Borussia Mönchengladbach stops the soaring of FC Bayern in a memorable manner. The 0: 5 clap in the DFB Cup shows that the recently enthusiastically praised Munich team and their coach Julian Nagelsmann still have plenty of room for improvement. A comment.
Anyone who heard Uli Hoeneß talk about FC Bayern in 2021 at the beginning of the week got the feeling that the German record champions play stronger football under Julian Nagelsmann than under Jupp Heynckes, Pep Guardiola and Hansi Flick together.
What the team has been showing since the arrival of the new coach is downright “dreamlike”, enthused the honorary president on the sidelines of the world premiere of Bavaria’s new Amazon documentary “Behind the Legend”. “You sit up there and think that can’t be true! The game in Leverkusen or Lisbon in the second half. Or against Hoffenheim in the first 20 minutes – I thought I was in Hollywood!”
A few days later, Hoeneß and everyone who stick with the people of Munich are back in reality, back from Hollywood. The cup humiliation in Borussia Park shows that not everything that glitters is gold. And that FC Bayern only employs people who make mistakes and show signs of fatigue after several weeks in English.
Incidentally, this does not only apply to the players, but also to Nagelsmann. Sports director Hasan Salihamidzic was right when he said after the game that the “collective blackout” had relatively little to do with the tactical match plan of the coaching team.
FC Bayern: Nagelsmann has a problem with the rotation
However, Nagelsmann did not act particularly happy from his specially created high-tech home office on Chiemsee, sticking to the same team after the devastatingly weak first half and not immediately replacing the very insecure Dayot Upamecano with another defender.
In addition, the 34-year-old has rarely made use of the breadth of his squad recently. Especially talented actors like Jamal Musiala or Tanguy Nianzou, who were predestined for rotations, surprisingly only played a subordinate role, while long-running favorites like Joshua Kimmich or Thomas Müller always played – and then simply seemed overplayed against Gladbach.
In short: Nagelsmann and his Bavarians are not invulnerable. A realization that should be motivation enough for all other Bundesliga clubs to tackle duels with the industry leader as gallantly and furiously as the Gladbach team.
The hope for a little more tension in the Bundesliga title fight is back after this unexpected outcome of the second round of the DFB Cup. On the other hand, Bayern are also known for being able to cope with significant defeats quickly and well – only to rush from victory to victory like a machine.
