Bundesliga
Tuchel is looking for a Bayern “key” and feels the “Kane effect”
FCB trainer Thomas Tuchel (r) describes Harry Kane as a “fixed point” after just one week of working together. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
The 61st Bundesliga season begins with the classic Werder versus Bayern. Will 100 million man Harry Kane deliver the first goals? And when do the Munich players play Tuchel football? There is clarity in the gate.
30 goals? 35 goals? Or falls right in Harry Kane’s debut season Robert Lewandowski’s record 41 goals? In any case, at the opening game of the 61st Bundesliga season in Bremen’s Weser Stadium, all eyes and camera lenses will again be on Bayern Munich’s new soccer superman. And the expectations of Kane remain limitless.
Does the first 100 million man in the Bundesliga start on Friday (8.30 p.m. / Sat.1 / DAZN) in his first starting eleven in a duel with last year’s top scorer Niclas Füllkrug with goal production in former Lewandowski dimensions?
“I’m ready – and of course I want to score,” said Kane. The 30-year-old was able to get used to his new team-mates more intensively on the training ground this week after his goalless half-hour debut in Munich’s shocking 0:3 in the Supercup against DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig. And Thomas Tuchel was delighted with Kane’s positive energy. The coach described the center forward as “our fixed point” after just a week of working together.
“Harry works on so many levels”
Kane is practically the boss without a captain’s armband, which Joshua Kimmich will continue to wear for the time being, since Thomas Müller is fit again, but will start on the substitutes’ bench in Bremen. “Harry works on so many levels. In the dressing room, on the pitch, with his personality and how he trains,” enthused Tuchel: “That makes up his market value, next to the goals. It increases our chance of winning in Bremen. The Harry Kane Effect will not fizzle out.”
“Taking the lead” and “scoring goals” – these are the main tasks that Kane wants to do in Munich. And collect trophies. Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, Champions League – preferably everything. “I want to play at the highest level. And for titles. That’s why I came to Bayern,” said England’s selection captain confidently.
Tuchel’s record is not remotely Bayern-like
So all eyes on Kane? Yes and no. In the meantime, people in Munich are also taking a close look at the work and actions of Tuchel. Six wins, five defeats and two draws after 13 competitive games are a coach’s balance sheet that doesn’t even begin to look like Bayern.
After the Supercup bankruptcy, the coach was pissed off. He reprimanded his players immediately afterwards. “I almost can’t stand losing,” explained Tuchel. His team is still a mystery to him at times. “We haven’t found the one key to pick the lock yet, but we still have a few on the bunch of keys,” said the coach. A positive start to the league would be a small sedative for the 49-year-old. Tuchel still does not have a finished team puzzle. Kane just got here. In defence, midfield and offensive there is still no fixed formation.
And it will not be Manuel Neuer in goal in Bremen either, but Sven Ulreich. Surprisingly, Tuchel reported that the time for Neuer’s return to team training had “shortened”. It’s now a matter of weeks – not months. That’s why the 35-year-old Ulreich is starting the season as number one, even if a goalkeeper is to be signed. “Ulle is doing very well at the moment,” said Tuchel in praise of the eternal Neuer representative.
Statistics speaks clearly against Werder
Despite the home advantage in the atmospheric Weser Stadium, Werder seems like a lightweight for Bayern at the start. In the DFB Cup against the third division team Viktoria Köln it was the end of the line, nothing went together. And now national striker Füllkrug and his teammates face the “hardest possible task”, as coach Ole Werner put it in the Bayern game. He cannot assess the Kane factor in advance: “You don’t yet know exactly how he is in Bayern.”
Of course, the statistics don’t bode well for Bremen: Bayern have been unbeaten in 31 competitive games against Werder. And since the introduction of the official opening game involving the German champions, the defending champions have never lost. Incidentally, in 2016 there was a match between Bayern and Bremen at the start: the final score was 6-0 – a certain Robert Lewandowski scored three goals for Bayern.