After the 3-2 defeat against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Bayern Munich was not only angry at the referee, but also disagreed about their own performance.
Four games, two defeats, two draws: At the press conference before his fifth game as FC Bayern Munich coach against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Julian Nagelsmann was asked how he wanted to end his Gladbach curse. He would have shown his team a poster with the inscription “Also there san mia mia”, reported Nagelsmann: “That’s a very good slogan with which we should go there.”
In Gladbach, however, it was said after just eight minutes: there were ten of us. Dayot Upamecano saw a highly controversial red card for an alleged emergency brake against Alassane Pléa. After being outnumbered for a long time, FC Bayern lost the game 2-3 – and could also lose the lead in the table if Union Berlin wins against FC Schalke 04 on Sunday.
This mixed situation animated Nagelsmann to a veritable freak after the game: First he stormed the referee’s cabin, on the way back through the stadium catacombs he called Tobias Welz and his team “soft-washed pack”. Sports director Hasan Salihamidzic saw the situation in his statement shortly afterwards, but chose somewhat softer words.
After Salihamidzic had criticized the referee in great detail, he also took on his own team. She fell 1-0 down in the 13th minute through Lars Stindl, but managed to equalize through Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (35′) before Jonas Hofmann (56′) and Marcus Thuram made it clear. Mathys Tel’s goal to make it 2:3 in added time came too late.
FC Bayern: Joshua Kimmich counters Hasan Salihamidzic
“We have to try to play better with ten players, to control the game better. We didn’t manage that,” complained Salihamidzic and repeated: “If we see it self-critically: we can play better with ten players, we can also play bigger with ten players Ignite a fire, score a few more goals even with ten players. We have to think about that too, that that didn’t happen.”
How do the players judge this criticism? Except for two, they all rushed wordlessly through the mixed zone. As part of his analysis, Thomas Müller limited it to exactly two words: “Crap gameplay”. Only Joshua Kimmich answered the questions – and decisively rejected Salihamidzic’s criticism. Da san mia we disagree, instead of da san mia mia.
“I don’t have the feeling that Brazzo might have had it that one or the other on the pitch didn’t want to,” emphasized Kimmich. Instead, he had “the feeling that we held against it. It wasn’t like we just wanted to wall it off, hit the balls and see if we could somehow get a lucky punch. We wanted to play, and at times we did it completely neatly done.”
Nagelsmann, who praised his team for “good control in the second half”, also saw it that way: “We felt better in the game than Gladbach despite being outnumbered.” In fact, FC Bayern dominated at least up to Hofmann’s 1: 2 in the 56th minute. Only then did the hosts increasingly take control of the game, also due to the onset of tiredness among the ten Munich players.
FC Bayern: Julian Nagelsmann criticizes the exploitation of opportunities
Unlike Salihamidzic, Nagelsmann was less bothered by his team’s performance after Upamecano’s dismissal and more by the exploitation of chances beforehand. “We can decide the game in the first seven minutes,” he said. “We have four 100% situations. If we play them through consistently, we’re 2-0 or 3-0 up. Then the game is over after seven minutes.” Seconds later, Nagelsmann even increased it to “3:0 or 4:0”.
The coach did not reveal which “four hundred percent situations” he meant. Bayern’s only finish before Upamecano was sent off was a blocked attempt by Ryan Gravenberch in the 3rd minute. In the entire first half, the Munich team had an xG value of 0.54 expected goals.
Incidentally, Salihamidzic excluded the coach from his criticism: Nagelsmann had “set the team up well” and there was “a good plan”. After the 1-0 win at Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League on Tuesday, the coach rotated to five positions: Daley Blind, Alphonso Davies, Ryan Gravenberch, Serge Gnabry and Thomas Müller started instead of Matthijs de Ligt, Joao Cancelo , Kingsley Coman, Jamal Musiala and Leroy Sane.
Only Davies, who set up the two goals from Munich by Choupo-Moting and Tel, made a serious bid to remain in the starting XI. Gravenberch and Blind played unobtrusively solid, Müller had to be sent off again in the early stages as a result of Upamecano and Gnabry stayed in the dressing room after a very weak performance at halftime. When asked about Gnabry’s performance, Salihamidzic did not “want to pick anyone” as part of his general criticism. Instead he said for the third time: “We know that you can play better with ten players.”
