FC Bayern and its coaching wear and tear – the Tuchel tragedy

The Tuchel tragedy
Two coaches in two years: How FC Bayern wore out its world-class coaches

Since the summer of 2021, FC Bayern has changed its coaches like the players have changed their underwear. Tuchel and Nagelsmann failed, among other things, because of the club’s complicated power structure – which the two coaches did not want to understand.

There’s no need to worry about Thomas Tuchel. The current FC Bayern coach will be unemployed from July 1, 2024. As an internationally highly recognized specialist, he will probably have no problems getting his next job straight away. Maybe he will take over FC Barcelona or Liverpool FC, both of which are looking for new coaches in the summer. Then it should too Julian Nagelsmann will be back on the market. His contract as project national coach with a special assignment at the European Championships ends after the tournament. It may well be that they are competing for vacant coaching positions at top European clubs.

Perhaps they will benefit from their experiences at FC Bayern when looking for new employment. Tuchel and Nagelsmann failed because of their own mistakes, but also because of the complicated power relationships in the club. FC Bayern has always been an entity in which players have a lot of power, but this applies less to coaches. If they don’t accept the true balance of power in the biotope on Säbener Straße, it will quickly end. Even Seven Cups coach Hansi Flick had to deal with player transfers after losing a power struggle with sports director Hasan Salihamidzic.

His successor Julian Nagelsmann, who was released from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2021 for a transfer fee of 20 million euros, had a problem due to his predecessor’s success: the demands on Nagelsmann were enormous. From the beginning, the question was: Is the young coach even mature enough for one of the most demanding coaching jobs in the world?

Nagelsmann: An oddball with no desire to adapt

Nagelsmann’s behavior contributed to the rapid growth in resistance and skepticism towards him. He rolled to training on his longboard, wore extravagant clothing and insulted referees as a “soft bunch”. At times he came across as a professional teenager who lacked the necessary seriousness. That didn’t go over so well. His sometimes flippant manner in interviews or at press conferences reinforced the impression that it wasn’t a good fit. In the fall of 2022, Nagelsmann publicly stated that he had “no desire” to attend the traditional Oktoberfest. There was a crisis at the time after three draws and a defeat against FC Augsburg, and Nagelsmann reacted irritably. His relationship with Bild reporter Lena Wurzenberger also caused irritation until she quit her job.

But that is only part of the truth. In the end, it was Nagelsmann’s and Tuchel’s downfall that they wanted to rebuild tactics and the team – and did not assert themselves against the power of the players. They made the mistake (like Hansi Flick) of not adapting to the FCB DNA smoothly enough.

Nagelsmann got into a fight with Manuel Neuer when he had his goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic fired. This happened precisely at the time when Neuer was in rehab for his serious injury following a skiing accident. Neuer later complained about this in a famous interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (“I had the feeling: my heart was being ripped out”). Another superstar, Robert Lewandowski, complained about the tactical direction and became increasingly dissatisfied.

A weak start to the second half of the season at the beginning of 2023 and the loss of the league lead after a defeat against Bayer Leverkusen gave the then bosses Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic an opportunity to fire the coach. Nagelsmann could have won all three titles at this point. It obviously played a big role that Thomas Tuchel was available. But the liberation attempt failed. Bayern were knocked out of the DFB Cup against SC Freiburg, and were eliminated in the Champions League against Manchester City. Tuchel only won the championship because Borussia Dortmund lost their nerve on the last day of the match. Last but not least, FC Bayern fired Kahn and Salihamidzic. From today’s perspective, the harsh dismissal was a mistake, even if things didn’t go perfectly with Nagelsmann.

Tuchel lost faith in his own team

Tuchel failed in a different way. He also made a mistake when, right before the new season, he publicly called for the “holding six”, a defensive midfielder according to his ideas. He underestimated the fact that he offended leading players like Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich. Or he didn’t care. In terms of power strategy, it was definitely unwise. Tuchel’s distance from the team (including other players like Thomas Müller) remained until the bitter end and deepened dramatically in the end. Anyone who watched Tuchel during the game against Bochum as he clasped his hands in front of his face in view of the team’s performance got an idea of ​​how little the coach still believed in the team.

And vice versa too. Kimmich seemed almost bursting with anger because of his substitution against Bochum. When we went into the dressing room after the final whistle, Kimmich’s concentrated frustration erupted in a heated exchange of words with assistant coach Zsolt Löw. It was more than obvious that there was something wrong between the team and the coach. Kimmich’s indiscipline, which those responsible later downplayed, was an expression of the power of the dressing room.

Tuchel is known as an idiosyncratic head, but the club also found it hard to get along with him. He didn’t get the players he wanted during the summer or winter break. The transfer task force with the greats Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß brought in superstar Harry Kane, but otherwise did a poor job. Tuchel suddenly found himself with a very small squad. This took its toll when players got injured and Tuchel had to improvise.

The team still showed high-class football at times (with Kane and Leroy Sané in top form), but also strange lapses. The 1:5 against Eintracht Frankfurt at the end of the first half of the season was such a game. The team completely fell apart and the fluctuating performances continued. In the top game against the outstanding league leaders Bayer Leverkusen, the players did not follow the coach’s daring formation experiment. FC Bayern lost 3-0 without a hitch. The following defeats against Lazio Rome and VfL Bochum sealed Tuchel’s retirement.

Tuchel owes the fact that he is allowed to stay until the end of the season to the fact that Bayern management did not want to repeat the mistake of dismissing Nagelsmann far too early. You want a clean cut. There is no guarantee that Tuchel will see the end of the season on Bayern’s bench. Perhaps those responsible at Bayern should remember the story of Louis van Gaal. He once dared to banish Bayern’s number one goalkeeper at the time, Jörg Butt, to the bench after the winter break. A sporting crisis arose and in the middle of the second half of the season they decided to part ways at the end of the season. The plan didn’t work. Four match days before the end of the season, van Gaal had to leave early. It’s quite possible that Tuchel will have a similar experience.