Fateful week for Julian Nagelsmann: FC Bayern threatens to slip away from the season

After his defeat against the “village club” FC Villarreal, Thomas Müller seemed seriously upset when he appeared in front of the camera of the transmitting broadcaster DAZN. There was someone who, like the entire team, had delivered a weak game. Accordingly, Müller was substituted after 62 minutes. “We’ll take the 1-0 down now. If things went badly, it could have been worse. We have to collect ourselves for the second leg and fight back. We wanted to today, but somehow we couldn’t. I don’t know if today lacked the necessary liveliness.”

Müller hadn’t forgotten how to talk during the desolate 90 minutes in Spain. But Müller’s eloquence did not hide the fact that Bayern lacked any precision or creativity in the all-important quarter-final first leg against the Spaniards. While things are going according to plan in the Bundesliga and Julian Nagelsmann’s team is aiming for their tenth championship in a row, the Champions League is threatened with extinction. If Munich does not make a comeback in the second leg next Tuesday, the new coach would be responsible for the weakest season in years. In the second round of the DFB-Pokal, Bayern lost 5-0 to Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Nagelsmann announces “different face” for second leg

As a precaution, Nagelsmann announced that the team would “show a different face” in the second leg. He couldn’t explain why his pros showed such a bad game against the seventh-placed team in the Spanish league. Nagelsmann spoke of the fact that they had no “no power”. But it wasn’t just about a lack of “power” that evening: FC Bayern made mistakes on the assembly line, played unfocused and unimaginative. The tactically very variable and strong Villarreal was simply the better team that evening and should have won much better. The lack of conversion was the only weakness of coach Unai Emery’s side.

Bayern, on the other hand, blundered through the evening. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer undercut crosses and played a bad pass during an advance, which only with a lot of luck did not lead to the 2-0, because attacker Gerad Moreno missed the empty goal from his own half. Thomas Müller and Serge Gnabry had no effect. Robert Lewandowski failed completely, but was also left hanging. Jamal Musiala was weak on the backward movement. Substitute Leroy Sané was hardly to be seen or played bad passes (like many of his teammates). Returnee Alphonso Davies prevented another goal in a scene with a tackle, but showed on the offensive that he lacks match practice after four months out through injury.

First real test for the coach

On the defensive, Bayern already had problems under Hansi Flick, which was and is partly due to the offensive orientation. But when there are no goals against cleverly defending teams up front, there is a problem. That was seen against Villarreal.

For Julian Nagelsmann, these days mean the first tough test of his time as Bayern coach. It is made even more difficult by the anger about the substitution error in the game against SC Freiburg. Nobody can seriously predict how the DFB sports court will decide the case, but regardless of that, the faux pas apparently put a strain on the Bavarian nerves.

Of course, nothing is decided. In the round of 16, a happy 1-1 draw at Red Bull Salzburg in the second leg was followed by a 7-1 goal celebration in Munich. The only difference is that Villarreal are a much more experienced side who made a very strong impression. “It’s a typical Spanish team that can gamble,” said Nagelsmann. Now he has to gamble even better to save the season.

Sources: DPA, “”, “”.