FC Bayern Munich had hoped for much more stability from Thomas Tuchel in the short term. After two games, there should be a bitter realization for those responsible around Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic: The problem might not have been Julian Nagelsmann. A comment.
“Of course I’m responsible now, nobody else,” said Thomas Tuchel after FC Bayern Munich’s bitter elimination from the DFB Cup against SC Freiburg. It was a remarkable sentence from the coach, who seemed to just soak up the pressure on him.
Even at the first press conferences, the 49-year-old showed that he fully accepted the situation. A situation in which FC Bayern has maneuvered itself. In this respect, accepting responsibility from Tuchel is what a coach has to do in this situation, but it is not true in terms of content. After all, it wasn’t the 49-year-old who changed the course of the club ahead of the most important weeks of the season so far.
The bosses of FC Bayern decided to install Tuchel and fire Julian Nagelsmann because they no longer believed that the latter could get the problems under control in the long term. In the short term, you can say that after the defeat against Freiburg, they gambled it away.
FC Bayern Munich: New coach, old problems
Both the 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund and this unfortunate exit from the DFB Cup bore Nagelsmann’s signature. In both games you were sometimes good, but also in some phases sleepy and inexplicably error-prone. “We always have good moments, sometimes very good phases, but we find it difficult to keep up the number of strokes until it tilts in our direction,” said Tuchel, analyzing the defeat in the ARD.
The coach is different, the problems remain the same:
Inconsistency in all areas: Both individually and collectively, it is not possible to develop a rhythm. This applies to the 90 minutes of a game as well as the entire season, in which there were hardly any months in a row in which the team showed consistently good performances.
On the offensive, Bayern fail to come up with ideas against low-lying opponents. The word “dominance” kept coming up after the Freiburg game. Although Bayern had a lot of possession and the occasional chance to score a second goal, they were rarely really dominant because the pressure on the Freiburg goal was mostly manageable. Phases with good combinations and a lot of movement in the last third are regularly followed by situations in which the game is too static and too imprecise.
In general, precision is a problem. Hardly any player on the offensive manages to show three good actions in a row. The balls are gone too quickly and Bayern have to attack again.
You give up games for inexplicable reasons. In the Bundesliga alone, Munich have already received seven penalties. The defense is not a fundamental problem, as the game in Freiburg showed, but individual mistakes remain an issue.
And so, after only two games under Tuchel, the question arises as to whether Nagelsmann wasn’t the big problem. In the past, bosses seldom called the team into account. Even after the change of coach, little was said publicly about the fact that the players were now responsible. Instead, Nagelsmann was the focus.
It was foreseeable that Tuchel would not be able to solve these problems in the middle of the season. It is almost indicative how much the former BVB coach has emphasized in the last few days that he was surprised by the timing. It was actually his plan to continue abroad.
FC Bayern Munich: Wrong time for a change of coach?
It was speculated that Tuchel had squinted at an engagement at Inter Milan – then for the new season. FC Bayern’s arguments showed that they wanted to use the time. But was Tuchel really only available now? Or could you have waited for the decisive phase of the season with Nagelsmann to make a decision then?
In any case, the short-term effect that Oliver Kahn, Hasan Salihamidzic and Co. had hoped for from this decision did not materialize. They threw overboard the long-term vision that they shared with Nagelsmann until recently in order to secure as many titles as possible in the current phase of the season.
The first is already gone. Nagelsmann can hardly be held responsible for this. But neither does Tuchel. And so there is hardly a way around the sporting management. The squad, which has been highly praised in recent months and especially in the summer, reveals more and more problems as the season progresses. Starting with the experiment of not wanting to replace Robert Lewandowski directly – or not being able to replace him because of the difficult market situation.
Nagelsmann was not uninvolved in the idea of starting the season without another nine. But Salihamidzic bears the main responsibility for this. The harmlessness against passionately defending Freiburg once again underlined that this offensive does not have a player who can decide tight games – and that regularly. With Sadio Mané, another expensive player has been brought in, who promised in the mixed zone that he would soon be back in the form that characterized him at Liverpool, but is still a long way from it.
The Senegalese is one of many players in the squad who Bayern have spent a lot of money on but are unable to consistently perform at their best. So far, you could blame Nagelsmann. Now that’s no longer possible.
Bayern Munich: Julian Nagelsmann may not have been the biggest problem
It will now be intensive weeks for Tuchel. His team has to show a different face in Freiburg on Saturday in order not to fall behind again in the Bundesliga. The list of problems that he has to fix in the shortest possible time and with almost no training sessions is long.
It is possible that FC Bayern will end up with a title or even no title. Although Tuchel’s commitment is also long-term, the immediate change of coach was linked to the hope of finally getting the double again. The club is finally hoping for stability at all levels from him. In the short term, however, the risky decision tended to cause the opposite: irritation and uncertainty.
It honors Tuchel that he wants to take responsibility for this. But he didn’t lose that title. The responsibility lies with a team that, according to Joshua Kimmich, has once again lacked “passion” – and that does not seem to be able to confirm good performances. But it also lies with the bosses, who already have to realize that Nagelsmann may not have been the cause of all the problems.
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