After 0:3 in Leverkusen
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Harry Kane (30), Joshua Kimmich (29) and Co. could only watch with a stare as the happy professionals from Bayer 04 Leverkusen celebrated. With the well-deserved 3:0 (Click here for the detailed match report) in the top Bundesliga game, the “Werkself” extended their lead over FC Bayern, who were harmless on Saturday, to five points. Bayer coach Xabi Alonso stood smiling with his players in front of the cheering fans after the 27th win in the 31st competitive game.
“We have a good team and we knew that we were good,” said Leverkusen sports director Simon Rolfes on “Sky”. “We all work hard for success. We don’t just have a unity on the pitch, but throughout the entire club.” Record national player Lothar Matthäus spoke of “a class difference” between the two teams.
Bayern, who have always been champions in the past eleven years, lost a top game between the first and second in the table for the first time in 21 games. Coach Thomas Tuchel disappeared into the dressing room after the final whistle, visibly upset. “We will now do the devil to throw in the towel. For us the distance changes, but the approach doesn’t. We have to keep going and get better,” said Tuchel later on the pay-TV channel.
According to Tuchel, he takes responsibility for the tactical plan: “I would do it like that again.” The coach was particularly annoyed by the first goal conceded. “Usually you can’t concede a 1-0 goal in a five-man chain. That doesn’t work. This is a clear failure of concentration. Everyone is just sleeping. It hurts, a very cheap goal,” said Tuchel, for whom the defeat was too great: “It didn’t feel like a 3-0.”
Thomas Müller is “somewhat missing his balls” at FC Bayern
After the harmless appearance, Thomas Müller clearly criticized the attitude of the FC Bayern players. “I miss – now we can quote our Oliver Kahn – some of the balls and this freedom. We have a mentality in our game, especially with the ball,” said the Munich international. In training, the team shows “significantly better approaches because we are brave because we play football there.”
The 34-year-old emphasized that this was not criticism of coach Tuchel. “We had enough players of international caliber on the pitch that you don’t need to go to the coach,” he said. “What I’m talking about are decisions primarily with the ball, that has something to do with game intelligence, with independence.” The victory for Bayer was “absolutely deserved,” said Müller. “We can keep the analysis short.” The Leverkusen team, “they just gamble, they play football, they look for solutions,” said the 2014 world champion. He also expects the same from his team. Instead, the Bayern team plays too statically, “from a to b, from b to c, nobody has the freedom to just start playing.”
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Tuchel said that Müller was “not wrong” with his criticism. The coach did not include Müller in the starting line-up; the offensive player was substituted on in the 60th minute. “We had a whole week to prepare for it. We wanted to defend very offensively and not let Leverkusen’s flow of the game come into play,” said Tuchel: “But we made incredibly bad decisions. He’s right about a lot of things.”
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