Thomas Tuchel’s ninth defeat since arriving at Bayern is definitely one of the heaviest in his career. And it could cost him dearly. In almost two full years of his mandate, Julian Nagelsmann lost ten times, his predecessor Hansi Flick only left the field with his head down seven times for a similar period… Tuchel has not yet celebrated his first anniversary on the bench of the biggest German club and it is already certain that he will have a much worse stats from both already until the end of the season. Especially if we include draws in the mix.Regardless of everything, and above all five points behind Leverkusen after last night’s knockout at BayArena, the club from Munich claims that Tuchel’s job is secure. Admittedly, this was stated by the one who is mainly in charge of dropping the ball and making conciliatory statements, CEO Hans Christian Dressen.How those who still really make the decisions – Uli Hoennes and Karl Heinz Rummenigge, and perhaps the newcomer Max Eberl (not officially named) – are thinking – is not yet clear. But given Hoennes’ temper and ambition for Bayern to rule Germany forever, it’s hard to believe that Tuchel can just sit back and dream big. Especially if things go wrong in the Champions League as well.Bayern Munich are now FIVE points behind Bayer Leverkusen in Bundesliga 😳Is Harry Kane going to go another season without a trophy? 🤯 pic.twitter.com/aY3H3ujWCB— Mail Sport (@MailSport) February 11, 2024 Admittedly, Dressen himself indicated in a statement that the coach will have to ‘explain himself’…”I think we started well, for the first 10-15 minutes we looked very good. I had the feeling that we were controlling the game. Leverkusen were not dominant in those moments. And then we got completely lost,” began the short analysis of the director of the German champion.When asked how it happened that Bayern were lethally wounded by three ‘defenders’ (Stanišić, Grimaldo, Frimpong), he said:”There is an expert in our club who will explain it to us, we will have to ask the coach! This was a match that all of Germany had been waiting for weeks and looking forward to. We failed, unfortunately, and deservedly lost.”Giant-killing? In Germany, oh yes! In Spain, no way!Dressen did not want to talk about the change in tactics and lineup…”I wouldn’t dwell too much on it. Leverkusen were simply better. We deserved what happened to us and we have to accept it. Fortunately, there are still 13 rounds left, hopefully one or two mistakes from the leaders. Do I still believe in the title? Yes! Who am I to be a pessimist. We will not give up, we have to be there, breathing down their necks”.To the specific question about the fate of Thomas Tuchel…”Nothing changes. We knew in advance that this would be a difficult game. We would have liked a different result, but it wasn’t. We are concentrating on the next challenges”.The Bild journalist was persistent: Tuchel, therefore, remains the coach?”I don’t like to repeat myself, I stand by what I said”.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Tuchel himself was understandably depressed at the press conference. At times, he seemed to be comforting himself, like a man who doesn’t even believe what he’s saying.”We will not lose hope. We will try to pressure them until the last round. Today they used their chances, they increased the gap. All we can do is show a reaction. That’s what we will do.”Did you at one point think: hell, we made a mistake by letting Stanisic go?”In England, there is a nice rule that when you loan a player to someone, he cannot play against you. For me, it makes more sense. I often experienced in my career how a loaned player should play against his club, but he does not have the opportunity – that rule, unfortunately, it doesn’t exist in Germany. That’s why we got punished. I saw Stanisic afterwards and congratulated him. He’s a Bayer player now, that’s all I can say.”##NAJAVA_MECA_7863126##Tuchel took responsibility for the obvious tactical mistakes…”Yes, I take responsibility for the tactical approach. It goes without saying that it should be like this after this result and the changes we made. We had a whole week to prepare. My job was to figure out what and how to convince the players of a new approach. Unfortunately, it was not good – neither the first nor the last time in my coaching career. We didn’t know what to do when we took the ball away and then we started to lose confidence as the game went on.”How Xabi Alonso’s @bayer04fussball destroyed Thomas Tuchel’s @FCBayern:- Use GK + 1 in deep buildup .- Switching from 3-4-2-1 to 4-2-4 with Grimaldo’s versatility.- Line-breaking passes from Tapsoba.- 3rd man.- Florian wirtz 🪄pic.twitter.com/3hYW1vGGZY— Fs Laputa (@Fs_Laputa) February 11, 2024 However, Tuchel had a complaint about some reactions of his players…”You can’t concede the first goal like that when you play with five players in the back line. It can’t happen. Everyone fell asleep and of course it’s only about our responsibility. It was too easy for the opponent. Same as the second goal, when Bayer ‘threw out’ our whole defense with two players”.Joshua Kimmich remained on the bench unexpectedly. Interestingly, unlike some previous cases, he had no objections to the coach’s decisions.”I think he set us up well. Each of us needs to play in a different system sometimes. The problem is that in our game there is no joy, creativity, lightness, freedom… We really have big problems with creating chances, and we easily allow the opponent to approach to our goal”.Thomas Muller also started on the bench. He also had no objections to Tuchel’s decisions, but to the attitude of his teammates…”To be honest, I’m angry! I’ll quote Ollie Kahn: We obviously lack balls! We play better in training! It’s okay to feel pressure, but there needs to be more freedom and energy in the team. That’s also what’s missing. Sometimes it has to be talked about the approach of the players, not only about the coach. We have many good players, we can’t be this bad”.Thomas muller in today’s interview following Bayern 3-0 loss to Leverkusen:“There are some symptoms you can also see on the pitch and I’m honestly pissed off as a result. What we’re missing is and that’s why i say it publicly, that we show better approaches in training because… pic.twitter.com/323rN1sImG— Donotdistubr (@donotdistubr) February 11, 2024 There is still a long way to go until the end of the championship race, but Lothar Mathaus believes that Lever can win the crown if they continue like this.”I have no doubt that they will be champions if they continue to play in this way. And there is no reason to doubt that. They have a great coach, who controls everything. They are big favorites for the title. If someone says otherwise, they have no idea about football,” said the famous midfielder.Xabi Alonso did not make a big of a deal after the victory of his career:”The essence is to choose the right moment when you press and when you have to wait. It’s important who has the ball, who you want to direct it to… I think we controlled the game well. I congratulate my boys. But nothing is over yet”.The Spaniard delighted the public once again when he led his entire staff in front of the away fans stand after receiving an invitation to join the players…Xabi Alonso made sure to take his coaching staff with him to receive the adulation and applause from the Leverkusen fans…He’s going to fit in perfectly at Anfield. 🇪🇸👏 pic.twitter.com/AITCugK289— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) February 11, 2024 Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 vs Bayern Munich. 🏟️ 31 games🟢 27 wins🟰 4 draws🔴 0 defeats⚽93 goals scored⚽❌ 22 goals conceded🥇5 points clear on top of the leagueXabi Alonso is cooking👏 pic.twitter.com/aLAEKLvSOt— Football Factly (@FootballFactly) February 11, 2024
