Bayern ahead of the clash against Stuttgart: It's complicated

Soccer Bundesliga - Bayern ahead of the clash against Stuttgart: It's complicated

Friday afternoon, the windowless press conference room of FC Bayern Munich at Säbener Straße, the usual Q&A session with the head coach. Routine - and yet it is important not to fall into any traps. Thomas Tuchel therefore had to swallow briefly, taking a sip of water to avoid reacting too quickly and too emotionally to the following reporter's question: "Could Sebastian Hoeneß, who is currently so successful, one day become your successor as Bayern coach?" Phew.Tuchel remained calm, asking a rhetorical question two days before the direct duel with VfB Stuttgart, which Hoeneß has trimmed from a relegation candidate to a Champions League contender: "You don't seriously believe that I'm speculating about my own successor?" The 50-year-old then added, with all the experience of his professional life in the back of his mind: "At the moment I'm here - who knows how long? I'm not going to decide anything else."

"We always try to play in a way that makes Uli happy"

Since Sebastian Hoeneß, a native of Munich, 41, the son of former striker Dieter and nephew of honorary president Uli Hoeneß, has a coaching past at Säbener Straße (as a youth coach and coach of the second team in the third division) and now wants to prove his skills at the Allianz Arena, one of the numerous, sometimes more, sometimes less original headlines above this southern derby is "The family duel". "I have nothing to do with that," said Tuchel, "as always, we will try to play in such a way that Uli is happy. We know how important it is. After the defeat in the league, we want to show a reaction. It's a top game, Stuttgart are doing very well." Sensationally well. Tuchel spoke of an "overperformance" with an undertone of praise, otherwise analyzing Bayern's situation calmly and objectively.The blatant underperformance of his own team last Saturday in Frankfurt, the 1:5 defeat at Eintracht, had come as a complete surprise to Bayern. A "brutal and crass result", said Tuchel, and at the same time "a bitter setback". After 36 minutes, the score was already 0:3. It was the third low blow after the botched Supercup against Leipzig (0:3) and the 1:2 cup embarrassment at 1. FC Saarbrücken. Tuchel's warning ("Under no circumstances can we continue to play at this level!") before the match at Manchester United sounded like a final warning.

Tuchel: exuberant after the 1:0

After the 1-0 win in the Champions League during the week, Tuchel seemed happier and more relaxed than ever since he signed his contract with FC Bayern at the end of March, which runs until the end of June 2025. At the midnight banquet for VIPs and sponsors, CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen sang happy birthday to two jubilarians. Tuchel, with sports director Christoph Freund at the bosses' table, jumped up, grabbed a huge white cloth napkin and let it circle exuberantly above his head. Smiling, the head coach fulfilled every selfie request and indulged in chips and Coke. Tell anyone else that Tuchel is a food-lover who sticks to his principles. The 50-year-old did not leave the party in the ballroom of the posh Kimpton Clocktower hotel until shortly before two o'clock in the morning. At his side was his girlfriend Natalie Guerreiro Max, whom he took to a public Bayern event for the first time.

Inspired by his team's solid, controlled play ("That was the highest level of team play. Our best game in the group stage, it was fun"), Tuchel hugged and embraced almost everyone at the party, feasting on sweets while standing. When he received a kiss from his partner late at night, the embarrassing losses in Saarbrücken and Frankfurt were far from his mind, as were Didi Hamann and Lothar Matthäus, the two TV tormentors. "The coach said he was really proud to watch us play a great game of soccer," said captain Manuel Neuer, explaining Tuchel's happiness.

Why can't coach Tuchel get any consistency from Bayern?

But has the head coach also arrived in sporting terms? After the relapse in Frankfurt, doubts have risen again. FC Bayern have only lost so heavily three times in the Bundesliga this millennium, curiously for the fourth time exactly with 1:5, the second time after November 2019 in Frankfurt. But that's just statistics. What's more important in the here and now for Munich is: Why can't coach Tuchel get any consistency in his team's performances? Why do leading players like Joshua Kimmich or Leon Goretzka disappear at times like this?

On site in Frankfurt, Tuchel still sounded perplexed on the Sky microphone: "We had eight or nine days to prepare the team. They definitely weren't ready, so of course we have to ask ourselves why we started the game like that." There was also the matter of the match report sheet, i.e. Eintracht's formation, from which Tuchel and his staff briefly read out a five-man back line (and not the presumed four-man back line) for the hosts. Tactical deviations were frantically drilled into the team shortly before kick-off, "perhaps a mistake", said the coach.

Critical ball losses

Less is sometimes more, as the saying goes. In practice, this is an extremely difficult approach for a perfectionist like Tuchel, who has a coaching staff of specialists around him and who practically devours data-based analyses. Like the one he identified as one of the reasons for the Frankfurt fiasco. "We had 22 critical ball losses by the end of the game," said Tuchel, explaining: "That means that when the ball is lost, five or more players are out of the game. We had 22 of them. Ten is too many, then you can work out how much 22 is too many. The figure should definitely be in single figures for our standards. 22 is simply an absurdly high number." You can feel how much physical pain this figure causes someone like Tuchel.

Shouldn't the top dogs, the veterans, have to hammer in a stake at times like this and say to the opposition and their own team: "Guys, this far and no further!"? There's a vacuum. "We thought we were already further along and were proven wrong in a very brutal way with an extraordinary result," Tuchel admitted quite openly on Tuesday after landing in Manchester and replied to the question about his managers' apparent lack of resilience: "We're working on it. I think that's one of the elementary points. We are trying to bring in this stability, the team is trying to implement it. But we're obviously finding it difficult. "The debacle in Frankfurt was also indirectly a work assignment for sporting director Freund, who has been in office for just over a hundred days, and the transfer committee, which this time consists of just three members: Freund, Tuchel and board boss Dreesen. They are to take action from January 1, when the winter transfer window opens for 31 days. Honorary President Hoeneß and former CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who were members of the seven-member sports committee in the summer, will continue to be asked for advice, but will no longer be actively involved.

It's complicated. It's getting more complicated

In Frankfurt, the mistakes and deficiencies in tackling by central defenders Dayot Upamecano and Min-jae Kim were too glaring, as were the ball losses in the center (Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka) and the laissez-faire of full-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Alphonso Davies. The fact that reinforcements should, indeed must, be brought in at precisely these positions (right back, center back and central midfield) during the winter break was only underlined by the 1:5. The priority is to acquire a flexible central defender who, like Benjamin Pavard (transferred to Inter Milan in August at his express request), can also fill the right-back position with a strong right foot. Already scouted by Bayern: Arnau Martínez (20) from Spanish surprise team FC Girona. More of a talent compared to Ronald Araújo (24) from FC Barcelona. The Uruguayan international has been in Munich's sights for some time, and contact is said to have been made, although Araújo's advisors deny this. According to Mundo Deportivo, a winter transfer would be out of the question anyway.status quo for Tuchel and his Bayern: it's complicated, it's getting more complicated.