AErling Haaland is also quite accurate in the art of fine needle stitches. Last weekend he put one into Bayern’s bleeding wound, something like that. When everything was done, his team had ticked off the next mandatory win with the 3-1 win over Leicester City and he had now also become the record holder with the most Premier League goals in a season with 38 match days with his new brace, when the Norwegian called goalscorer the “Big Week of Results”.
He knew at the time that FC Bayern hadn’t won again, they only managed a lamentable 1-1 draw against 1899 Hoffenheim. So it was clear to him that Munich were extremely short, which not only their coach Thomas Tuchel (“We don’t feel like there is a fire”) admitted openly in the analysis. And right in the middle of this huge malaise in Munich, which feels like the biggest for a decade, this defensive terror bursts and announces disaster.
Because while the results at Manchester have been correct for weeks, the results of the past few weeks are increasing the discrepancies – and uncertainty – among Munich. What else is there to get out of this season? Can it still be brought to a halfway acceptable end? In any case, in view of the current constitution, Haaland’s announcement seems like a warning sign for the people of Munich, with him foremost as a portent of bad luck.
Score three goals, concede none – probably utopian
A 0: 3 from the quarter-final first leg can be made up this Wednesday (9 p.m., DAZN), to which the 22-year-old contributed an assist and a goal, which was his 45th goal in all competitions and so far no player in the English Premier League in one season was successful. With this attack machinery, which was not least boosted by Haaland, the Bavarian defense should now find the stop switch. Of all things. First of all, the team would have to score at least three goals to force extra time and shouldn’t concede any. It sounds utopian.
Because Bayern’s defense has light and shadow, which usually has a dark ending against a team of stature like Manchester City. Benjamin Pavard and Matthijs de Ligt do well but are linked with error-prone Dayot Upamecano and form-seeking Alphonso Davies. That’s at least one too many to avoid regularly faltering or being easily caught off guard.
That’s another reason why Bayern looked like students who had found their teacher when they conceded goals in the first leg. And that’s also why they gave up points in the league at the weekend for the eleventh time this season (eight draws, three defeats), which last happened to them in 2011/12, when they last failed to win the championship. With 59 points after 28 match days, they also have their weakest interim record in twelve years.
To make matters worse, there is now also the discussion as to whether the new replacement Yann Sommer, at 1.83 meters, is not a bit too small to meet the huge demands of FC Bayern between the posts. “If Yann was 30 centimeters taller and had been in the corner earlier, he would have kept the ball, of course. In the video and in super slow motion we thwart every goal,” said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel about the 1-0 win in the first leg after a long-range shot by Manchester’s Rodrigo. In the end, with the reverberation, I wasn’t quite sure how much irony there was in this statement, or whether it wasn’t supposed to indicate a major flaw in the comparatively small goalkeeper.
FC Barcelona as an encouragement for FC Bayern – theoretically
In situations like these, which in themselves appear hopeless and hopeless, an encouragement is often used and rummaged through the mothballs of the Champions League. Other teams have now and then made up such a deficit as Bayern’s. The second leg between Paris St. Germain and FC Barcelona in the round of 16 of the 2016/2017 season was sensational. PSG had won the first leg in Paris 4-0 – the Catalans turned the knockout round with a 6-1 in the second leg. In the 2017/18 season, AS Roma had closed a three-goal deficit against Barcelona in the quarter-finals, but at that time also thanks to the away goals rule.
After the first leg debacle against City – Kahn demands the “incredible”
Oliver Kahn asked his stars for an immediate reaction after the clear one at Manchester City and gave them courage. However, a European Cup statistics from Munich clearly speaks against the hoped-for football miracle.
“Football is football. It’s only over when you’re in the shower,” said Tuchel. But the Bavarians themselves have only had bad experiences with such a mortgage so far. The team lost at least as much as in Manchester eight times in its European history, eight times as a result of which the end was sealed. Now the third quarter-finals in a row is threatened.
At least there was a small ray of hope on Tuesday morning. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting also did the final training. The center forward, who was recently absent due to knee problems, could be the much-needed hope for goals.
It is precisely these that Bayern simply no longer want to succeed in. In Tuchel’s loudly acclaimed but perhaps overestimated 4-2 debut against Borussia Dortmund, there were still three attacking goals from Thomas Müller (2) and Kingsley Coman. Since then there has been zero in the top occupied offensive department from Leroy Sané to Jamal Musiala to Serge Gnabry. Only three goals followed in the four games that followed: Upamecano scored in the cup defeat against Freiburg (1-2), de Ligt in the 1-0 in the Bundesliga against Freiburg (1-0) and Pavard was the goal scorer against Hoffenheim. All defenders.
“It wasn’t like you had the feeling that the offensive players missed chance after chance,” said Joshua Kimmich soberly after the Hoffenheim game. In any case, Choupo-Moting was missed as a passing station and target player (17 goals this season). “We’re missing something in the box,” Kimmich quarreled. Gnabry is not a real nine, Thomas Müller is not, neither is Sadio Mané.
In Bayern’s history, there were only four competitive games in a row without a goal from a midfielder or striker in March 1998, when Giovanni Trapattoni failed to score five times. And three goals from the last four competitive games is the worst value since autumn 2018, when coach Niko Kovac beat Augsburg (1: 1), Hertha (0: 2), Ajax (1: 1, Champions League) and Gladbach (0: 3) even only two were successful.
Of course, the current lack of goals also means that, even before the apparently unequal showdown between Bayern and Manchester, there is an intensive debate about the line-up of the squad on the offensive, for which sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic is responsible. Even if he resists: “We have players, if they are at a different level and are in top form, we know how many goals they can score.”
Tuchel needs immediate solutions
As a reminder: Salihamidzic received a lot of praise for his transfers such as that of offensive player Mané or defensive ace de Ligt after the departure of Torgarant Robert Lewandowski last summer. In the meantime, the board around Oliver Kahn has recognized that improvements must be made, especially in the center forward position. Many names are traded, from Tottenham’s Harry Kane to Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani to Naples’ Victor Osimhen.
But that’s a dream of the future, Tuchel needs immediate solutions for the duel against Manchester. And maybe in an extraordinary situation, extraordinary and daring decisions are needed. One such option would be to have Mané in the starting XI now after his tangible cabin clinch with teammate Sané and the suspension and fine that followed. At least Tuchel opened up this option: “Sadio showed a reaction. He apologized, the matter is over. Everything is good.”
Which is a good thing, at least for nostalgic reasons. Mané was part of one of the most memorable Champions League comebacks, which also fits Bayern’s starting position. After a 3-0 loss at FC Barcelona, he made it into the final with Jürgen Klopp’s coach Liverpool in 2019 after a magical 4-0 in the second leg of the semifinals at Anfield.
But then the 31-year-old Senegalese was a few years younger and a bit faster than now. Mané, who was injured for a long time, is now more of a symbol for FC Bayern: straying, helpless, with a lot of anger in his stomach. That can then lead to an exchange of blows like the one with Sané – and the bottom line is probably the knockout in the Champions League that everyone expected.
That’s what Thomas Tuchel says about the suspension of Sadio Mané
FC Bayern suspended Sadio Mané for one game after his attack on Leroy Sané. Coach Thomas Tuchel still protects the Munich summer newcomer. He was “Mané’s first lawyer and defense attorney”.
