Ambitious club in a hurry to progress has never accepted the idea of transitional seasons – so a 5-2 tonking is a blow
August seems like a long time ago. On the balmy evening on which Harry Kane was introduced to an ecstatic Allianz Arena, it was actually RB Leipzig that ran the show, and how.
Back then the newly-arrived Xavi Simons had been dumbfounding his new fans with just how good he was, leaving Germany’s biggest club wondering why they didn’t have a player like that and leaving, perhaps, Paris Saint-Germain wondering why they hadn’t held on to him rather than sending him on loan. Since that impressive Supercup display from Leipizig, their Netherlands midfielder has spent much of the season doing a passable impression of being the best player in the Bundesliga, or close enough. Yet on Saturday, at direct rivals in Stuttgart, they had to do without him, banned for receiving a fifth yellow card of the season against Leverkusen. And this game was all about dealing with the personnel hand you’d been dealt – or not, as the case may be.