After Bayern’s third defeat in a row, it was Leon Goretzka, not Thomas Müller, who faced the cameras. He looked rather dismayed
Leon Goretzka has been playing for FC Bayern for a few years, he knows what might be argued elsewhere after the third defeat in a row, but not at the German record champions. “Of course, we can now stand up again and say that we started the game well,” the 29-year-old said on DAZN after the 3-2 defeat in Bochum, and not without good reason. “But that also makes you feel stupid now.”
The midfielder was on the pitch for the full match on the double-six, according to his own statement he could have limited himself to a good half hour – but he expressly did not want to. However, he found that “you can’t really blame us. In the end, we tried everything with one man less and even scored the equalizer.” But in the end, it wasn’t even worth a point
While Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel appeared relatively calm in the interview and did not want to equate Sunday evening’s defeat with the defeats against Leverkusen and in the Champions League at Lazio Roma, Goretzka made a very dismayed impression. He put the three consecutive setbacks, which FCB had not experienced since May 2015, on the same mountain of problems.
“At the moment, it feels like a horror movie that won’t end,” said the box-to-box player, “everything is just going against us at the moment.” He used these sentences to express his feelings – it was harder for him to come up with explanations. At some point, he landed on the point of “individual mistakes.”
Goretzka is particularly bothered by the 1:1
One such mistake was made by Dayot Upamecano, who was sent off again and at the same time conceded the penalty that Kevin Stöger converted to make it 3-1. Keven Schlotterbeck had been allowed to score the 2:1 quite unchallenged after a corner. And the earlier equalizer, which saw Jamal Musiala recklessly lose the ball and Joshua Kimmich subsequently lose an important duel, even got Goretzka a little angry
“Bochum’s 1:1 is textbook,” complained the right-footer – especially because “we knew that. That’s exactly how they play soccer. We thought about answers, but we didn’t find them at that moment.” The kind of helplessness at FC Bayern that you don’t really expect from the record champions. Even if Tuchel had them, he was able to cleverly cover them up. Goretzka couldn’t do that.
“It all feels incredibly strange at the moment,” muttered the German international, for whom the question of who is the champion has been answered for the time being. “It’s difficult to answer that with a yes right now, you have to say that very clearly.” Such a sentence from the mouth of a Bayern player. That is truly “strange”, even with Leverkusen eight points behind
