Cologne coach Baumgart takes Bayern defeat upon himself
FC Köln coach Steffen Baumgart has taken responsibility for the 1-0 home defeat against serial champions FC Bayern Munich. "I take full responsibility for the first 30 minutes," said Baumgart after his team lost 1-0 to a Harry Kane counter-attack goal in the 20th minute: "I pushed the lads forward and chased too high. And that was against a team you didn't really have a chance against. We wanted to exploit Bayern's tiredness and force them into making mistakes. Unfortunately, that went completely wrong."
Another curious fact: Baumgart had initially fielded his team with a back three. A year ago, when asked whether he would ever play with a back three, he replied: "It's often seen as a panacea, but it's usually a back five with a parked bus. That's not my story." Nevertheless, he took a risk against Bayern. "For me, it was the first time with a back three. I never did it in Paderborn either," he said afterwards: "But the quality of the opponent was simply too high."
Thomas Kessler, the head of the licensed players department, indicated that FC would not be playing with a back three in future. "When you're in a situation like we are, you think a lot about it. That was the idea at times, a match plan for this game. But that doesn't mean we're planning a fundamental change of system."
In the upcoming Bundesliga matches, 1st FC Cologne might decide to stick with their traditional formation after their experimental back three strategy against Bayern Munich resulted in a 1-0 defeat. Despite Bayern Munich's dominance in the Bundesliga, 1st FC Cologne aimed to exploit their potential weaknesses during their match, but their aggressive approach didn't pay off as planned, leading to a goal by Harry Kane.
Source: www.dpa.com
