4: 0 FC Bayern against Leverkusen: therapy session for everyone – sport

Julian Nagelsmann rushed towards his substitute as far as allowed, up to the outermost square centimeter of his coaching zone. Then the coach slapped Sadio Mané on the back. Slapped his butt. Rubbed the back of his head. But wherever you looked at that moment: far and wide there was no longboard to be seen on which Nagelsmann casually placed his right leg. Also no sign of his Harley Davidson, which he could certainly have parked somewhere next to the bench. If the impression is not deceptive, then there was a 35-year-old coach on the sidelines, hugged a recently weak winger who had finally scored again – and coached. Not bad at all. At the top of the scoreboard in the 65th minute was a “3” behind the hosts FC Bayern and a “0” behind the visitors Bayer Leverkusen. The 3 even became a 4 by the final whistle – on this Friday evening, which was not only a therapy session for Mané, but also for his coach, who was recently criticized.

Let’s see what will become of all the fringe debates. Now that FC Bayern has ended its crisis of four consecutive Bundesliga games without a win, the stories about Nagelsmann, who occasionally does so-called show coaching, roll to training with this or that hip means of transport and become frighteningly intense for the I’m interested in current fashion, will probably disappear back into the story box. Well, maybe not. Certainly, however, Nagelsmann gave himself a little fresh air to catch his breath on Friday evening in the midst of his first full-blown creative crisis at Bayern.

The fact that coach Gerardo Seoane’s staggering team came at just the right time as a build-up opponent and didn’t even dare to come out of the snail shell to tackle Munich’s game physically hard, that goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky also had a bad day, that clouded the picture in detail.

Anyone who had expected Nagelsmann to throw away his previous concept in the face of the darkest earnings crisis on Säbener Strasse in 20 years was disappointed. If the impression is not deceptive, then he modified it in decisive nuances; he simplified and slowed down the game to keep players and himself safe. Benjamin Pavard returned to his position in right-back, Marcel Sabitzer joined Joshua Kimmich in defensive midfield instead of Leon Goretzka, who was recently infected with Corona.

The hardly changed line-up matched Nagelsmann’s analysis that Bayern’s game had recently suffered from the fact that the players had not implemented their tactical guidelines meticulously enough. In the twelve days of the international break there was no time to rehearse fundamentally new processes anyway. All national players were only back in Munich the day before the game, where Nagelsmann greeted them with a video that he had edited to present the results of his analysis. It may have been a best of the previous season’s games, but maybe also a worst of. In any case, thanks to the clip, he “given the boys four messages. What I want and what I want to see.” And, very important: “Where there are no excuses.”

Just 150 seconds were played when an attack from Munich came down the right flank, which gave Nagelsmann hope that not so many excuses would be necessary that evening. Jamal Musiala, released on the wing by Kimmich, sent such a precise cross to his favorite receiver Leroy Sané that one wondered if he was secretly working with satellite tracking – the 1-0 (3rd). Whatever suggestions were made in the analysis video: A profane but efficient wing-flank game had not been one of the strengths of the short pass Bayern this season.

In the close-up shot, it was fitting that Bayern tried to bridge the space with wide passes. Central defenders Matthijs de Light and Dayot Upamecano sent balls into the top with such frequency that it was unthinkable that it was a coincidence. The fact that these were part of the plan was proven by the spread list of possible pass recipients on the offensive. A particularly precise template dripped in front of the feet of the once again charming Musiala, who made it 2-0 himself after a crisp one-two with Müller (18th).

The words of Honorary President Uli Hoeneß came to mind. After Musiala’s equally brilliant performance in the 3-3 win against England, he had demanded a kind of regular place guarantee for the 19-year-old at Bayern and in the DFB dress. The fans in the south curve also remembered other words from Hoeneß on Friday: those with whom he once again defended the controversial World Cup location Qatar on television, with which the club also has business relationships. The supporters held up a banner: “State visits, training camps. Thousands of dead for World Cup celebrations. It’s only better for your own conscience, Uli H.”

Of course, Bayern’s enjoyment of the game was not dampened by this political message, especially since the players were also able to get high on the Werkself’s passivity bordering on surrender. Bayern were defensively more compact than they were last against Augsburg and created fewer chances up front. But they now hit the goal again with an almost monstrous efficiency. The fact that the tired Leverkusen squad had apparently been sent to Fröttmaning on a direct order from a therapist’s couch dawned on the spectators at the latest when shortly before the break Sadio Mané got a kind of soul caress pushed right in front of his feet – by Musiala, of course. Completely unmarked, Mané was allowed to push the ball over the line despite struggling to control it. The one-on-one interview that immediately followed with Kimmich, who rushed over to offer his congratulations, proved that the team circle had long since realized that the Senegalese, who switched from Liverpool in the summer, urgently needed a sense of achievement.

A second almost happened to him after the break. However, the video referee correctly recognized a foul after Odilon Kossounou had previously been hit hard in the head by de Ligt in an aerial duel, the hit was canceled – and Mané was substituted shortly afterwards to applause. The fact that goalkeeper Hradecky, who hardly managed anything that evening anyway, slipped and Thomas Müller put on the final goal, that matched the overall impression that everything just fell into place that evening for the now formerly ailing Bayern.