Thomas Tuchel vehemently contradicted honorary president Uli Hoeneß after his criticism of the Bayern coach’s work with young players. “I have very little understanding of that. I find it absolutely baseless, but okay,” said Tuchel on Saturday on Sky broadcaster before Munich’s Bundesliga game against Eintracht Frankfurt. “It’s so far removed from reality that I actually wouldn’t have reacted to it at all if it hadn’t come from Uli Hoeneß.”
Hoeneß (72) said at the FAZ congress in Frankfurt that the will and ability to patiently develop young professionals into the world class must be the most important virtue of the future Bayern coach: “I don’t blame Thomas Tuchel, he was often with me for dinner at Tegernsee, I get on very well with him. But he has a different attitude. He doesn’t think he can improve on Davies, Pavlovic or Musiala. If it doesn’t work, you should buy another one. I think you should work hard on them and give them confidence.”
Tuchel, who has to leave Munich in the summer, reacted visibly to the criticism in the Sky interview. This is “so far” from reality that he doesn’t even know how to answer it. Especially since Bayern will be challenged in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid next Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Prime Video). This gives the criticism “a bit of a different note,” said Tuchel.
Hoeneß’ words would touch on his “deepest understanding” as a coach, said Tuchel, and listed examples of the names of young players at the time from his positions at FSV Mainz 05, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea FC and supported his coaching team. “If we have proven something over the last 15 years,” said Tuchel, it is that “young players always have a place” in training and in games.
