Emmanuel Thomas, with DPA, Monday, April 24, 2023
MAINZ – Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel is partly to blame for the club’s sudden crisis, the Bavarians’ former midfielder Dietmar Hamann has said.
Chief executive Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic have come under the microscope for sacking Julian Nagelsmann last month, when the club were still in the running for a treble.
But since Tuchel replaced him, Bayern have gone out of the Champions League and German Cup and now sit a point behind Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga title race with five games left.
“The board members may be confused, but the coach has also made a very confused impression in his four weeks so far,” Hamann told Sky. “If he also squanders the championship, it’s clear he will be pilloried.” Bayern have won 10 German titles in a row but the decision not to directly replace goal machine Robert Lewandowski at the start of the season has backfired. So too it seems has the coaching change.
“I have rarely seen a change of coach where things get worse in the short term. That’s exactly what happened with Bayern,” said Hamann.
In Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Mainz, the team played “as if they had taken leave of their senses” and in the German Cup quarter-final exit against Freiburg, the team’s performance resembled a “chicken coop” according to former Germany international Hamann.
“You don’t have any competition left except the Bundesliga. You have two players who are in form: Coman and Sané. And they don’t play (in Mainz).”
But former Bayern player Thorsten Fink believes the problems go deeper than the coach.
“There must be something wrong and it must be within the team,” the 55-year-old said. “I am convinced that Thomas Tuchel is pulling the right levers.”
He also thinks Dortmund, who last won the title in 2012 under Jürgen Klopp, could stutter in the coming weeks as the pressure tells on Edin Terzic’s side.
“I’m sure Bayern will win all five games. Dortmund have something to lose now.”
