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."
Source: www.dpa.com
