Instead of his self-confidence, FC Bayern raised doubts about his quality before the second leg against Manchester City. Coach Thomas Tuchel criticizes his team like never before. Club boss Kahn only spoke up on Sunday.
DThe world could watch how FC Bayern dealt with the next disappointment. On Sunday morning, the record German soccer champion broadcast his team’s training session on YouTube. The crush of fans at the club headquarters on Säbener Strasse was huge – despite their team’s recent performances. It was the end of an enormously sobering week for Munich. A week that raises many questions. And causes self-doubt in the club.
First the 0:3 in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Champions League at Manchester City last Tuesday, Saturday now the 1:1 against TSG Hoffenheim. In the Bundesliga – as fans and club officials had expected – the team would react. In the form of a convincing performance and a win that gives hope that the “miracle” against City can work.
Disappointment Bayern: Jamal Musiala and Joshua Kimmich (right) in the weak 1-1 draw against Hoffenheim
Source: AP/Matthias Schrader
The opposite happened. Benjamin Pavard (17th) scored for FC Bayern to make it 1-0, Andrej Kramaric (71st) equalized with a free kick. The hosts again lacked sovereignty, stability and efficiency. “It’s difficult to explain,” said midfield boss Joshua Kimmich. “Especially when you see what it’s all about. Especially in the Bundesliga, where you need every point, I can’t explain such a performance. It’s lack of concentration, recklessness. We played without energy. It was a poor performance from us.”
Bayern’s attacking stars haven’t scored a goal in over 400 minutes. World Champion Thomas Müller said: “In retrospect, we were all a bit shocked by our own performance. I think the coach needs to shake himself first.”
Mueller was right. Even Thomas Tuchel stops praising. The new coach had recently always put the positive in the foreground and protected his players. On Saturday night he said: “I thought we were prepared, playing with anger in our stomachs. Today was the moment to inspire fire and confidence. We didn’t succeed at all. It’s hard to digest. It was far from what we imagine and need. All in all, we played with very little energy and pace and had very little conviction, a lot of uncertainty. There were a lot of simple mistakes.”
Tuchel also said a sentence that makes you sit up and take notice: “We don’t have the sense that it’s on fire.” He spoke of the “worst game” under his leadership. He lost two of the five games. His players also puzzled over the “sleepy” appearance, which put the team “into a kind of hibernation” in the middle of spring, as Müller said in the ARD interview.
Haaland scores twice
Manchester, on the other hand, prepared for the trip to Munich in the Premier League with a 3-1 win over Leicester City and two goals from striker Erling Haaland. Haaland called the “big week of results”. It sounds like a threat to Bayern.
Against Leicester, his coach Pep Guardiola gave the Norwegian striker a break after the first 45 minutes. Bayern’s defense chief Matthijs de Ligt said on Saturday about the conclusion of the weekend: “It can’t be worse than today.” And Tuchel said: “The task has definitely become even more difficult.”
Manchester City fans celebrate striker Erling Haaland after his two goals against Leicester
Quelle: Getty Images/Michael Regan
The club bosses around CEO Oliver Kahn and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic were initially silent after the 1-1 draw. In the social networks, fans and bloggers criticize the composition of the squad and personnel planning between the two.
59 points after 28 matchdays – it is Bayern’s weakest interim record in twelve years. At that time, Borussia Dortmund won the championship. Bayern have dropped points for the eleventh time this season (eight draws, three defeats). That last happened in 2011/12, the last season so far in which they did not win the national title.
On Sunday afternoon, Kahn wrote on Twitter: “Just one point again and the next setback for us! Results and performances like these cannot be what we aspire to.” You have to “do everything you can against City to make the seemingly impossible possible.”
Dietmar “Didi” Hamann misses the team spirit. The Sky expert said: “I miss the cohesion that one is there for the other. I don’t see that. Of course the players are worried. Everyone is busy with themselves. I have the feeling that eleven individual players are playing there.”
The Bayern pros are now taking responsibility for themselves. “We all know that we need a completely different performance,” said Kimmich, looking ahead to Wednesday. “We know we can do it, but we have to put it on the pitch. And then not just every two weeks, but every three days.”
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