At least no-one could blame the system this time. Compared with Saturday’s incomprehensible missive, the team sheet Thomas Tuchel put up in the Stadio Olimpico read like a Valentine’s Day love letter to his squad and the club. Thomas Muller and Joshua Kimmich, two of the side’s big leaders the coach had recently spurned, were restored. So was the classic Bayern Munich formation, the 4-2-3-1 in which the team have always looked happiest since Louis van Gaal introduced the principles of positional football at Allianz Arena 15 years ago.
Tuchel went back to Bavarian basics in Rome, ditching not just the experimental wingback system from the shocking 3-0 defeat at Bayer 04 Leverkusen but also the reactive approach out of possession that’s been a trademark of his spell with the German record title holders. Against a Lazio side happy to sit deep, a more adventurous approach was mandated. Full-backs pushed up aggressively to create numerical superiority on the flanks — largely a no-no in Tuchel’s risk-averse set-up this season — and within a few seconds of kick-off, four Bayern players were hunting down a Lazio midfielder on the ball, deep in the home team’s half.
Playing to the gallery with his line-up obviously wouldn’t have been at the forefront of Tuchel’s mind before a Champions League tie with huge repercussions for the rest of the season and his future beyond that. But there was inherently a political element to his u-turn. By giving everyone what they wanted in Munich, Tuchel heaped more responsibility on the players to turn up and perform. They had fewer excuses.
Tuchel has much to ponder ahead of the second leg (Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A timely reminder that not all of the 50-year-old’s doubts about the sacred cows in the Bayern team are completely unfounded came halfway through the semi-decent first half, when Kimmich and Leon Goretzka were caught out of position to allow Luis Alberto to shoot from distance. The duo’s defensive balance — or lack thereof, in Tuchel’s view — was hardly tested any further before the break, however, as Bayern dominated the ball without creating too many openings themselves. Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala came closest after two neat moves but both leaned back to blast their shots over. A free-kick from Leroy Sane flew inches wide.
Bayern looked livelier than in Leverkusen but still far short of their best. Too many passes went astray, too many attacking players were woefully out of form. Kane, so devastating until recently, had another game to forget. Muller and Sane, too, were ineffective and Musiala unlucky throughout. Still, 0-0 at Lazio was an OK(ish) scoreline, considering how badly Bayern had been beaten at the BayArena.
“For an away game in the Champions League, it was a passable performance,” Muller said later. But then came the second half, a self-inflicted goal — courtesy of a rash Dayot Upamecano tackle in the penalty box and Ciro Immobile’s penalty — and Bayern’s little remaining energy drained away like sand in an hour glass. “Our weaknesses came to the fore after the break,” the 34-year-old said. “You could see that we’re low on confidence.”
Kane was ineffective (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
Muller, the only Bayern player other than captain Manuel Neuer to stop in the mixed zone — where journalists are able to speak to players after the match — implored his team-mates to not just “rediscover their assuredness through small things in training” but to “trust in their own ability”. Somehow, that trust has been lost. Muller was not in the mood to debate whether Tuchel was to blame — “I find that question disrespectful, you won’t get us to have a go at each other,” he said — but it was telling that the question was asked in the first place. Tuchel at times looked like a man who had given up on his team on the touchline on Wednesday, and when he was invited to explain why he was still the right man for the job, he refused to testify on his own behalf.
Judging by the manager’s body language throughout the evening it was easy to understand why Muller felt that the players’ needed to find the positive energy that’s been sorely missing in themselves.
Muller has been around the block enough times to know that things can change before the return leg in three weeks. “We will fight for the ticket for the next round and work on getting the ball into the net again,” he vowed. The first back-to-back defeats in four years and 180 minutes without a single shot on target will keep bosses awake at night over the next few days, however, wondering if this is still a blip or the beginning of the end.
Tuchel, who has lost ten games in 43, as many as predecessor Julian Nagelsmann in 84, will find scant consolation in the fact his fears over the performance levels of some supposed leaders have been vindicated. The problem, unfortunately, is no longer limited to a couple of players. While the disappointing trip to Rome proved Bayern’s problems aren’t systemic in a literal sense, the collective insecurity that has befallen this side cries out for radical change.
(Photo: Claudio Pasquazi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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