Mats Hummels was one of the winners in FC Bayern Munich’s 5-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund. What happens to him after summer depends on two duels. His opponents sat in the stadium and watched.
Three central defenders were in the spotlight at FC Bayern Munich’s gala against Borussia Dortmund – but only one because of his sporting performance.
While Mats Hummels had put on his work clothes (red jersey, red shorts, red socks, white shoes), the other two wore tracksuits and watched him work: Jerome Boateng in FC Bayern’s tracksuit from the bench, Lucas Hernandez in Dolce & Gabbana’s tracksuit from the stands. They will have looked very closely, because both expect a duel with this Hummels.
In Level 1, Hummels will play against Boateng – in all likelihood only one of them will be a member of FC Bayern’s squad in the coming season, despite their current contracts until 2021. Regular player Niklas Süle is undisputed and because of the transfers of the two French world champions Benjamin Pavard and Hernandez only one squad position remains.
If Hummels is the one he is looking for, Level 2 is waiting for him: the duel for a starting place, where Hummels will face the 80 million Euro Hernandez.
“I think it’s a good thing to have to push each other to the top. I like competition,” said Hummels after the match against Dortmund. If he plays like he did against the BVB, he has a good chance of passing this level as well.
The Hummels of Saturday was not the Hummels who had last burned himself into the public image. The Hummels, who missed the huge header chance to 1-0 against South Korea at the World Cup in summer. Who failed with Germany in the preliminary round. Who lost his sanctity at FC Bayern. The Hummels, who at the age of 30 is regarded as a run-out model and was kicked out of the national team by national coach Joachim Löw.
On Saturday Hummels played like Hummels again. He defended confidently and even had some strength left to take care of danger at the front. That was the plan,” said Hummels, “and at the same time his first goal of the season – he scored at least once in the eleventh Bundesliga season in a row. Meanwhile Hummels fought many duels in the back and won a strong 70 percent of them.
Because he was so active both back and front, he ran a lot. Almost eleven kilometres and thus the fourth most of his team and almost one kilometre more than his neighbour Niklas Süle. What does he think of the performance of Hummels? “Great! Mats made a very, very good game.”
The problem with Hummels this season is the shape variations. From very-super to very-everything-not-super everything was already there. Mistakes in the DFB Cup round of 16 against Hertha BSC, outstanding performance in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against FC Liverpool, two mistakes in the second leg, an unnecessarily indebted penalty in the DFB Cup quarter-finals against 1 FC Heidenheim and now the gala against Dortmund. Well, what now?
With regard to the most important statistics – such as the pass and duel quotas – Hummels has, seen over the entire season to date, been roughly in line with his career average. Compared to last season, it even improved slightly. Therefore he cannot understand the partly massive public criticism, Hummels feels misunderstood.
“I must say clearly that many things are seen differently than I see them,” said Hummels clearly. “Since the World Cup everything is a bit strange, many good things are not seen and the bad ones are hacked around. We’re all 30 and we’re playing a lot better than we’re being made.” He meant himself and the other two national team members, Thomas Müller and Boateng.
It was an application speech for a future in the association, which justified his performance shown before. His rival Boateng, on the other hand, had no chance because he sat on the bench for 90 minutes in FC Bayern’s tracksuit. Later in the evening he exchanged it for his so-called BOA party for a so-called Louis Vuitton calfskin cut-away vest, as fashion experts researched.
According to reports Boateng appeared as one of the last, only at 1.37 o’clock at the event location, the Munich Nobelklub P1. If Hummels stuck to his own words, then he was long gone by that time. “I heard the water was supposed to taste delicious,” he said right after the final whistle of the game.
