Bayern player: “It feels like a horror film that doesn’t stop”

Defending the title in the German Bundesliga is a long way off, and there is a threat of elimination in the Champions League and the first titleless season in twelve years. “It feels like a horror film that doesn’t stop,” said team player Leon Goretzka, summing up the series of defeats. Coach Thomas Tuchel is under a lot of pressure despite the support of the club’s top management.

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For the first time in three years, Bayern have lost three competitive games in a row. CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen nevertheless made a commitment to Tuchel immediately after the bankruptcy in Bochum. The question of a change of coach does not arise. “This is not a topic that we are currently dealing with,” explained the Munich boss. Tuchel will “of course” sit on the bench in the home game against RB Leipzig next Saturday.

Defending the title is currently “not realistic”

However, it is not expected that calm will return to Bayern. Tuchel knows that too. Dreesen’s confession was “of course nice,” said the coach. “I doubt whether this will help prevent discussions from taking place,” added Tuchel. “It feels like it’s been there the whole season. Even when we won games,” he said, almost defiantly. “For a few weeks now, I’ve reached the point where it no longer affects me. I’m concentrating on what I can influence. That’s the only recipe I know,” said Tuchel, who left the club in March Julian Nagelsmann replaced last year.

Twelve games before the end of the season, the gap to league leaders Bayer Leverkusen has grown to eight points, but Tuchel doesn’t want to give up the twelfth championship title in a row and is reminiscent of the heart-stopping finale last season, when Borussia Dortmund squandered the triumph they had already believed was certain in the last round . At the moment, defending the title is “not realistic,” Tuchel admitted: “But last season we believed in it until the end and were rewarded.” He puts the defeat in Bochum in the unfortunate category. “I don’t think the defeat was fair. I think a lot went against us. Whatever could go wrong, went wrong,” said Tuchel on DAZN.

Dispute between Kimmich and assistant coach

In any case, the frustration among the Munich team is great and is said to have erupted in a verbal argument in Bochum between Joshua Kimmich, who was replaced after just over an hour, and assistant coach Zsolt Löw. Veteran Thomas Müller wrote on Instagram about a “week to forget”. “It’s difficult to find the right words for our feelings,” Müller said. Goretzka was self-critical. “At the end of the day, it’s individual mistakes that we make – and there are too many of them. At the moment, I think we have to question everything,” emphasized the DFB international.

Symptomatic of this is defender Dayot Upamecano, who has had a particularly terrible week: two games, two sendings off, twice causing the decisive penalty. “Unfortunately, those were two very consequential fouls that he committed. That’s twice too impetuous, twice too aggressive. Unfortunately, because he’s ruining his own performances with it,” said Tuchel.

In the 0-1 draw at Lazio on Wednesday, the Frenchman caused the penalty for the only goal and was shown a red card for his action. In Bochum, the former Salzburg player took the penalty to make it 1-3, which Austrian Kevin Stöger converted, and saw yellow-red. The coach said the 42 million man was actually only “scheduled for a maximum of half an hour” because of his knee problems. Because Noussair Mazraoui was injured, he had to come on as a substitute in the 34th minute.