After this football weekend, it could be nicely exaggerated: Another insulted appearance from the coaching talent! That would be rather unfair, of course, but there are several debates in this sentence, which Julian Nagelsmann will probably have to face again at Bayern: Since this injury time on Saturday in Dortmund, in which Germany’s series champions once again missed a win.
As a reminder: Shortly before the international break, after the defeat in Augsburg, Nagelsmann, 35, sat in the press conference in a disgruntled mood. Bayern surprisingly lost 1-0 and didn’t win for the fourth time in a row. A stubborn sentence (“It doesn’t matter what I answer now”) and the announcement that he would “reconsider everything” about his coaching life at Bayern remained in memory.
After the no less annoying 2:2 in Dortmund, with the really annoying equalizer in the 95th minute by Anthony Modeste, Nagelsmann’s mood was understandably modest in an interview with TV channel Sky.
Of course, he mentioned that the game might have gone differently had Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham seen the red card, or at least yellow-red, after his toe-to-head strike against Alphonso Davies. Bellingham meets Davies “full pot in the face”. FC Bayern was also trained by the referees during the summer break: “They told us that a kick in the face would be red,” said Nagelsmann. Before he got to the point of coaching talent.
The term was released by the former Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in a radio interview at Bayern 1 this week, which of course should imply: He is already a talented trainer, the Nagelsmann, young and fresh and with great ideas. But he has yet to show whether he will also become a great coach. “He’s not the only one who does that,” said Nagelsmann about Rummenigge, but: “Too many” would do it. Before adding: “I’m a talented coach, I’m proud of that. I do my best every day, others judge the rest.”
Nagelsmann allowed himself five changes in Dortmund, but each one was explainable
And you were right in the middle of Nagelsmann’s dilemma after the 2-2 win in Dortmund, which will go down in the chronicles of this season as another of those games that Munich should never have ended with a point loss. A simple understanding of mathematics is enough: After the two goals by Leon Goretzka (33rd) and Leroy Sané (53rd), Dortmund looked completely exhausted, and Nagelsmann’s team had several opportunities to turn the stable 2-0 lead into a more comfortable one to convert 3-0. Bayern would normally do this, said BVB coach Edin Terzic. Nagelsmann also announced: If his team scores the third goal, “the game is over”.
But Bayern missed their chances, as has often happened this season. They also allowed BVB to put them on the defensive in the closing stages, opening up crucial spaces there. And in such a scenario, the question of the responsibility of the trainer typically arises.
Meanwhile, Nagelsmann was not guilty of an obvious mistake in Dortmund, although one of the main reasons for Dortmund’s late rebellion was that the Munich team appeared in the final phase with a back four in a completely new formation: Dayot Upamecano and Benjamin Pavard in the middle, Josip Stanisic on the left , right Noussair Mazraoui. Nagelsmann allowed himself five changes in Dortmund, which was a sticking point, but each one of them was ultimately explainable: At half-time Nagelsmann had to take down left-back Davies because he had to be taken to the hospital for suspected concussion after Bellingham’s foot treatment, Josip came in for him stanisic Substituting Marcel Sabitzer to protect against the defense also made sense, since Sabitzer had been playing yellow since the second minute of the game and Joshua Kimmich, who had just recovered from corona, was waiting to be used.
Responsible for the 2: 2 in Munich, but also guilty of it? Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann (back).
(Photo: David Indian song/dpa)
A special challenge for the back four was that Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt had to leave the pitch after an hour. Lucas Hernández was already absent, Nagelsmann said he couldn’t afford another injured central defender, hence the precautionary measure. Three understandable changes in defence, but the result was that Bayern went into the last half hour with a completely untested four-man formation in defence.
Nagelsmann criticizes the young Stanisic without naming the defender
The truth is also that both goals conceded could easily have been prevented – suggesting that Nagelsmann’s side are struggling to bring the compactness of previous years down the field. When Yousouffa Moukoko conceded the first goal (74th), his team completely forgot to defend, judged Nagelsmann (“a safe situation”). The attackers who bothered Nico Schlotterbeck too late at the opening of the game, the central midfielders and both central defenders were already involved.
With the second goal, it was not Modeste’s freedom with the header that was decisive, but the previous situation, in which preparer Schlotterbeck was given the time in Bayern’s penalty area to accept the ball close to the touchline and then calmly look to see where it might be one could run free to eventually find Modeste.
The decisive moment before the equalizer: Nico Schlotterbeck saves the ball in front of the goal line. Shortly thereafter, Dortmund’s central defender crosses and Modeste scores the 2:2
(Photo: Wunderl/Imago)
“If we put more pressure on Schlotterbeck, the goal won’t go through,” judged Nagelsmann. He didn’t mention the young Stanisic’s name, but according to the assignment it would have been his job to prevent Schlotterbeck from crossing.
Nevertheless, Nagelsmann is now the coach who is responsible for the missed victory in Dortmund and the three-point lead over what is perhaps the most potent rival in the fight for the championship title. Four wins, four draws and one defeat after nine Bundesliga games, of course that could be better. CEO Oliver Kahn was terribly upset after the equalizer in the stands, later he said he had to “recall a long time back to be able to remember a season where we had so many chances to score and didn’t make them”. And: “We have to get going quickly now.”
Nagelsmanns was asked on ZDF whether the next few days would be strenuous in the media again. His answer, as short as necessary: ”Probably so.”