Why Bayern Munich Need Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy
"We never comment on rumours," was the unambiguous reply of Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to Sport Bild when asked about speculation Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy are headed to the Allianz Arena next summer.
While Herr Rummenigge is staying silent in public, he has undoubtedly been involved in the negotiations that German media are reporting widely have been ongoing between Bayern and TSG Hoffenheim over the duo, who appear all but certain to be swelling the ranks at the Allianz Arena come July.
Their arrivals would fit the habitual Bayern modus operandi of pilfering the nests of their Bundesliga rivals for their best talents, but the duo will be more than just trophies taken from weaker rivals. There is little doubt the pair will be of great use in helping fill some potentially worrying gaps in Carlo Ancelotti's squad.
The Case for Niklas Sule
"Niklas is a great talent, more than that, he's already an outstanding player, a really good centre-back. He has enormous potential." No, not Sule's mother but Mats Hummels, per Sport Bild, after last weekend's win over Darmstadt, happily opening up to the press just as Rummenigge was attempting to keep a lid on things.
Though aged just 21, Sule is already closing in on 100 Bundesliga appearances and has shown again this season why Chelsea were reportedly ready to spend €30 million on him last summer only to be rebuffed by Hoffenheim, while Manchester United have also been on his trail, per Sport Bild.
"Quick, strong and comfortable with the ball at his feet, Sule has all the attributes to be a world-class centre-back," Bundesliga expert Matt Howarth told Bleacher Report of the Hoffenheim youth academy product, who joined the Sinsheim club aged just 14.
"There is no doubt in my mind that he will go on to be a key player for his next club and at international level for Germany."
"He won't come cheap, but you'll be hard-pressed to find such a rounded central defender under the age of 25," added Chris Mayer-Lodge, a freelance Bundesliga specialist, when quizzed by Bleacher Report. "A beast of a man at 6'5" [1.95m], he is an uncompromising proposition for opposition strikers, he reads the game well and is a threat from set pieces at the other end."
His physical size is a handy attribute at both ends of the pitch given the rough and tumble of the Bundesliga, while his ball-playing abilities, honed during his youth academy days as a forward—"I was really a super striker," he told bundesliga.com recently, noting he once scored 100 goals in a season—make him the ideal ersatz Jerome Boateng or Hummels.
Indeed, Sule has better stats than the high-profile pair this season winning 64 percent of tackles this term, compared to Hummels' 59 percent and Boateng's, which dips under 50 percent. Added to that, Sule also outstrips the Bayern pair on passes completed, a key stat given the emphasis on being able to play the ball out from the back in Munich.
In fact, Sule has the joint-second-highest passing accuracy percentage in the Bundesliga of players having played more than 10 games. He is behind Borussia Monchengladbach's Andreas Christensen and level with Bayern's very own, ultra-dependable Philipp Lahm. That says a lot.
Other than Sule's natural qualities that make him a perfect fit for the reigning German champions, Hummels himself gave the background to Bayern's pursuit. "It's a reaction to the fact that right now I'm the only fit, out-and-out centre-back," the Germany international said, per Sport Bild, following the final whistle in Darmstadt. Hummels had just featured alongside Javi Martinez, a midfielder-turned-centre-back in the injury-enforced absence of Boateng and Holger Badstuber.
Boateng now requires a shoulder operation that will give him a third lengthy lay-off of the season, meaning he has made just 10 Bundesliga appearances this calendar year, completing 90 minutes only twice.
Badstuber has been a treatment-room perennial, battling injury after injury for the last four seasons. Their problems mean Bayern have been forced to press David Alaba, Joshua Kimmich and Martinez into a role they do not necessarily like nor excel in quite as much as their preferred position. Hardly ideal for a club with UEFA Champions League-winning aspirations.
Since recovering from a knee ligament rupture suffered in December 2014, Sule has missed just two of his club's Bundesliga matches over the last season-and-a-half.
With Hummels, like Boateng, now 28, Sule has another major advantage: he's just 21. "Whether he is quite good enough yet to break up Bayern's World Cup-winning centre-back partnership of Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels is another matter, but time is on Sule's side," Howarth added, seconded by Mayer-Lodge.
"He'll only improve with Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng for company and, with both players having had their fair share of injury problems down the years, should get enough first-team opportunities to keep him happy in the short-term. Further down the line, it would be no surprise to see him blossom into a defensive stalwart for club and country."
The Case for Sebastian Rudy
While Sule is likely to cost Bayern the €30 million Hoffenheim rejected from Chelsea, Rudy has the added lustre of being a free agent come the summer.
He turns 27 in the new year but has more than 200 Bundesliga appearances to his name with Stuttgart and his current club and has proved himself a consistent top-flight performer in a number of positions.
Though Rafinha has just signed a contract extension, Bayern could find themselves without any cover at right-back bar Kimmich in the summer should Lahm—as expected—announce his retirement and take over as the club's sporting director.
Rudy could provide that cover and has played in the position for Germany. But also, like Kimmich, he can slot seamlessly into midfield and would be a safe pair of feet to step into the position in front of the back four should Xabi Alonso leave the club at the end of the season.
"He would make a fine addition to Bayern's squad, even if he would be unlikely to start every week," stated Howarth, noting—quite rightly—that while Sule's long-term future would be as a first-team regular at the Allianz Arena, Rudy would be more of a squad player, the ideal jack-of-all-trades to deepen the strength of the squad in defensive positions.
"In the short term, he should prove a more reliable backup in midfield than, say, Renato Sanches and certainly enhances Carlo Ancelotti's rotation options," added Mayer-Lodge. "Long term, he'll look to pick up the baton from Bayern's old guard."
He has a healthy tendency to look forward when in possession—76 percent of Rudy's passes this season have gone forward, comparing more than favourably to 64 percent for Arturo Vidal and 68 percent for Thiago Alcantara and only outstripped by Xabi Alonso's 79 percent.
His industry and irreproachable attitude will ensure a drive from midfield whenever he is on the pitch and no dressing-room rumblings when he is off it.
"He's now developing a gene to be a decider for us," said Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann of Rudy earlier this season, per Kicker. "When he brings that toughness to the pitch, he can be very influential and can decide any game."
While Nagelsmann might sing his praises, admittedly Bayern fans will hardly be as excited at the prospect of his arrival. Rudy is a man who works in the shadows, doing the spadework for others to shine, the ideal replacement for those who need a breather or when the team needs new impetus in those hard-fought, tough-to-win battles against the Bundesliga's bottom feeders as they needed against Darmstadt last weekend.
"The job Rudy does in Hoffenheim's midfield often goes unnoticed," highlighted Howarth. "He is one of the hardest workers in the Hoffenheim dressing room and one of those players who guarantees you a seven-out-of-10 performance every time he steps out on to the pitch—every manager's dream!"
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