Gnabry Set for Bayern Return as Saibari Faces Pressure
Vincent Kompany is about to get one of his biggest weapons back. And for Ismael Saibari, the timing could hardly be worse.
Serge Gnabry has stepped fully into team training at Bayern Munich and is pushing hard for his first appearance since April. The 31-year-old winger, sidelined for months with an adductor injury, has now completed all drills with his teammates and, by all accounts, looks sharp. The comeback is no longer a distant plan. It’s around the corner.
The layoff cost him plenty: the decisive run-in of Bayern’s season and the World Cup with Germany. Now, according to Bild, he could already make the squad for Thursday’s Champions League opener against Bodö/Glimt at the Allianz Arena. A start would be a surprise at this stage, but the door is clearly opening.
And that’s where Saibari comes in.
Saibari under scrutiny
Bayern brought Ismael Saibari in from PSV Eindhoven last summer for a reported fee just shy of €55 million including bonuses. A big investment, a clear signal. Kompany moved quickly to trust him too: the Moroccan started both the 4-1 DFB Cup win over VfL Osnabrück and the goalless draw away to promoted Schalke 04.
But the story inside those line-ups tells a different tale. In both matches, Saibari was withdrawn after around half an hour.
He had announced himself brightly on his Bundesliga debut, coming off the bench in the 5-1 win over VfB Stuttgart and collecting two goal involvements. Since then, though, the numbers have dried up. No direct goal contribution. No decisive moment to lock down his role.
The criticism has followed.
Former Bayern midfielder and current TV pundit Dietmar Hamann has been particularly blunt. He called Saibari a “wonderful footballer”, then immediately undercut the praise with a damning comparison: “He is too slow. He's not just not quick, he's like a poor Kane. Kane is not the quickest and now his back-up is not the quickest either.”
Hamann doesn’t buy the idea of Saibari as a versatile fix-all either. While Bayern see a player who can cover four positions, Hamann sees just one: directly behind Harry Kane.
“They say Saibari can play four positions – I say he can play exactly one position: that is behind Kane, because out wide he is too slow,” he argued, before adding that in the No 10 role he considers “Serge Gnabry a class better” than the new signing.
If Gnabry returns anywhere near his best, the hierarchy in that zone of the pitch could change quickly. Saibari, once the fresh face with a big fee and big promise, suddenly looks like the man with the most to lose.
Familiar referee, familiar stakes
While the debate over Bayern’s attacking pecking order grows louder, the club’s season takes a serious turn on Thursday. The Champions League campaign begins, and with it another attempt to reclaim the trophy that defines their ambitions.
Bodö/Glimt come to Munich, and with them a referee Bayern know well: Rade Obrenovic.
The Slovenian official has overseen the German champions only once, but that night went Bayern’s way. Last season he took charge of their 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, a result that pushed them into the round of 16. His whistle was anything but quiet.
Obrenovic awarded Bayern two penalties. Harry Kane converted one and missed the other. He also showed Min-Jae Kim a second yellow card, sending the defender off. Every key decision stood up to scrutiny.
So Bayern head into Thursday with a referee who has already seen them win, a striker who has already lived a full evening under his watch, and a winger desperate to get back on the pitch.
If Gnabry’s name appears on that team sheet, one question will hang over the Allianz Arena: how long can Saibari keep his place in a side that suddenly has no room for passengers?
