Should Manuel Neuer lose his place in Munich? A pro & con

Manuel Neuer himself provided the most astonishing attempt to explain his night-time excursion out of his own penalty area after his red card against Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB Cup: “The thing is that I don’t really touch the ball. He runs into me and wants to be grateful “But after I don’t hit the ball, it’s okay for me,” he said into the “Sky” microphone.

Leaving aside the fact that the 1.72 meter tall Leverkusen Jeremie Frimpong didn’t seem all that grateful when he was run over by the 1.93 meter tall Neuer, the quintessence of Neuer’s current problem lies in his flowery formulation: If a goalkeeper “not like that “correctly” touches the ball, that’s a problem. And this is happening more often in the current Bundesliga season.

It would be inappropriate to accuse Bayern of having a goalkeeping problem because of this one situation. They don’t have one. But the fact is: Statistically speaking, there is currently no weaker goalkeeper in the league than Neuer. His save rate, calculated by “Kicker”, is 57.9 percent. This means that almost every second shot at Bayern’s goal ends up in the net.

Many keepers in the league are around 75 percent. To be fair, however, it must be said that these goalkeepers are given more opportunities to prove themselves due to their weaker front men.

Nevertheless: It’s not just this one misjudgment against Leverkusen that shows that Manuel Neuer is no longer the goalkeeper he once was. How could he? He is 38 years old, a comparison with his ten-year-younger version is out of the question. But FC Bayern Munich needs a goalkeeper who can consistently play at a top level. This isn’t anything new anymore, his performances have become too shaky and there have been too many mistakes in the past few weeks and months. His mistake against Real Madrid in the last Champions League season, which was one of the reasons for Munich’s elimination, was emblematic.

It was a mistake that can happen to any goalkeeper. It always looks stupid. But Manuel Neuer is not every goalkeeper. He is undeniably one of the best in history. Just a few years ago, something like that from him would have been as surprising as a Leverkusen championship. But today we live in different football times, a mistake from Neuer has become to be expected. When it comes to the decisive phase of the season, that is a risk. He should also recognize this and make room for the next team.

In the national team he had blocked Marc-André Ter Stegen for too long, in Munich they let the excellent Yann Sommer go in order to court Neuer back in goal after his injury. The Bayern bosses should now learn from this – even if that means demoting one of the team’s last remaining identification figures. It’s about today and not yesterday.

And there are options: The club already has the right replacement in Daniel Peretz, and Alexander Nübel, the very likely German number one of the future, is playing in the league. The football and goalkeeping world continues to turn. This should also apply to Manuel Neuer.

Manuel Neuer ran impetuously over Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong on Tuesday evening in the DFB Cup round of 16. He was shown a red card for the foul outside the penalty area that was considered an emergency stop. The action was probably decisive for Bayern’s elimination from the cup – that’s not a steep thesis. However, the discussion that is now starting about the goalkeeper is completely exaggerated.

The fact that Neuer was sent off for the first time in his 867th competitive game plays into the critics’ hands. The 38-year-old no longer plays at the same level as he used to. He has reached his peak. These are the allegations. It is not the first time that Neuer’s “autumn of career” has been proclaimed.

Being a goalkeeper is a thankless job. At no other position are players judged so much by their mistakes. Manuel Neuer also feels this – the last time after the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid in May of this year. Late in the game, Neuer let a harmless shot from Vinícius Júnior slip through, and Joselu then just had to push in.

The subsequent defeat and Bayern’s elimination were also attributed to Neuer’s actions. What nobody was interested in afterwards was that the keeper had previously brilliantly parried away numerous scoring opportunities for the Madrilenians and thus kept the Munich team in the game. The fate of a keeper. The old lyre.

Last year, after Neuer’s serious skiing accident at the end of 2022, fans and the press even discussed whether the veteran would ever be between the posts again. At that time he was already 36 years old. But Neuer fought back after the complicated leg fracture and showed once again that he should never be written off.

Before the home European Championships in 2024, national coach Nagelsmann decided, despite criticism, that the new first goalkeeper would stay with the DFB. Ter Stegen fans were seething. After the first few games they were surprisingly calm again. Because Neuer was not guilty of anything and was the team’s usual strong support.

Sure, Neuer is no longer as lively as he was at the age of 28 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. When he infuriated the opponents with his daring rescues on the halfway line. He has already left the national team – and the end of his career at FC Bayern is probably not too many years away. Nevertheless, he is rightly the undisputed number one for the record champions.

Nobody has revolutionized the game of goalkeeping as much. Nobody has a comparable standing in a team. Neuer’s teammates trust him blindly, even when he makes mistakes. You know: That’s part of the risk of his unique playing style. With Manuel Neuer it is like with Rudi Völler: there is only one. And it is irreplaceable.