The 2:2 draw at SC Freiburg proved once again how fragile FC Bayern’s team still is. Still coach Thomas Tuchel is at a loss. The entire season is now at stake on Tuesday against Lazio Roma
How much influence does a coach have on how his team goes into a game and what they show on the pitch? An eternally debated question. If Thomas Tuchel’s statements on Friday are anything to go by, then not much. “It was undisciplined in the positions, sometimes hara-kiri,” he criticized his team’s first 45 minutes and went one better: “We did things that we’ve never trained before, that we’ve never talked about.” A verbal wedge between coach and team, even if he did not want to deny their will in Freiburg
Tuchel doesn’t cheer and is brutally honest
Tuchel is not entirely blameless in this situation. He no longer cheers when he scores goals, repeatedly puts his hands to his face during the game and shakes his head. Positive charisma, also for the team, is different. On the one hand, he’s not putting on a show, he’s being brutally honest, but on the other hand, he’s been saying almost since he took office that the team doesn’t implement his instructions in the game. Maliciously interpreted, this means nothing other than that the team does not follow or no longer wants to follow its coach.
Tuchel did not help the team with his last change in Freiburg either, sending the wrong signal too early in the 83rd minute by bringing on Dayot Upamecano for goalscorer Jamal Musiala. From then on, Munich acted too passively, allowed themselves to be squeezed in behind and conceded the late 2:2 through Lucas Höler (87′). Relief and pace after this change? Ball security? Not a chance! Why change anything at all? Bayern had SC Freiburg under control in the second half with their style of play. After all, Tuchel has already practiced it differently; in the 1-0 win in Cologne in the first half, for example, he completely dispensed with changes on the grounds that the team was well in the game
The season is on the line – Next starting eleven appearance for Tel?
Of course, it’s not the coach’s fault that Leon Goretzka and Min-Jae Kim defended bunglingly to equalize. That brings us to the findings that should play an important role in the line-up against Lazio Roma on Tuesday. Kim is currently no guarantee of safety. The solution in central defense should be Matthijs de Ligt (suspended in Freiburg) and Eric Dier. Joshua Kimmich and Raphael Guerreiro did not promote themselves on the defensive flanks, nor did Goretzka in central midfield and Thomas Müller in attack. To be fair, it has to be said that the alternatives on the bench are limited. According to the performance principle, Mathys Tel should get his next chance in the starting eleven, even if Leroy Sané is fit in time. Müller would then probably have to sit on the bench.
The entire season is now at stake against Lazio. Tuchel will be sitting on the bench, a round of 16 exit after the unnecessary 1-0 first-leg defeat would make it a lost one for good. There is a threat of a dismal finish into May, with or without Tuchel. As of Friday evening, there is even less doubt that he will go down in Bayern history as the coach who, for the first time after eleven championships in a row, will see a club other than Munich lift the trophy: Bayer Leverkusen, unless everything goes wrong for that club. Tuchel is part of this Bayern misery. No more, but also no less