Bundesliga
Tuchel after two Bayern defeats: “The mood is depressed”
The head coach of the Bundesliga soccer club FC Bayern Munich: Thomas Tuchel. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Coach Thomas Tuchel sees FC Bayern in a “totally unsatisfactory” phase after two defeats. He wants to draw strength from the situation – and not let public criticism get to him.
“Giving up is not an option, neither in the title race nor in the Champions League. It continues,” said the 50-year-old before the away game at VfL Bochum (Sunday, 5.30 p.m./DAZN). After the 3-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen last Saturday, the Munich team are clearly behind the league leaders in the Bundesliga, and they lost 1-0 to Lazio in the first leg of the round of 16 in the premier class.
“The mood is depressed because we expected a reaction from ourselves,” said Tuchel. The current situation is “totally unsatisfactory from a sporting perspective. Now of course it’s doubly so because the results are missing. I wasn’t 100 percent satisfied before with how we appear and what our game looks like,” added the coach. “It’s important to pull yourself out of it and draw strength from it and see it as a challenge.”
The public criticism of the team and its work does not influence him at all. “A lot is being unloaded on us right now, everything is ok, we don’t need any pity,” he said. Nevertheless, his team can travel to Bochum confidently. He himself has gotten into the habit of not reading public reports, opinions and comments. “Everyone has to decide for themselves what tone they want to use and how they report about us.” The criticism has little or nothing to do with him personally.