Bayern Munich have significant defensive problems before the start of the knockout phase in the Champions League. The record champion is challenged in Salzburg, Oliver Kahn criticizes.
Luckily, Joshua Kimmich emphasized, this was just a Bundesliga game. But on Wednesday, Bayern Munich will start in the knockout phase of the Champions League – and the 4-2 humiliation of the record champions at VfL Bochum will have a massive impact before the round of 16 first leg at RB Salzburg. There is a (defensive) alarm.
“The players know that a first half like in Bochum is not acceptable,” said CEO Oliver Kahn on Monday. In the backward movement and in the work against the ball you “miss something”.
That’s why the Bayern boss unequivocally demanded from the stars “that we have to work with more discipline and passion against the ball again”. According to Kahn, he assumes that the team on Wednesday (9:00 p.m. / DAZN) in Salzburg “will show the right reaction to make such a result forgotten”.
It was not a one-time failure of FC Bayern under coach Julian Nagelsmann. “If that happens once a season, that’s okay. But it’s happened to us more often now. We have to be careful,” national player Kimmich warned on “Sky” before the start of the hot phase of the season.
Before the duel, Kimmich openly asked the Austrian series champion the question of mentality. But it wasn’t just Kahn who was criticized once again for Bayern’s shaky defense. After the departures of David Alaba and Jérôme Boateng before the season, the Munich team lacks a real defensive boss.
Upamecano “like a foreign body”
Niklas Süle is just as little the urgently needed leader as Dayot Upamecano, who was signed by Leipzig for 42.5 million euros. The Frenchman is currently the biggest problem. “How much longer should he have?” asked record national player Lothar Matthäus at an Interwetten meeting on Monday: “He seems like a foreign body.”
The fact that Nagelsmann only had a six in Kimmich in Bochum was not exactly conducive to the necessary stability. Since Leon Goretzka was injured, the Bayern coach prefers to play with four attacking players in midfield: Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller, Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman.
He didn’t want to “sacrifice anyone offensively,” Nagelsmann said just last week. And now? “Especially internationally,” said former European champion Thomas Helmer, “that can be very dangerous.”
However, the topic of defense is not new. Nagelsmann often had to answer critical questions – and not just after the 0:5 cup smack in Gladbach. And often enough he gave the same answer.
RB Salzburg senses the sensation against FC Bayern
According to the Bayern coach, the fact that FC Bayern allow too many chances to score is not just down to the defence. Overall, it is about the willingness and “the greed to want to fight duels. That is the task of the entire team”. But he also knows “that defensive is not that much fun”.
But it should, in order not to experience any further unpleasant surprises, especially in the premier class. In seven and a half months under Nagelsmann there have already been five competitive defeats. And outsiders Salzburg sense the sensation against the big Bavarians.
Under the point of opponent analysis, the Austrians stated the following on their club website: “The offensive game of the Germans also involves a certain risk. Goals are therefore also possible against the six-time UCL winner, especially with as much speed as we have. “
For Salzburg, however, “it couldn’t have gone worse,” said Matthäus on “Sky”: “After such an embarrassing defeat, FC Bayern will show a completely different face. FC Bayern hasn’t embarrassed itself twice in a row.”