Memorable reckoning
Bizarre interview: Tuchel irritated after Bayern win
November 4, 2023, 10:18 p.m
What a performance by Thomas Tuchel after FC Bayern’s furious victory at Borussia Dortmund: The coach is completely free in the interview on Sky. The criticism from experts Lothar Matthäus and Dietmar Hamann hits Tuchel so hard that he launches a memorable counterattack.
If Thomas Tuchel was happy that Saturday evening, then the FC Bayern coach was extremely good at hiding it. Even before the top game at Borussia Dortmund kicked off, he appeared extremely irritated for the interview on Sky and didn’t want to answer questions or only wanted to answer them briefly. During the game, which was won in impressive fashion 4-0 (2-0), he complained like a pig, was shown a yellow card by referee Deniz Aytekin and only reluctantly calmed down. And even when his splendidly playing team had once again destroyed the apathetic BVB, Tuchel couldn’t get down. Quite the opposite. He shot completely freely in the interview on Sky and at the press conference.
“Despite a rift in the team with the coach? Despite no further development? Such a surprise,” Tuchel answered the first question with biting irony. It was just the intro to a memorable performance that was a complete contradiction to his own words on Friday. That was the first time he spoke after the cup debacle at third division team 1. FC Saarbrücken on Wednesday evening. His team had first played horribly badly, then well, but failed to hit the goal and finally collapsed in a grotesque manner against the completely exhausted Saarland team in the 96th minute.
“It’s difficult to refute critical voices now. We have to endure it, let it pass and stand together and carry on.” He doesn’t want to read what has been written, “not the praise and certainly not the criticism, because that always does something to you.” Criticism, from whatever side, is legitimate. And now this. Now this reckoning. The criticism, which was actually ignored, had apparently done something to Tuchel.
“When I’m through, I want to leave”
When asked by Sky presenter Sebastian Hellmann about the obvious anger and irony, the Bayern coach said: “Yes, and? That’s not allowed? You don’t like that?” And it continued with anger and without any restraint: “Lothar definitely knows it, and if he doesn’t know it, Didi knows it.” Hamann wasn’t there, but Matthäus was. And Tuchel continued to tackle it. “Then you do that today too, otherwise you don’t hold back. Lothar can do that, otherwise Didi can do that.” The 50-year-old didn’t even want to have another conversation, an exchange or a discussion with Matthäus. He raged: “I don’t want to get into the discussion at all. When I’m through, I want to leave, that’s too much for me.” Despite his time in Paris, Tuchel didn’t throw in any French words. Anyway.
He hears about bad phases, “but we have two league draws and are leading our Champions League group. Now we have won 4-0, now you have to make a 180 degree turn – have fun with it!” As he left, he said poisonously: “We heard a lot of things that were wrong with us – it couldn’t have been that bad.” By the way, it wasn’t the Sky experts who brought up the dissatisfaction, but rather another medium. “You can call it whatever you want. Nobody is mad about it,” said Tuchel.”
In fact, the dispute between Tuchel and the two opinionated experts has a long history. Both Matthäus, but especially Hamann, had repeatedly criticized the fact that the Munich team would not develop further this season. They missed a clear game idea, a recognizable coaching signature, they missed control and dominance. They saw many FC Bayern victories, almost all of them built on the individual quality of a Leroy Sané, a Harry Kane, a Jamal Musiala and not on a functioning collective.
“Only FCB will become German champions”
The fact that this was refuted this Saturday evening in the old Westfalenstadion in Dortmund makes Tuchel’s appearance even more bizarre. And so Munich’s furious victory, Harry Kane’s phenomenal goal show, he scored his Bundesliga goals 13 to 15, and BVB’s next panic attack in the classic duel between clattering giants against gripping giants, are overshadowed by the failure of the coach who was with Art and the way his team had played, while ending any debate that might arise about his chair. The question of “why” will be the overarching topic of the next few days and the next rounds of experts.
This game would have deserved a different direction: the remarkable resurrection of the Munich team, who mercilessly overran the completely disillusioned team with their fast-paced football. After just nine minutes it was 2-0: Dayot Upamecano, whose effort, like that of Leon Goretzka, had been hanging by a thread, scored with a header from a corner (4th). Bayern then played the perfect counterattack. Leroy Sané initiated with a heel, Goretzka played brilliantly back to Sané, who crossed for Kane and this classic was already decided. The Dortmund team struggled, but bounced back hard from the confident guests.
They played probably the best game of the Tuchel era and later celebrated as a collective in front of the fans. They sang: “Only FCB will become German champions,” and that evening the team collected arguments for this. The gap to league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen has at least not increased and is still two points. And Tuchel said: “We wanted to show ourselves. We play for our own standards and our own level, which is what we want to achieve. That was great today. I’m happy for the team that they were able to prove themselves like that.” He was obviously happy after all.