The Champions League hit between Salzburg and Bayern Munich was already sold out on Saturday morning. At that point nobody knew that Bayern had a lot to explain a few hours later with a 2:4 win at newly promoted Bochum. “The Bayern defense would currently have big problems even against Hartberg,” said former SV Ried coach Alfred Tatar in his analysis for the Sky TV channel.
One thing became clear again: Bayern currently lacks a real leader on the defensive. It starts with substitute goalkeeper Sven Ulreich, who had to stand in for the injured Manuel Neuer, and ends with the defense, which has to do without real leaders like David Alaba or Jerome Boateng used to be. In addition, the ex-Salzburger Dayot Upamecano, who came from Leipzig in the summer together with coach Julian Nagelsmann, is just a shadow of himself.
The Munich team didn’t even try to sugarcoat the defeat or see it as a one-time slip-up. “It happens too often. I don’t know that from us in the past, that we concede four or five goals several times,” said Joshua Kimmich, referring to Munich’s 0: 5 in the cup in Mönchengladbach in the autumn.
Trainer Julian Nagelsmann looked similar to Kimmich. He spoke of a “shitty game”. Bochum was defeated 7-0 in September. The lead in the championship over Dortmund (3-0 at Union Berlin) is still comfortable at six points. Nevertheless, Kimmich warned against continued negligence: “You can’t go into a game like that, no matter how much advantage we have.”
Desolate 31 minutes
It was a desolate 31 minutes in which Bayern conceded goals from Christopher Antwi-Adjei, Jürgen Locaida, Cristian Gamboa and Gerrit Holtmann. Bayern last conceded more than three goals in the first half in 1975 in Frankfurt (0:5 at the break).
Nagelsmann was confident about the Champions League: “I’m not worried.” During the break, Nagelsmann hadn’t raised his voice in the dressing room. “If you’re 4-1 down at half-time, the coach doesn’t have to yell. Then every player has to know for himself that what we did in the first 45 minutes was obviously rubbish.”
At Salzburg, the direction is right after the 2-1 win at Rapid. “You could see that our mentality is fine. That gives us the momentum we need for the game against Bayern,” said coach Matthias Jaissle after his team had turned a 0-1 draw into a win.
Source: Nachrichten
