Bayern boss increases CL pressure
Thomas Tuchel goes “self-protection offline”
February 13, 2024, 9:51 p.m
Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel is betting that his team will show a completely different face in the Champions League game against Lazio than in the clear defeat against Bayer Leverkusen. He keeps details about the system and setup to himself.
Thomas Tuchel was relaxed. That wasn’t necessarily to be expected. Last Saturday, in the top game of the Bundesliga in Leverkusen, his team was first outplayed by a ripped-off Bayer squad and then torn apart in the media. Three days later, on this Tuesday evening, FC Bayern’s great humiliation and the wads that followed seemed to have been well digested. At least with the coach, who was “offline”. For “self-protection.” A measure that he can definitely recommend.
In fact, the coach doesn’t want to have noticed anything that happened to the record champions. Once before, also after an embarrassment, in the cup at third division club 1. FC Saarbrücken, he said he hadn’t let anything get to him. Praise or criticism always does something to you, he said. For example in questions of setup and system. He got it before the first leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League at Lazio (Wednesday, 9 p.m. on DAZN and in the live ticker on ntv.de) now of course posed. The answers, minor spoiler, are disappointing. Because Italian teams are tactically foxy, he doesn’t want to give anything away. At least he let it be known that Thomas Müller’s chances of playing are good.
The veteran’s role as a joker was once again one of the big topics after FC Bayern lost 3-0. With him and Joshua Kimmich, two leading players sat outside at the beginning. The only two? Goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer, who, unlike his coach, has not yet “digested” the humiliation, sees it differently. “We have a lot of leading players in our own ranks,” he admitted, but also acknowledged problems. “It’s true that with a well-coordinated team and a certain axis you can manage a lot of things.” If one of the two leaders was missing, others would have to take over. “Those who were on the pitch are also experienced,” said Neuer: “Then players who are not in the front row, but in the second or third, have to take on more responsibility and coach in the interests of the team and success. “
Tuchel “doesn’t doubt his work”
Tuchel is now primarily responsible for this again. Sports director Christop Freund said of the coach: “He doesn’t doubt his work. He tries to think in terms of solutions.” He needs it for a lot of problems. How can we get star striker Harry Kane back on the show? At least an answer seems to have been found: “We didn’t play steeply and diagonally enough. Our game was only around the very compact Leverkusen block. So in completely safe spaces,” said Tuchel.
How do you manage to get Jamal Musiala out of his slump in form? How does he give his players the courage back to go into direct duels with conviction? And how can you prevent deep sleep phases when conceding goals? All of these problems emerged in remarkable density in Leverkusen. A key, perhaps the most important, according to Tuchel: “It will be important that our energy level is at its maximum.”
“I don’t feel any growing pressure”
So now in Rome. However, FC Bayern traveled to the Italian capital with a heavy backpack. “It feels like we’re playing with weight,” admitted Tuchel. And warned “not to go completely into ruins. We are very self-critical, but we can still allow ourselves to play confidently. It’s important to be ready again and show a reaction.” For him too? “I don’t feel any growing pressure,” claimed Tuchel. “The pressure is a great privilege. It’s a sporting pressure, I’ve never felt anything different. The louder the noise gets, the more important it is to stay calm.”
These are quite astonishing sentences, because the pressure could hardly be more maximum. “I said at the beginning of the season that FC Bayern’s goal is always to reach the Champions League final,” emphasized CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen, “that must be our aim.” In 2013, Bayern “celebrated this wonderful triumph” against Dortmund in London. “It would be a fantastic thing,” said Dreesen, if the record champions could “go there again” for the final on June 1st. The bosses are unlikely to let him get away with another early failure against an outsider, like in the cup (although the outsider role was even clearer there). The coaching debate is already going strong.
“Even if Bayern loses, the sun will rise”
Because the only thing that has been constant for the Munich team in their eleven months of working with the coach is the inexplicable volatility, the constant change between “outliers up and down,” as Tuchel himself said: “I am personally not satisfied with the level at which we are playing – play consistently.” Attitude, will, offensive and defensive performance – Bayern have to improve in all areas in Rome. Müller had put this on the table in his remarkable fire. This is where the Munich team actually wanted to place their top game trump cards. Instead, it was a bad bluff that was blamed on the coach in terms of tactics and personnel.
The “offline” Tuchel, who probably didn’t notice anything, responded to the talk with ease and in a surprisingly good mood. “Even if Bayern Munich loses, the sun will rise again,” he said. “Even if you don’t believe it.”