Thomas Tuchel paused briefly before deciding on the fourth adjective. He had previously described the meetings in the newly founded “Sports Committee” with the terms “trustworthy”, “goal-oriented” and “interesting”, but Tuchel didn’t just want to be a little honest, he preferred to be completely honest. So, a short pause, a short smile, then the fourth adjective: “Opinionated,” said Tuchel.
When he said that, he was sitting in a hall that had been converted into a press conference room in a noble hotel in Rottach-Egern, a podium, a few chairs, a few reporters, the club spokesman and he – and yet everyone present saw Uli Hoeneß and Karl at that moment -Heinz Rummenigge in front of you, as if projected onto the wall by an invisible projector. Powerful opinion – yes, you can probably say that exactly.
Two bodies for squad planning: the Magnificent Seven and the Magnificent Three
FC Bayern has been around for a few years and you can admire them for always coming up with new things. For example, the club has never had a transfer committee. Just in time for the start of the training camp at Tegernsee, Thomas Tuchel gave a little insight into the processes of this world association, which currently has no sports director.
In doing so, Tuchel made a fine distinction between the big group of the magnificent seven, which consists of Tuchel, Hoeneß, Rummenigge, the board members Jan-Christian Dreesen and Michael Diederich, the president Herbert Hainer and the technical director and squad planner Marco Neppe – and that small circle who discusses things in more detail and occasionally goes on business trips together. The glorious three consist of Tuchel, Dreesen and Neppe, they meet more often than the others and have kept the shortest electronic wire even on vacation – a model that Tuchel is more familiar with than the other two.
FC Bayern is not FC Chelsea, at least that’s for sure
The time that Tuchel remembers as the most fulfilling in his coaching career was the time at Chelsea when he was responsible for personal matters together with team manager Petr Cech and club director Marina Granovskaia. It feels a bit like this for him again: Neppe is Cech, Dreesen is Granovskaia, Tuchel remains Tuchel. However, FC Bayern is not FC Chelsea, that’s for sure, but otherwise there are more unanswered questions at the moment than FC Bayern is used to – not just the question of when a new sports director will come and who that will be.
On the first day of training of the 2023/2024 season, Tuchel named all the question marks that are currently hanging around with him and his players on the training ground with remarkable clarity. “The squad now will most likely not be the squad we will be playing with after the end of the transfer window on September 1,” said Tuchel. Trainers usually don’t like it when the group changes during ongoing operations, they would prefer to rehearse what is called “automatisms” in industry jargon from the first day of training. But first of all, Tuchel has been there for far too long to be romantic – he has “long since given up on this desire”, he said on Saturday.
Secondly, Tuchel did not give the impression of a coach who would be particularly bothered by possible squad changes. It seemed more as if he wished her here.
Tuchel willingly went through the personal details on Saturday, at least within the permissible limits. As for Manuel Neuer, the coach publicly confirmed for the first time that the start of the season on August 18 is “too ambitious a goal”. But the goalkeeper gets all the time in the world, “after all, we’re talking about Manuel Neuer here.” On the other hand, as is customary in the industry, Tuchel had to be shy when it came to potential additions. Harry Kane, Kyle Walker? Unfortunately, he couldn’t say anything about players from other clubs, sorry, “interesting question, but unfortunately boring answer”. Not even with the transfer of South Korean defender Kim Min-jae, which has already been completed but has not yet been announced, did Tuchel allow himself to be lured, although he conceded with a considerable smile that this personal detail was no longer “the biggest secret”.
Tuchel misses an authority that frightens the opponent – that raises questions about Goretzka
The true content of this press conference was also revealed in a few sentences in which no specific player name appeared. Tuchel spoke very openly about the fact that “we lacked physicality and robustness – also mentally – last season. We experienced that painfully. That’s why it’s part of the profile we’re looking for”. When someone asked about Declan Rice, the defensive midfielder that the coach would have liked to see in the Bayern squad, Tuchel answered almost exactly the same wording – which opinionated parts of the transfer committee saw differently, also for cost reasons. The player Rice, who switched to Arsenal FC for well over 100 million euros at the weekend, has “a profile that I don’t think we have in the squad”.
Subtext: Tuchel would like to have one too. He still wants what is known in technical terms as a classic six.
There was a very delicate message in these sentences: the one that Tuchel only partially trusts the Bayern midfield as he has gotten to know it so far – he is not defensively serious and not defensive enough. Tuchel misses an authority that frightens the opponent and protects his own defence, which then led to a concrete name again – to that of Leon Goretzka, who would be suitable for this role, at least due to the design, but attested by Tuchel “an unsatisfactory last phase of the season”. got. Goretzka is “someone from whom we expect a lot from his status, his contract, his age: that he bears responsibility, that he carries the team. There is still room for improvement and our task is to help him help”.
What this help looks like is likely to be a matter of interpretation for the time being. So ask: Will Goretzka still be a Bayern player after the end of the transfer period? “I wouldn’t confirm that for any player, it’s much too early for that,” replied Tuchel. “Situations could always arise during a transfer period, as with Lucas Hernández, where players suddenly have different plans.” It didn’t sound as if Tuchel was particularly vehement in the large or small committee for Goretzka’s continued employment. At least not for the Groretzka who introduced himself to him in the last three months of the season. Tuchel appreciates the other Goretzka, the one from before.
That may also apply to Sadio Mané, but then rather to the one from very, very early on, from his best days at Liverpool FC. On Saturday, however, Tuchel officially announced what had already leaked out unofficially: that there was “a constellation” on the offensive “that makes it very difficult for Sadio. The player knows that too”. Mané knows that he can and should leave the club.
After so much plain language, we went out to the training ground in Rottach-Egern, and if you looked closely, you could see some of the players’ question marks.
