So much Tuchel is in triumph in the summit duel

FC Bayern under Tuchel: The offensive is already in place

The biggest winner of Tuchel’s first game was Thomas Müller – and not just because of his two goals. But because the tracker Müller is absolutely wanted in Tuchel’s style of play. Tuchel sees Müller’s strengths above all “behind one or two tips”, as he said before the kick-off sky explained. From there, Müller was basically allowed to do whatever he wanted. And he did. Müller gave the clock and game designer on the offensive.

Nominally set up in the attacking midfield, he acted against BVB on average even closer to Gregor Kobel’s goal than striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. His two goals, once with the leg, once with a dust collector, were referred to by Müller sky himself as “Striker goals that you have to be there for. It was twice well responded and well done.”

Jamal Musiala, who was still lacking training after his injury and was only brought on in the 79th minute, suddenly seems to be in the role of the challenger. This is also because Tuchel likes to play with two wingers who really stay on the wings and don’t often move into the center like Nagelsmann did before; this makes the position more difficult for Musiala to play. In addition, Tuchel generally likes to leave five players in defense when in possession of the ball. Under Nagelsmann, six players were often allowed to attack.

As a result, there should only be room for Musiala or Müller in the line-up. Especially if the trained wingers continue to impress like they did against BVB. Kingsley Coman is already having a strong season, but against BVB his counterpart on the right was even more striking: Leroy Sané.

The 27-year-old, who was often criticized for everything possible, was always playable against BVB, he unwound a lot and with a visible joy in the game. The deserved yield: a real and also very nice assist for Kingsley Comans 4-0, plus two crucial involvements in two other goals.

Tuchel slows down the euphoria about Sané a bit

At 1: 0 he should have at least irritated his sprint BVB keeper Gregor Kobel before his slapstick insert, before the 3: 0 he forced Kobel with his well-placed shot to the fatal rebound forward on the goalscorer Müller. Almost more important: Before his vehement sprint to the center and his well-placed shot, Sané also conquered the ball from Dortmund’s full-back Julian Ryerson.

“Leroy is an excellent footballer and certainly one of the best we have in Europe if he puts what he can on the pitch. And today you saw that,” praised Bayern President Herbert Hainer.

Tuchel curbed the euphoria about Sané a bit: “I think that he, like the rest of the team, had ups and downs today. He also started very nervously, with two or three technical errors. There is room for improvement for everyone, the same applies to him,” said Tuchel, who described the many questions about Sané since taking office as “inappropriate”. However, Tuchel stated: “He is at an age when the course is set mercilessly. It is mainly up to him to fully exploit that and we will support him in this.”

Against BVB, Sané also set the course in the right direction with his willingness to help out on the defensive. He should have recommended himself for further appearances. Especially since the substitute Sadio Mané, whom Tuchel also sees more as a winger, once again found it difficult to get into the game. And Serge Gnabry, also a substitute, conceded the penalty after around ten minutes on the pitch with an overzealous and superfluous goal against Jude Bellingham in the penalty area, which Emre Can converted to make it 4-1. Later, Gnabry lobbed into the Dortmund goal, but from an offside position.

FC Bayern vs BVB: good remaining defense, high intensity

As mentioned above, Tuchel usually had five players to protect him, the full-backs were positioned much more defensively than the rail players under Julian Nagelsmann, not only because of the return to the back four.

Joshua Kimmich on the six held his position much more than usual. Leon Goretzka also played more inconspicuously than under +Nagelsmann, making sure to protect himself as a fifth man if necessary, even when he had possession of the ball.

The fact that the game was “a bit too open and too wild” (Nagelsmann) had other reasons (see below) and was initially due to Bayern’s nervousness and ultimately to their relatively easy ball losses, which can be attributed to a lack of concentration on the part of the players .

Of course, Tuchel didn’t like the “sloppy” game at all, because of losing the ball, his team had to constantly “chase the ball”. But Tuchel combined the criticism with praise: “The very good news is that nobody was too bad about it. The acceptance to implement it was definitely there.”

Bundesliga: The table on matchday 26

FC Bayern: The same mistakes as last

Thomas Tuchel had already announced in the press conference before the game that he did not want to start a revolution after one and a half training sessions with the entire team. “I think less is more,” he had said.

And that’s how it happened: Although Tuchel changed the basic formation, away from Nagelsmann’s hybrid 3-1-4-2, to a rather straightforward and broad 4-2-3-1, which in the game against the ball resulted in a 4 became -4-1-1. But basically the game idea of ​​the pre-Tuchel Bayern was still recognizable.

However, so are their mistakes.

In the preparation, Tuchel focused primarily on the positioning of the individual players, explained Thomas Müller afterwards. Tuchel himself said that he was primarily concerned with order and stability. Admittedly, his measures were only of limited use.

Bayern started nervously, the opening goal was the curious and quite accidental result of a somewhat imprecise opening of the game by Dayot Upamecano and, above all, Kobel’s slapstick insert. Even after that, the game was wilder than Tuchel would have liked – and in the end even tighter on paper than necessary.

So Bayern showed all the weaknesses they had repeatedly shown under Julian Nagelsmann this season:

• Inadequate exploitation of chances, also because counterattacks were played to the end inconsistently.
• A relatively large number of relatively easy ball losses, which invited the opponent to counterattack (but which the Bavarians usually prevented more consistently against BVB – keyword remaining defense).
• In the end, very unnecessary goals were conceded again, which Tuchel described as “mood dampeners”.