“Don’t give up the situation”
Thomas Tuchel will not distribute any gifts
4/3/2023, 8:11 p.m
FC Bayern Munich still has a lot to do in the coming weeks – and Thomas Tuchel should ensure that a lot succeeds. Titles are needed! And the new trainer quickly makes it clear: the time for gifts is over, now it’s all about the performance principle.
Thomas Tuchel has started his mission extremely successfully: A few days before the immensely important game against Borussia Dortmund – it’s about points, honor and the championship lead! – the world coach assumes responsibility for the present of FC Bayern Munich – and immediately scores the immensely important victory against Borussia Dortmund. Instead of panting after the competitor, the record champions are leading the Bundesliga again. Of course, April is not about the titles. At least you can’t win them yet – but you can lose them. Tuchel also knows this, with the FC Chelsea Champions League winner 2020, and derives a dogma from it: The big rotation has been canceled, there will be no starting eleven gifts for the good mood in the squad in the final spurt of the season!
“Our starting position in the cup and Bundesliga allows us nothing more than to think about the next game and focus on it,” said Tuchel in the press conference before the cup quarter-finals against SC Freiburg (Tuesday, 8.45 p.m. / ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de). The 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund, in which FC Bayern presented themselves extremely impressively in their recently lost mercilessness, was just the start of a final sprint. Even the duel against SC Freiburg is “a super important knockout game,” emphasized Tuchel. “We are currently in the process of finding ourselves. We need the sense of achievement in order to develop further.” Nagelsmann had recently started the rotary machine again and again – also out of necessity – in order to give the permanent staff breaks – and to keep players from the second row happy.
Successes help to quickly return to structural self-evidence. “Except for the last ten minutes, we were the worse team. There was little power on the field, we didn’t play well. So we deserved to lose,” Julian Nagelsmann scolded after the 2-1 draw against Bayer Leverkusen a good two weeks ago . “We had that again and again. In the last few weeks it had gotten better, this pairing of emotion and quality. Today we were sluggish. Defensively and offensively, some players had a 0 percent rate. We were very weak in our own game presentation .” The game ultimately cost Nagelsmann his job, Tuchel has to ensure stability at the highest level quickly and sustainably.
“Become our own standard”
With the Champions League duel against Manchester City, the greatest challenge that European football currently has to offer will follow next week. Tuchel only wants to intervene seriously in his planned core structure in the final spurt of the season on “recommendations from the medical department”. Of course, Tuchel is also clear “that we won’t get through the next few weeks with a regular team”. But “we just have to make sure that we get as many as possible in the short time, grow together as a group and quickly reach our top level”.
Intensive weeks will come to Tuchel’s regular staff, at the same time the coach announced the categorical sporting imperative: “I want us to become our own standard,” said Tuchel. Players should “appreciate who gets the confidence in the next game”. The performance principle decides on the line-up, the sensitivities and demands of the stars will no longer play a role in the upcoming “small finals” (Thomas Müller).