Joao Cancelo lost his place in the Bayern Munich side due to his performances in training and in matches.
That is the assessment of Bayern Sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic, who commented on Cancelo's omission from the starting line-up in their Champions League last-16 second leg win over Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
Cancelo started his first four games for Bayern since moving on loan from Manchester City, but has played just 18 minutes across the last three games and has started on the bench for four games in succession. He came off the bench against PSG to set up the tie's third goal, but was brought back down to earth after the game when Salihamidzic spoke to the media.
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Julian Nagelsmann had praised Cancelo's replacement, Josip Stanisic, calling the Croatian 'exceptional' and a key part of their game plan that successfully kept Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe quiet.
And Salihamidzic echoed his manager's comments when he said: "He was outstanding. I'm very enthused about him as he's a young player from our academy."
Moving onto Cancelo, Salihamidzic expressed concern at Cancelo's recent training sessions, but backed the City man to play an important role in the rest of their season.
"Joao hasn't been training and playing the way we envisaged lately," he said. "We're in regular communication with him. I understand how he feels, but he is an excellent player who will become important to us in the future."
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