Thomas Tuchel, the departing head coach of Bayern Munich, was brutal with his players after they let up points against Freiburg and lost ground in the title fight.
With the turmoil at the Allianz Arena growing, Thomas Tuchel ripped into his Bayern Munich misfits after their Friday night 2-2 draw with Freiburg.
Former Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund manager Tuchel led Bayern to the German championship in March of last year after taking over for Julian Nagelsmann, but he has had a difficult season thus far. Bayer Leverkusen, the reigning champions, have a commanding lead atop the Bundesliga standings and may increase that gap following Bayern’s dramatic collapse against Freiburg.
The departure of Tuchel from Bayern at the end of the current campaign has already been announced, and the club’s first choice to take his place is reportedly Leverkusen head coach Xabi Alonso. But Bayern’s fortunes have not improved much despite clarity over future intentions.
In his post-match evaluation of Bayern’s performance, Tuchel did not hold back, calling certain elements of it “terrible”. “What a terrible thirty minutes from us,” he raged. The first ten to fifteen minutes were merely ok. The second half of our encounter was excellent, including numerous scoring opportunities, a positive attitude, improved discipline, and overall superior quality.
“We had a chance to win, but we didn’t defend Freiburg’s throw-in well enough to come away with a victory. All things considered, we may state that the first half did not provide enough to merit the victory.”
Bayern is running out of time to win the domestic championship after losing to Freiburg, who scored an equalizer in the 87th minute and failed to secure the maximum points. With just ten league games left, Bayern must overcome a huge deficit to surpass Leverkusen.
In addition, their chances of mounting a successful campaign in Europe are in jeopardy ahead of this week’s match against Lazio. Bayern knows that only a victory in Munich on Tuesday night will do if they are to live up to expectations and move on to the further stages of the competition after losing the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 match 1-0.
The German publication Bild revealed last month that there was discord in the Bayern locker room around Tuchel. Though he was unpopular with a few senior pros, England captain Harry Kane, who went to Germany in a club-record deal in the summer, was reportedly one of the players who supported Tuchel.
Earlier this week, the same publication reported that Tuchel had addressed the locker room to try and calm any agitation once it was confirmed that he was leaving. Allegedly, Tuchel informed his players, “Everyone is aware that there are no longer weekly discussions.” We need to prevail, but we can still accomplish something.”
