Bayern Munich right to get rid of Thomas Tuchel but stay of execution will only prolong the suffering in never-ending ‘horror film’

The coach can have no complaints about his imminent exit but the Bavarians’ problems began before his arrival last year

After Bayern Munich lost a third consecutive game for the first time in nine years, midfielder Leon Goretzka confessed that he felt as if they were trapped in a neverending “horror film”. Well, it’s now claimed its first victim, with the club revealing on Wednesday morning that coach Thomas Tuchel will leave the Allianz Arena at the end of the season.

The decision to part company with the coach comes as absolutely no surprise, of course. Tuchel’s tenure was hanging by a thread even before last weekend’s shock loss at Bochum. However, the decision to drag this out until the end of the season is puzzling. Clearly, finding a suitable replacement at this stage of the season proved impossible.

But one cannot help but question the wisdom of continuing with a manager mystified by the nature of Bayern’s struggles – and at odds with some senior players. There is a very real fear, then, that Bayern’s bosses have done nothing but prolong the agony for Tuchel, Goretzka and everyone else involved.

Poor passing and individual errors

Tuchel had argued that the 3-2 loss at Bochum needed to be contextualised. Bayern had “an xG value of 3.4”, he pointed out, “and four, five, six top-class chances. We completely dominated the game and actually went behind out of nowhere. We never stopped putting in the effort until the end and then played with a man down for a long time. A lot went against us. I feel this defeat is different from the last two.”

And he’s right: Bayern are beating themselves in a variety of ways right now. They were absolutely atrocious from start to finish in their 3-0 loss at Bayer Leverkusen 10 days ago, but actually started well in the midweek Champions League game against Lazio, only to bizarrely lose all belief against a side struggling in Serie A – even before Dayot Upamecano’s first red card of the week.

On Sunday, meanwhile, they would have won had they been more clinical in front of goal and less sloppy at the back. But what kind of consolation is that? Being good offensively and defensively is kind of a prerequisite for a side that has aspirations of success.

And do the differing natures of the defeats really make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things? All it really says is that this is a team coming up with different ways to lose.

The terrifying thing for the fans is that Tuchel looked lost, devoid of any explanations for the poor passing, “individual errors” and “horrible mistakes” now plaguing Bayern’s performances, because if he can’t figure out why his players are struggling to get the ball to Harry Kane and are so prone to lapses in concentration, what hope does he have of eradicating them before the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie on which the team’s entire season now rests?

‘Convinced’ of Champions League turnaround

Because of the Bochum debacle, Bayern are now eight points behind an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen with 12 rounds remaining, meaning it is now more probable than possible that the Bavarians will fail to win the Bundesliga for the first time since 2012. Indeed, when asked by DAZN if he still believes that Bayern can finish first, Goretzka confessed, “Not right now. I’m being honest about that.”

One wonders if the players are just as pessimistic about their chances of overturning their 1-0 deficit against Lazio. They shouldn’t be, of course. On paper, they are the far superior side.

On the pitch, though, they actually appear more insecure, worryingly prone to crises of confidence, and are now acutely aware that their campaign will be effectively over if they fail to beat the Biancocelesti on March 5.

Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen claimed that he and his fellow directors are “convinced that after the 0-1 defeat in the first leg in Rome, we will advance to the quarter-finals in the second leg before a packed Allianz Arena with our fans fully behind us.”

The Kimmich clash

The idea that Tuchel’s imminent exit will somehow galvanise the squad in the same way Jurgen Klopp’s troops have rallied around their departing general is ludicrous, though, given it’s clear that some senior players have already lost faith in their manager, chief among them Joshua Kimmich.

The Germany international has felt undermined by Tuchel since the start of the season, when the coach publicly questioned Kimmich’s credentials as a No.6 and was fully supportive of the botched attempt to sign Joao Palhinha from Fulham.

Kimmich was arguably Bayern’s most important player under previous boss Nagelsmann, but has long been tipped to leave the Allianz Arena this summer because of his dissatisfaction with the coaching staff, which culminated in a heated row with Tuchel’s assistant, Zsolt Low, after the Bochum defeat.

Wednesday’s news may obviously change things but one wonders how much faith he has in a club in an apparent constant state of chaos over the past 18 months.

Already more defeats than Nagelsmann

Kimmich will certainly feel that Bayern erred badly in replacing Nagelsmann with Tuchel.

Bayern may have won the title last May, but only because of a shocking final-day collapse by Borussia Dortmund, and Tuchel has already suffered more defeats (11) than his predecessor despite being in charge for 40 fewer games.

When one considers that the performances have often been just as poor as the results, which have left the Bavarians staring at the grim prospect of a first trophy-less season in 12 years, the case for keeping Tuchel at the helm for another four months is as weak as Bayern’s resolve right now.

The problem, though, was finding someone to take over at this stage of the season. Zinedine Zidane was touted as a possible replacement, along with former coach Hansi Flick, but there were doubts over both.

Zidane certainly specialises in commanding the respect of dressing rooms full of egos, but the French legend has been out of the game for nearly three years now, and while Flick could have been a decent stop-gap solution, he’s coming off an historically bad spell in charge of a Germany squad full of Bayern players.

Even just looking towards the long-term future, Xabi Alonso, the man making Bayern and Tuchel looked bad, is considered the dream appointment, but is believed to favour a return to Anfield rather than the Allianz Arena if he leaves Leverkusen this summer.

Problems pre-date Tuchel

However, amid all of the debate over Bayern’s struggles under Tuchel, it really has to be pointed out that the dreaded return of ‘FC Hollywood’ pre-dates the Champions League winner. Leroy Sane and Sadio Mane may have come to blows on his watch, but there were problems behind the scenes before he took over last March.

Nagelsmann had fallen out with Manuel Neuer, among others, was waging war on officials and conducting a mole hunt because of alleged dressing-room leaks to the press. There was also a feeling among certain members of the squad that the coach was too willing to accept all of the credit for the team’s success and too keen to throw certain players under the bus when things were going badly.

It’s telling, though, that there are reports that some key figures at the club now feel that some star men need to take more responsibility for the relatively disappointing results over the past year or so, and one could certainly argue that Nagelsmann was prematurely dismissed.

For all of the dressing-room drama, Bayern were only one point behind Dortmund when he was sacked and had won all eight of their Champions League games, which included beating Paris Saint-Germain home and away in the last 16. At the very least, his exit was horribly handled, with Nagelsmann relieved of his duties while on a skiing holiday during the international break.

Self-inflicted wounds

Consequently, while Bayern did end up winning the league, it just didn’t paper over the cracks that had appeared at the Allianz Arena – and both CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic were relieved of their roles at the end of the season with the same level of ruthlessness with which they had dealt with Nagelsmann. In Kahn’s case, he didn’t even get to celebrate the club’s title success with the rest of his colleagues.

The hope was that the change in leadership would result in the kind of stability and sensibility that underpinned the treble triumph of 2020, but this is quite clearly a club in crisis once again, and what’s infuriating for the fans is that nearly every wound is self-inflicted, from the board’s bizarrely timed sacking of Nagelsmann and bungling of the Palhinha deal, to Tuchel’s ill-advised treatment of Kimmich and continued selection of Upamecano while he has Matthijs de Ligt sitting on the bench.

Indeed, in this particular horror film, the most disturbing aspect of the storyline is that protagonists are wholly responsible for the perilous position they presently find themselves in.