After the 1-1 draw at home against TSG Hoffenheim, the stars of FC Bayern Munich were at a loss because of their poor performance. While Joshua Kimmich was not on the offensive this time, Thomas Müller also criticized the exploitation of opportunities. Defense chief Matthijs de Ligt meanwhile encourages a curious circumstance for the second leg of the Champions League against Manchester City.
“It’s hard to explain because we actually trained really well yesterday,” said Müller in the mixed zone of the Allianz Arena after the final whistle. “In retrospect, we were all a bit shocked by our own performance,” he admitted. And: “I think the coach has to shake himself first.”
Despite the poor performance, you have to “use the opportunities that arise up front more efficiently,” said the 33-year-old. In the end, Bayern led 22:4 in shots on goal and 1.6 to 0.34 in expected goals – but in the end only one point remained in the championship race. “We can thank VfB for that, so nothing happened in the league at first.”
Joshua Kimmich, on the other hand, did not see the problems on the offensive – in contrast to some games in the past few weeks: “Today I didn’t have the feeling that the offensive players missed chance after chance.” The midfielder spoke of “a lack of concentration, carelessness, we’re not really there.” The team appeared “without energy”: “Especially in the league, where it’s very tight and we need every point, I can’t explain such a performance.”
His conclusion: “You can’t get a performance like today, in any game.” However, he is not pessimistic about Wednesday night’s second leg against Manchester City, despite going 3-0 down in the first leg. “Against City we need a different performance, we all know that. We need to put it on the pitch, not just every two weeks but every three days.”
Defender Matthijs de Ligt summed it up: “We were lucky that it stayed 1-1.” Although the game against Man City was “physically and mentally difficult”, “but that can’t be an excuse.”
Now the team first has to regenerate and, if possible, gain self-confidence for the last few weeks of the league season against the English team led by coach Pep Guardiola. Is there anything positive to take away from the Hoffenheim game? “It can’t be worse than today.”
