Apologies to bench players
Once again Thomas Müller was not allowed to play. This time not even for the entire game. The 34-year-old watched from outside for a total of 93 minutes as his FC Bayern won 1-0 at 1. FC Köln on Friday evening. While warming up, he kept looking towards coach Thomas Tuchel on the sidelines. But he didn’t react. Not at all. For the first time this season, a Bundesliga coach decided not to make a change entirely. This hadn’t happened for the Munich team for what felt like an eternity. Almost exactly 13 years ago. In December 2010, Louis van Gaal was the last Bayern coach who did not make substitutions in the league.
“It was clearly not a punishment or a lesson,” said Tuchel after the success, which from Bayern’s point of view was more confident than the result indicated. He even apologized to his substitutes. “This doesn’t normally happen. They should all maintain the spirit they showed today and not hold it against me.”
The explanation Tuchel presented was entirely plausible. “I didn’t want to disrupt the rhythm,” said the 50-year-old. “The control of the game was so high and the result was so close.” His team dominated FC at will, but failed to score more than Harry Kane’s incredible 18th goal of the season (20th minute) in the twelfth game before the break. So the result remained close. However, the team on the pitch determined the ball and the opponents. Tuchel saw no reason to endanger this sovereignty: “I just didn’t feel it today.”
It was still strange. Because for the Bayern squad, which is not exactly large in terms of quantity, there are almost only English weeks left until Christmas. The Champions League continues on Wednesday. “We have to compete with good strength because Copenhagen has a good team,” noted goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. He certainly understood Tuchel’s explanations.
Nevertheless: The Bayern coach himself had only criticized the (too) high burden on the industry’s top stars before the game. And followed up again after the game. In 2024 in particular, Tuchel expects a “mental strain that is at the limit” and referred to the home European Championship in the summer and the reform of the Champions League, which will ensure “two to four” additional games. “That can be very exhausting,” he said and combined this with a clear demand to the Bayern bosses: “We have to react to that in the composition of the squad.”
Thomas Tuchel: Stress for FC Bayern professionals “extremely difficult”
Even before the game, Tuchel had criticized the scheduling of the classic in Cologne on a Friday after a week of international matches. Some of his many national players only arrived back in Munich on Thursday. “The conditions were extremely difficult. We were exhausted after the international break and then the Friday game,” said national player Leon Goretzka.
For players like Min-jae Kim, the strain of travel was particularly stressful. “Now I don’t know what the time difference is with Korea. To play for 90 minutes here in Cologne in the evening is a great achievement,” said Neuer. “It is now important for some people to have some time off.” But there was no relief from the coach for the starting eleven on Friday.
Most appearances in 2022: Modric still in the top 5, Mané cracks 60
To home page