Bundesliga
Cologne coach Baumgart takes Bayern’s defeat to task
Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart relied on a three-man chain for the first time. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
For the first time with a three-man chain and a bit too courageous at the beginning: Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart’s tactics against FC Bayern didn’t quite work. He admitted this straight away afterwards.
“The first 30 minutes are entirely my responsibility,” said Baumgart after his team lost 1-0 to a counterattack goal from Harry Kane in the 20th minute: “I pushed the boys forward and too high “We wanted to take advantage of Bayern’s tiredness and force them to make mistakes. Unfortunately, that went completely wrong.”
Also curious: Baumgart initially fielded his team with a three-man chain. A year ago, when asked whether he would ever play with a three-man chain, he replied: “It’s often considered a panacea, but most of the time it’s a five-man chain with a parked bus. That’s not my story.” He still risked it against Bayern. “For me it was the first time with a three-man chain. 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 player department, indicated that FC would probably not play with a back three in the future. “When you’re in a situation like we were, you think about it a lot. That was the idea, a match plan for this game. But that doesn’t mean that we’re planning a fundamental change to the system.”