FC Bayern coach
Thomas Tuchel, the locker room loser
Use of the bench warmers: Thomas Tuchel (r.) substitutes Thomas Müller (l.) and Joshua Kimmich – neither of whom are likely to speak well to the coach.
© Imago Images
Will the Thomas Tuchel chapter in Munich soon be closed again? A successor name is already circulating; it smells like a stable. If the FC Bayern coach has to leave, it will be for the same reasons as at Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea FC.
When there is a crisis atmosphere on Säbener Strasse in Munich, and that is always the case when FC Bayern does not greet the top of the Bundesliga, then the bosses usually only think of one thing: the smell of a stable. That was the case when the adventurous dazzler Jürgen Klinsmann unsuccessfully coached the team and was replaced by the old master Jupp Heynckes. That was the case when the strict Louis van Gaal sat on the bench and replaced him, of course Jupp Heynckes. That was the case when coaching hope Niko Kovac had to leave and club veteran Hansi Flick followed him. Thomas only came after Julian Nagelsmann Tuchel; someone with expertise, but without Mia-san-mia in his luggage.
A successor name is already circulating in Munich
Unfortunately, cups, championships and even Champions League victories do not guarantee success in Munich for other clubs. As Carlo Ancelotti felt (who was once replaced by, sigh, Jupp Heynckes). And although Tuchel’s team still has 13 match days to catch up with Bayer Leverkusen by a mere five points and now only has the conquerable Lazio Rome in front of them in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday, we are already hearing about possible successors in the Munich area, of course also from someone with a stable smell: Hansi Flick.
A misunderstanding as a national coach, he once even trumped the club coaching legend Heynckes at Bayern: he won a whopping six titles with the Munich team a few years ago. And just as important: He was clearly a Mia from the “Mia san mia” structure and therefore the opposite of Thomas Tuchel. It’s not just in Munich that it becomes clear that the former world coach of the year always gets in his own way with his peculiarities.
- At Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea FC, Tuchel always “lost the locker room” relatively quickly, as the saying goes. The reasons were usually the same: all too often he was a harsh complainer, even when things were going well. With his tactical changes, he too often sacrificed seasoned players who defended themselves accordingly and/or spread a bad mood – without Tuchel explaining to them why exactly they were not playing the role they had hoped for.
Thomas Tuchel the star gratifier
- At Chelsea, for example, Tuchel scared off striker Romelu Lukaku, at Bayern, Thomas Müller, Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich were banished to the bench, which doesn’t help the mood in the team structure – especially now, while Bayern are also suffering from bad luck with injuries.
- In Munich, the failures mainly affect the defense. Which is why they never had the chance to develop the necessary routines this season. In the nasty 3-0 defeat against leaders Bayer Leverkusen, Tuchel rebuilt the shaky defense again and fielded a freshly recovered central defender in Dayot Upamecano, while veteran Matthijs de Ligt was allowed to watch. Consequence: The three-man chain Upamecano, Eric Dier and Minjae Kim had almost no chance against the Bayer offensive.
- Well, even a Tuchel can coach himself, but another pattern often repeats itself in his career: by the second year of his positions at the latest, the initially rapid team development comes to a standstill: In Paris, the team’s success was rarely one of the collective, but always depended on exceptional talent like Neymar or Kylian Mbappé. In London the triumph was followed by the fall and in Munich the happy championship was not followed by a breakthrough but only a (so far) second place.
And another typical circumstance could more or less soon cost Thomas Tuchel the coaching chair: lack of appreciation. He complained about this everywhere, for example in Dortmund, whereupon BVB boss Aki Watzke said that Tuchel was just a “difficult person”. A dispute that also had to do with the club’s personnel policy, about which Tuchel also regularly complained. Disagreements between him, the team and the club management are the rule, not the exception.