After joining Bayern Munich on loan from Manchester City, Joao Cancelo’s switch however is not quite going as expected. The Portugal international was allowed to sign with the Bavarians late in the January transfer window by City after growing unhappy with his lack of playing time, despite being one of their key players in back-to-back Premier League title victories.
Later reports revealed that Joao Cancelo had grown enraged since he was not given regular playing time, and his absence from the FA Cup victory over Arsenal was the last straw. As a result, his loan move to the Bundesliga champions was approved and completed quickly and even got inserted an option to buy him outright for £61 million. However, after a bright start where he notched an assist on his debut, Cancelo has again encountered the harsh reality.
Joao Cancelo to be benched against PSG in Champions League round of 16 second leg
After he got off to a fast start, making his presence known just 17 minutes into his debut with a magnificent assist and bagging another assist in his second outing, Joao Cancelo was believed to be finding new life at Bayern. However, fast forward a month and the full-back seems to be back in the same spot. Cancelo has only played 12 minutes in Bayern’s last two games and according to latest reports, he won’t start Wednesday’s Champions League round of 16 second leg against Paris Saint-Germain at the Allianz Arena.
Cancelo was an unused substitute in the weekend clash between Bayern Munich and Stuttgart, which the Bavarians won 2-1. Josip Stanisic was chosen to play right-back, and Alphonso Davies on the left. This pattern is expected to continue into Wednesday night’s showdown, which has been deemed the most important of the club’s season to date, according to Sky Deutschland.
According to reports, Joao Cancelo will once again start on the bench, with Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann intending to stick with the back three that has helped them reignite their league campaign. Being a “typical” full-back, Cancelo, in Nagelsmann’s opinion, is less suited to the current set-up than Croatian international Stanisic. Speaking after the win over Stuttgart, the Bayern boss explaining his decision to drop Cancelo had said:
“He (Joao Cancelo) is handling the situation well. I don’t have any impression that he’s breaking off. Stanišić is a bit more defensive and João has never played right center-back in a back 3.”
According to Sky Sports’ Florian Plettenberg, Cancelo is remaining ‘quiet’ but is ‘frustrated’ over his lack of minutes with the German side. There were rumours that the 28-year-old full-back and Man City manager Pep Guardiola had a falling out, which caused the player to leave the English champions. Although both have refuted this, Cancelo acknowledged that they had differed on what his role should be with the club. He further added that he felt he “deserved” to start every game for the Citizens, which Guardiola disagreed with.
Cancelo had said last month:
“I respected his (Guardiola’s) decision because I have to and this is a team of great footballers. But I think a player is always a bit selfish. Any player wants to feel important, wants to play and anyone who says otherwise is lying. A competitive player, like me, who aspires to win titles, just wants to play. It’s like Pep said, I need to play to be happy. It’s not a question of devaluing my teammates, because others are on the bench to play. But I thought I deserved to play and he didn’t.”