Thomas Tuchel (l.) celebrated a successful debut in Munich – also thanks to Thomas Müller.
Photo: imago/Jan Huebner
When Thomas Tuchel finished his marathon conversation afterwards, you could see his tension slowly fading away. A smile flitted across his face from time to time, and with every further interview the relief at his successful debut as FC Bayern coach became clearer. However, Tuchel could not completely shed the pressure that had weighed on him before the 4: 2 (3: 0) against his former club Borussia Dortmund and continues to weigh on him.
“I was very nervous,” confessed the 49-year-old, laughing self-deprecatingly at being so excited as if he had been on the line for the first time in professional football. He has long since had a wealth of experience, not least through his previous international stations in Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea FC. He won the Champions League with the Londoners in 2021. Nevertheless, this debut at FC Bayern did not seem to have felt like another debut at another top club, but like a very first time.
Tuchel’s tension is also due to the fact that he didn’t come to Bayern to simply win games. Rather, he pursues a high standard in terms of content and style. Despite the clear success, the team was far from enough for this. Tuchel was extremely critical of the performance, although it had come across as a demonstration of power over long stretches. But the football coach was far from satisfied. They were often “sloppy” and “jittery” and made “extremely many ball losses”, complained Tuchel, “we lacked clarity, security in the passing game”. The team still has to find its rhythm “like a band” and anyway nothing has been achieved. “We have to add, add, add,” he reminded. The first knockout game in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup against Freiburg is scheduled for Tuesday. A week later it’s off to Manchester City in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League. The pressure remains high.
The once again unequal comparison with BVB has produced a few certainties. Tuchel is still a detail-obsessed and ambitious coach. Borussia is simply not up to FC Bayern when visiting Munich. Above all, however, Bayern Munich seem to be on the way back to themselves and the old dominance after returning to the traditional 4-2-3-1 system, after often indulging in their whims in recent months. Strong performances in big games were often followed by weak ones in smaller ones. These fluctuations often even occurred within individual games. At least a hint of this inconsistency could be seen this time as well.
Bayern started nervously, while Borussia were confident. That changed with Gregor Kobel’s mistake. After a long pass from Dayot Upamecano, the Dortmund goalkeeper rushed out and tried to bat the ball away. But he hardly hit it at all, which is why the ball rolled into the goal (13th). To the further dismay of the guests, Thomas Müller followed quickly and instinctively to make it 2-0 (18th) and 3-0 (23rd), Tuchel called him “the truffle pig in the penalty area”. With his second goal, Müller benefited from another mistake by Kobel, who had chipped away at a shot by Leroy Sané.
Only after Kingsley Coman had made it 4-0 (50th) did Bayern slowly ease up. Dortmund’s goals by Emre Can with a penalty kick (72′) and Donyell Malen (90′) didn’t change anything about FC Bayern’s victory, which was too low, but it did change Tuchel’s satisfaction. The loss of the ball would have made the game “very intense. We’ve definitely worn ourselves out,’ he remarked pointedly. He wants to economize the style so that he can get through the English weeks without wasting his strength unnecessarily. His players also recognized a lot of room for improvement. “We have already implemented a few things well,” said Leon Goretzka, but there is still “extremely much room for improvement”. After all, it was “a statement that you saw again: If Bayern have to, then they can,” added Müller.
The success was superimposed by the Zoff about the circumstances of the separation from Tuchel’s predecessor Julian Nagelsmann, who had found out about his departure through the media and not from his superiors. The Sky expert Lothar Matthäus even accused Oliver Kahn of lying after the CEO had said that they had contacted Nagelsmann as soon as possible. Nagelsmann’s advisors also disagreed. “There was no contact and no contact attempt by Bayern. Julian Nagelsmann’s management called Hasan Salihamidžić even after the various rumors in the media,” said the agency. Kahn stuck to his presentation on Sunday. “Hasan and I, we have always told the truth,” he said on Bild TV, accusing Matthäus of “statements that lack stability and style.” And the message from Nagelsmann’s agency? “I’m not going to go into details now,” Kahn replied, “we want to look ahead.”
They are also trying to do that at BVB before the cup game in Leipzig on Wednesday. It was a “bitter day” in Munich, Sebastian Kehl confessed. In relation to the championship title, however, he was combative after losing the championship lead. “The thing isn’t settled yet,” said the sports director. The critical spirit of Tuchel would not disagree.
