“We should all be ashamed”
Eberl counts Bayern stars after embarrassment
April 6, 2024, 8:07 p.m
The German soccer record champions embarrassed themselves in the 2-3 defeat in Heidenheim. The Champions League hit against Arsenal London is coming up on Tuesday and the mood is devastated. But there shouldn’t be a coaching debate.
Max Eberl was completely served after the next low point of the badly hit FC Bayern Munich this season. “We should all be a little ashamed today,” said the sports director of the German soccer record champions after the 2:3 (2:0) defeat at newly promoted team 1. FC Heidenheim. “And we should make sure that we represent the Bavarian coat of arms in a more dignified manner relatively quickly.”
Eberl’s clear criticism was aimed more at the players than at coach Thomas Tuchel. According to the club bosses, he should stay for the time being. And somehow managed the turnaround in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League at Arsenal on Tuesday to keep Munich’s last chance of the title alive this season. After the embarrassment on the Ostalb, people are wondering more than ever how this will succeed.
“This is not the Bayern Munich I knew,” said Eberl, who took up his job at Säbener Strasse a few weeks ago in the midst of great unrest and had to watch from the stands in Heidenheim how his team reacted after conceding their first goal got involved in a wild exchange of blows and ultimately collapsed once again. Harry Kane (38th) and Serge Gnabry (45th) had put the previously confident Bayern in the lead, Kevin Sessa (50th) and double goalscorer Tim Kleindienst (51st/79th) turned the game around.
Eberl searches in vain for hope
After the defeat in the classic against Borussia Dortmund (0-2) last week, he said that “we have a character test here,” explained Eberl. “We passed it in the first half and failed in the second half.” The 50-year-old admitted that he couldn’t think of much that would give him hope at the moment when looking at the Arsenal game. But there shouldn’t be another change of coach.
Tuchel’s speech during the week was “extremely emotional,” Eberl reported. “Thomas put everything in this meeting room. Then if you get that back, it’s definitely not what Thomas deserved.” It was “completely clear to him that he would be on the bench next Tuesday and on the bench against Cologne on Saturday,” said the sports director about the coach. However, Tuchel will be missing against Cologne. After being shown a yellow card for complaining, the coach was suspended for one league game.
In the phase immediately after the break, his team “gave away everything we had built up beforehand” and “completely stopped playing football,” complained Tuchel. She then showed another “good reaction”. The fact that they still suffered the final knockout and their sixth league defeat of the season in the charged atmosphere fit into the miserable picture that Bayern are currently portraying.
“Not like we pick our noses with our fingers”
“It is clear to everyone involved that we are not in the best phase of the club’s history,” said Thomas Müller with a hint of sarcasm after his 700th competitive game for Munich. But the veteran didn’t want to upset his teammates. He himself was “almost in fighting mode again towards Tuesday,” said Müller. The team will “give everything again,” he assured. “It’s not like we pick our noses with our fingers and don’t care about anything.” In many moments, says the 34-year-old, the necessary “punch” is simply missing.
For the media, “fire clear until Tuesday,” said Müller, knowing that new unpleasant discussions will come to the club, the coach, who will only be leaving in the summer (as of now), and a team that largely appears lifeless. Bayern themselves, according to Müller, want to “stay together”. And somehow get out of their lurching course on the home straight of the season.