Former Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has suggested that the club does not have full faith in young midfielder Mario Gotze.
The Germany international has found playing time hard to come by under Pep Guardiola, and Hitzfeld has stated that Bayern's acquisition of Douglas Costa shows that the Bavarians are not giving the youngster their complete backing.
"If you have complete faith in Gotze, you do not go out and buy Douglas Costa," said Hitzfeld, according to Goal.com.
"Players like [Toni] Kroos and [Bastian] Schweinsteiger have left Bayern. [Xabi] Alonso and [Arturo] Vidal have been brought in in return. Both are good players, but Bayern have been moving away from the German market and that is problematic.
"There appears to be a bit of a trend where Bayern sign too many foreign players and the German mentality gets forgotten a bit."
Gotze has made 60 appearances for Bayern since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2013.
Christopher Dodd
