Berlin (AFP)

Five minutes of play Tuesday in the game of the year against Dortmund (1-0) ... Lucas Hernandez, French world champion acquired for 80 million euros last summer, did not manage to impose in the defense of Bayern Munich, and the future looks complicated.

Hansi Flick, his trainer, was frank when he submitted the problem to him: "I am very satisfied with his mentality, he always gives himself 100% (but) the current situation is that we trust the defensive quartet in place ", or Benjamin Pavard, Jérôme Boateng, David Alaba and Alphonso Davies.

The sentence is clear. And this is reflected in the figures: in three "post-coronavirus" matches since mid-May, the 24-year-old central defender has spent everything and everything ... 22 minutes on the lawn. Five of them only at the very end of the match Tuesday in the "Klassiker" in Dortmund, where Bayern opened the road to the title by winning 1-0 to take seven points ahead six days from the end.

In his defense, the defector of Atletico Madrid, the most expensive player ever bought by Bayern Munich, and second most expensive defender in history (behind Virgil van Dijk and his 84.6 million between Southampton and Liverpool), has been injured too long this season to really have time to win.

- Six times holder -

Severely injured in the ankle in late October, he was absent for more than three months and, in total, has only been tenured six times this season in the Bundesliga, and twice in the Champions League.

In his absence, the landscape at Bayern has changed: Niko Kovac the coach has been ousted and replaced by Hansi Flick. After some trial and error, the new technician installed a defense at the start improbable, but now unboltable.

David Alaba, the versatile Austrian talent who played sideways, has been replaced in the center, where he does wonders. The 31-year-old veteran Jérôme Boateng, who was said to be at the end of the race, has for his part found a second youth, and imposes himself again as central defender, with his passes of 40 millimeter millimeters and his power in duels .

On the left flank - that of Hernandez in the France team -, the young Canadian gifted Alphonso Davies is the revelation of the season. And the native of Marseille, left-handed, can not think of taking the place of his compatriot Benjamin Pavard, indisputable holder on the right.

Insoluble, therefore, especially since his performances, when he played at the start of the season, were not breathtaking. Strong in defense, he has shown limits in attacking play, yet a trademark of Bayern defenders in recent years, from Lahm to Kimmich via Hummels, Boateng, or today Davies and Alaba.

- Transfer rumors -

Recently, Flick gave strong praise to Boateng, and especially to Alaba, whom he apparently thinks of converting definitively: "I told him that I saw him becoming a good central back. His progress in this position is fantastic, he is very good at stimulating, pushing the team and playing a leadership role. "

Worrisome for Hernandez, who will also face next season the competition from Niklas Süle, the central of the German team, injured this season.

Suddenly, specialized sites begin to speculate on a possible transfer this summer. His agent Manuel Garcia Quilon has even had to firmly deny in recent days a rumor of departure for Newcastle.

For now, the integration of the ex-Colchonero is neither at the level of sporting expectations nor of financial investment: "It is clear, there will be playing time in this final sprint, because 'it will be necessary to rotate to spare the organizations, "predicts the German football magazine Kicker," but that is not why Bayern brought him, and that should not be his ambition either. "

On Saturday, the "Rekordmeister" welcomes Düsseldorf at 6.30 p.m. (4.30 p.m. GMT). Hernandez may have a chance. But the world champion surely did not expect, arriving in Munich, to have to prove himself against the 16th in the classification, three days after having followed a "Klassiker" largely from the bench.

© 2020 AFP