancelo has won two consecutive Premier League championships with City and has been named Team of the Year for both.
But the past World Cup and the beginning of the year show a surprising number of parallels to the German national team and FC Bayern. Cancelo didn’t play a good World Cup and is currently in a slump. Now comes the surprising move to Munich. But what can the Portuguese give the German record champions that is currently missing?
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Guardiola compared Cancelo to Bayern legend Lahm
Cancelo will be able to integrate better into Munich’s offensive game than Benjamin Pavard, for example. Due to his dribbling strength, the Portuguese dares more one-on-one situations. Pavard often chooses the safety pass backwards instead.
English football legend Gary Neville didn’t see any weaknesses a good year ago. “He’s an athletic machine. He’s a great runner, he’s great with the ball, he’s also a tough guy. He’s strong, he’s brave on defence, he influences the game on defense and attack.“
Because Cancelo also shines with his game intelligence. Even under Guardiola, the 28-year-old full-back often positioned himself more in the half-right and half-left central midfield area when building up the game and thus offered an additional passing station. Because he has an incredible pass quality.
He prepared the 2-1 winner of Erling Haaland in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund with an incredible outside instep pass.
His qualities even went so far that Pep Guardiola compared Cancelo with Bayern legend Philipp Lahm. “At the moment he’s playing like Philipp Lahm when we were at Bayern Munich together,” said the Spaniard in December 2021. He referred to Cancelo as “Diamonds” and praised: “He has a great quality: He loves to play football. And he likes to train. He could play football non-stop every day.” In addition, his consistency is extraordinary.
Cancelo poisons subliminally against Guardiola
But despite Guardiola’s praise, the 28-year-old appears to have fallen out of favor with the Spanish coach. After being a regular for the entire season, he has only been on the bench for the past three games.
Therefore, the two Premier League experts Uli and Joachim Hebe agree that something must have happened between the coach and Cancelo.
Cancelo only reacted after the games with ambiguous Instagram posts, which he commented with “Don’t let anyone dim your shine” and “Sharp mind and a smile on your face”.
According to British Sky journalists, the Portuguese should not be someone who silently accepts his reserve role. Therefore, they speculated that Guardiola wanted to avoid possible noise within the team with the departure.
If there’s one thing Bayern don’t need right now, it’s a lack of attitude and further distraction. After the 1-1 draw against FC Köln, sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić made a good announcement to the stars and demanded that they understand the seriousness of the situation.
Pavard stays until summer
But it is also clear: the dissatisfied Benjamin Pavard can leave the club due to the loan and presumed purchase option of 70 million euros for Cancelo in the summer.
As “Sport1” reports, Pavard will remain in Munich until the summer, despite frequently expressed thoughts of farewell. Because right-back Noussair Mazraoui threatens to be out for several weeks with his pericarditis. A return is expected in March at the earliest.
FC Bayern is secretive about transfers
What is striking after all the discussions about Manuel Neuer’s accident and Serge Gnabry’s trip to Paris Fashion Week: There seems to be unity in the club. The club actually manages to keep internal processes internal.
Neither the transfer of defender Daley Blind at the beginning of the year nor the Cancelo change were hinted at in advance by rumors by transfer experts.
This is the cohesion that Bayern need now. And which could become important as the season progresses.
“Que sera, sera” played in the background at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. Juri Knorr struggled for the right words on Monday after the first defeat at the Handball World Championship.
