Wild debates are raging
How angry can FC Bayern get?
By Tobias Nordmann
December 12, 2023, 8:05 a.m
FC Bayern suffered a disastrous defeat in the Bundesliga – and after weeks of good results, discussions broke out at all levels. How do the people of Munich react? Does the “rage engine” start? It’s a week full of truths.
Coach Thomas Tuchel blames himself and the score sheet, experts and fans feel icon Thomas Müller is humiliated and Lothar Matthäus takes on Joshua Kimmich, who can no longer be seen. Because FC Bayern was torn apart in the Bundesliga by Eintracht Frankfurt (5:1), the noise around the record champions is louder and more colorful than on New Year’s Eve. In reality, hardly any damage was done. In the table, Munich have only lost one point to Bayer Leverkusen. The Werkself won in the thrilling top game at VfB Stuttgart (1-1). But the situation in Munich is not that simple.
Because you don’t lose 1:5 as FC Bayern. A 1:5 is always a huge issue, but please don’t let it be a crisis! We are very far away from that, emphasized sports director Christoph Freund. And that twice. A bit of vehement plain language can’t do any harm in a discussion that blows in all directions after the debacle. Does FC Bayern have a mentality problem? Does FC Bayern even have a leadership problem? And if so, why isn’t the old leading figure Müller playing (anymore)? This process was already inexorably initiated under Tuchel’s predecessor Julian Nagelsmann (and is continuing in the national team under the new national coach). Or why does Müller only play when it’s not actually important? Like against Frankfurt, when he was only substituted when there was nothing left to win.
Manchester becomes a stress test
On one of the biggest stages in the world, the people of Munich can now give answers to all of these questions that they haven’t really been able to answer since Saturday. But the truth is on the pitch anyway, this time on the one at Old Trafford, the theater of dreams. Maybe it will be a Müller game? Not because there isn’t much at stake anymore in terms of sport – first place in the preliminary group of the Champions League can no longer be taken away from FC Bayern – but because it’s once again about the atmosphere. And no one is good enough to drive the good emotions into the team and the bad ones out of the club.
And at least there is no lack of a certain magnitude of the task. Because for Manchester United, the giant that has been rattling since the departure of cult and successful coach Sir Alex Ferguson in 2013, it’s about everything. The Red Devils have to win last and hope that there is no winner in the parallel game between Galatasaray Istanbul and FC Copenhagen, only then will United stay in the premier class. And even the option to leave the Europa League is only certain if there is a win of our own. And so the crisis giant from England not only serves as motivation to prove it to the football world again, but also as a warning example of what can happen to a former giant. Nothing is taken for granted.
“For quite some time now,” said Müller about the Bavarian nemesis from the legendary 1999 final (1:2), United have been “just chasing their own aspirations.” The once again sobering 3-0 loss against AFC Bournemouth was the eleventh defeat in 23 games this season, and it was the ninth time the Red Devils had conceded at least three goals. In the league they only hit the goal with 7.4 percent of their shots – a negative record. United, wrote the Manchester Evening News, was “its own parody.” Even if sixth place in the table still somewhat conceals these frightening figures. Nothing is taken for granted.
“We thought we were already further along”
In Munich they had thought that certain things that were self-evident in their own game were clearly in order, but this has now been refuted. “We thought we were already further along. But we were disabused of it in a very brutal way,” admitted Tuchel. It’s about stability. It’s about leadership. And it’s about mentality. For the third time this season, the Munich stars posed a mystery. In the Supercup they were embarrassed by RB Leipzig (0:3), in the DFB Cup by third division team 1. FC Saarbrücken (1:2) and now by Eintracht from Frankfurt, who were anything but in an intoxicating state before .
Tuchel then wondered “what exactly was wrong”. All he knew spontaneously was that everything had to get better very quickly: “There’s no way we can continue playing at this level.” Tuchel’s first immediate measure is to “defend with more doggedness.” There could (need to be) personnel changes for this. Konrad Laimer and the finally fit Raphaël Guerreiro are pushing into the team for the shaky full-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Alphonso Davies. However, there are no real alternatives for the error-prone inner block Dayot Upamecano and Min-Jae Kim. Leon Goretzka would be one, but then Laimer or Guerreiro would have to play in midfield alongside Joshua Kimmich, who is still looking for his best form.
How does FC Bayern react now? Will the “rage engine” that Müller wanted after the debacle start? Will Munich strike back as mercilessly as in Dortmund, when the cup defeat was wiped away with their best performance of the season? The answers this week, which ends on Sunday with the top game in the Bundesliga against the furious VfB Stuttgart with its super strikers Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav, will tell a lot about how quiet Christmas will be and how intensively the Munich team will be involved in the transfer window that opens afterwards must. And what profile potential newcomers must have.
Who leads the way as a leader?
The only thing that seems clear after last weekend is that Bayern’s game needs more robustness. “We had 22 critical ball losses, an absurdly high number,” said Tuchel again before the duel in Manchester. This absurdly high number resulted in five goals conceded and the biggest defeat of his Bayern tenure. And it provided arguments for the “Holding Six”, which has been urgently desired since the summer. The name Joao Palhina still haunts the hallways. And there’s also a lot of pressure in the central defense because neither Min-jae Kim nor Dayot Upamecano fill the role of defense chief with any lasting confidence. A leader like David Alaba or Jérôme Boateng once was is missing. Matthijs de Ligt hasn’t been that so far, which may have been due to his many injuries. Which in turn leads to the next topic: As soon as someone gets injured on the defensive end, creative solutions are required. Goretzka as a central defender was the most prominent.
There are still three games left for the record champions, at least the next two are under special observation – before they head to the crisis club VfL Wolfsburg with ex-Bayern coach Niko Kovac at the end of the year, who incidentally is leaving after a 5-1 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt had been released in Munich. But the next two games in particular will be exploited in detail when assessing the personnel situation. How much defense and resistance there is in this team will remain one of the questions. Who will lead the way after the debacle of leadership? Who will pull the team along? Harry Kane would be a candidate. After his sensational start to the season, things have become a little quieter around him in the last few weeks. A great performance in his home country would help the record champions to moderate debates.