FC Bayern remains a mystery to its coach. Even in the hard-fought draw in Leipzig, Thomas Tuchel was annoyed by the lack of stability and individual mistakes. He presents his list of deficiencies mercilessly publicly.
Anyone who has always wanted to get an insight into Thomas Tuchel’s dressing room speech was delighted after FC Bayern Munich’s hard-fought 2:2 (0:2) at RB Leipzig. Tuchel dealt with his team’s list of deficiencies in the top game in a tough, open and ruthless manner. “We deserve the comeback,” Tuchel acknowledged, but he couldn’t get much more positive.
“We started very well and then we had an extremely long time to implement the plan, find the space and made a lot of mistakes. We were too static and the game was too slow and far too flawed,” said Tuchel Sky-Microphone on. It is not the first time that the former coach of Borussia Dortmund and Paris St. Germain has publicly reprimanded his players. Memories of his memorable words after the 3-0 defeat in the Supercup at the beginning of August against those same Leipzig team came back.
Tuchel clearly criticizes Kim and Upamecano
In the first 45 minutes there was little to be seen of the further development that Tuchel had recently emphasized. “Maybe it was the plan, I take that on my shoulders,” explained Tuchel, whose initial idea was to “control Leipzig’s four offensives.” But similar to the 2-2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen, FC Bayern failed to do so. After a lively start and a missed great chance from Jamal Musiala, large spaces opened up again between the lines of the Bavarian defense.
“We conceded the goals through individual sloppy behavior,” said Tuchel, summing it up. He missed “the real grit to push through a plan like that or to fill it with emotion.” The football teacher was explicitly annoyed by his central defenders’ mistakes before the 1-0 lead. “When I throw in, I have no idea why we (Min-Jae Kim) leave the duel. The other central defender without an opponent (Dayot Upamecano, editor’s note) goes out and opens up the space. So completely the opposite behavior of what we actually wanted.”
6th matchday arrow right To the live ticker: Leipzig – Bayern arrow right
Tuchel gets loud: “It’s about pride and character”
Tuchel reacted at half-time and threw his original plan into the trash. “In the second half it was much easier tactically, but of course there was a lot of risk involved. It was a wild ride.” Substitutes Raphael Guerreiro and Mathys Tel brought a breath of fresh air, and it also got louder in the dressing room. “Today it was a bit more emotional. We’ve lost twice against Leipzig now, so it was also about pride and showing character.”
After the break there was “more energy”. “Plan or not, the question is always: How much life can we get in there?” Ideally, the responsibility would lie with the players, explained Tuchel, who now wants to “start with me” when troubleshooting and see that we can prepare the team even better.
Kimmich perplexed by “stupid” goals conceded
Captain Joshua Kimmich also sees his teammates as responsible, but also seemed perplexed. “It’s difficult to explain at the moment why we’re playing like this in the first half again. It’s stupid how we conceded goals. In the second half we showed that we can dominate Leipzig.”
The bottom line is that Kimmich saw a “fair division of points” in Leipzig. Kimmich, Tuchel and Co. don’t have much time to correct mistakes; FC Bayern will continue on Tuesday. Then the current third-placed team in the Bundesliga will face the Danish champions FC Copenhagen in the Champions League.
