The news that Mario Götze has picked up an adductor injury and will be out for about 10-12 weeks is more significant than it seems. The young German has had a tough time asserting himself at club level, and is struggling to gain the trust of manager Pep Guardiola.

After his heroics at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, many expected the former BVB protege to really kick on and reach his potential, but instead his 2014-15 campaign fizzled out alarmingly - Earning him the dubious honour of being named one of kicker magazine's 'Flops of the Year'. With his lay-off set to keep him out of action until the Rückrunde, the question is whether Götze finds himself on borrowed time at Bayern Munich.

There is absolutely no doubt that Götze is immensely talented, but as much as the narrative in 2013 was about how Borussia Dortmund would cope with his loss to their rivals, the question of how much of a loss leaving Die Schwarzgelben would be for the player himself has been largely understated.

He is one of those players who needs to feel the full confidence and affection of his manager to perform at his best, and that is what Jürgen Klopp provided at his former club. The arm around the shoulders, the constant communication and, above all, the trust, brought the best out of the young German and made him one of the most exciting talents not only in Europe, but in the entire footballing world.

The high-octane, full-paced 'heavy-metal' football preached by Klopp, where gegenpressing and speed was king, also suited Götze's playing style. He was allowed space to run into, and was deadly on the counter-attack where his seemingly forgotten ability to get past people at pace made him the ideal lynchpin in the middle of the attacking midfield. Combined with his passing ability, there was no surprise that BVB were one of the most lethal attacking teams in Europe and that Götze was a massive part thereof.

"People probably thought, 'He's only gone there for the money. That's not a good person'" - Götze discussing his move to Bayern from Dortmund

However, switching to Bayern also meant switching the football he would be playing completely, which made some wonder whether his move was for pure sporting reasons. Such a move for such a young player was always going to be a risk, and the Bavarians would surely come knocking again a year or two later if he continued his progression in a comfortable environment where he could grow, in a footballing sense and mentally. It is no secret that Guardiola is a fan of posession-based football, where passing ability and close control is the be-all and end all.

In terms of these attributes, Götze had no real problem adapting, but found himself troubled by positioning - The ability to understand Guardiola's complex ideas and be in the right places at the right time in attack. At times in his first season in Bavaria he looked lost, isolated and frustrated on the pitch, unable to make an impact and seemingly sulking.

Of course, first-season struggles at a club like Bayern is understandable, but the fact that he continued to struggle throughout his second season as well as being wildly inconsistent led Guardiola to seemingly lose faith completely. It is telling that in the big Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, when both Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben were out injured, Götze played virtually no part.

He also suffered the ignominy of seeing Mitchell Weiser, who was released at the end of 2014-15, starting the DFB Pokal semi-final against Dortmund ahead of him. Subsequent games in which Philipp Lahm was preferred in an attacking midfield role only served to underline the fact that Götze was perceived by his manager as an underperformer, a big money signing who couldn't be trusted in big games.

Guardiola's treatment of him also hinted that reports were most possibly correct which stated his preferred signing would have been Brazilian Neymar, but that the Bayern board were only prepared to offer Götze.

It's time for him to finally grow up. We of course know that he is an outstanding talent, but he has yet to translate it into consistent performances" - Franz Beckenbauer

These struggles obviously led to widespread criticism, with Franz Beckenbauer, amongst others, particularly vocal about the former wunderkind. "He sometimes looks like a youth player to me, the way he loses the ball and stops playing. That behaviour is a little bit juvenile. It just doesn't fit at FC Bayern. It's time for him to finally grow up. We of course know that he is an outstanding talent, but he has yet to translate it into consistent performances".

This reflected the thoughts of many who considered the midfielder mentally weak and immature. But it's no secret that the manager who defended him on numerous occasions, Joachim Löw, is also the one who has most often seen the best of Götze, with his performances for Die Nationalmannschaft constantly impressing much more frequently than those at club level - Just illustrating once again that he is the type of player who needs the faith of his manager.

Of course, Guardiola has had encouraging words in the press such as that he "loves" Götze, but the fact of the matter is that this is the same man who claimed he would like "1000 Dante's", just before promptly selling the Brazilian. Actions, as they say, always speak louder than words. Thus it was no surprise that there were numerous rumors in the summer linking Götze with a move to Juventus, but nothing came of them as the German later stated: "I never dealt with a transfer, it's quite possible that other clubs had interest but I had no interest in leaving Bayern".

"I have made my own mistakes but I also had to put up with a lot of things that were distorted," he revealed to Suddeutsche Zeitung shortly after opening his Bundesliga account for the season with a strike against BVB in a 5-1 thrashing. "The last couple of years were in any case like a maturing process for me".

The unfortunate thing is that he will have to wait for nearly three months before he can prove those words to be right, having been ruled out for the rest of the year after clashing with James McCarthy in Germany's loss to the Republic Of Ireland. This makes one wonder whether the clock is ticking for the prodigiously talented Bayern man, who still, let us not forget, is only 23 years old.

With Douglas Costa having started his career at Säbener Straße like a house on fire and Kingsley Coman already playing as if he had been at the club for years, not to mention the fact that Ribery and Robben are soon to return, Götze might find himself at the very bottom of the pecking order when he returns to action.

The future looks uncertain, and in a season which seemed to be the most important of his Bayern career, the last thing the German would have wanted is a long-term injury to keep him out of action.

"I feel very happy here, I am glad to be a Bayern player. I would love to be the face of Bayern. I've played a big role [for the club] in the first two years and I want to play an even greater part". Götze certainly has the potential to become just that. But will he be able to come back from injury stronger than he was and show Guardiola that he is the man to turn to in the big games? Or could this lay-off be the death knell to his Bavarian adventure?

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Marco Conradie
Fußball, Football or Soccer, call it what you want, I love it. A thinker of thoughts and writer of words, I dabble in the obscure recesses of German football history at times simply out of pure fascination. The Bundesliga is my passion, and there is nothing better than the beautiful game.