Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel has insisted he can fix the issues at Bayern Munich despite seeing his team lose their third consecutive competitive game for the first time since May 2015 on Sunday.
Bayern were beaten 3-2 at VfL Bochum to increase the pressure on the German manager, who was already under fire after last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern are now eight points behind unbeaten Leverkusen after 22 games of the Bundesliga campaign.
“If you ask me, if I firmly still believe me and coaching staff can turn things around — yes,” Tuchel said after the defeat to Bochum.
“Growing pressure? That happens after every defeat. But today we never stopped, never stopped trying.”
Tuchel can take comfort from the comments made by Bayern’s CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen after the game when asked whether the 2021 Champions League winner would remain in charge for the team’s next game against RB Leipzig.
“Of course,” Dreesen said. “I am not a fan of monstrous coach-backing statements — they usually run out after a week.
“But this [Tuchel’s future] is not an issue we are dealing with at the moment. We have to focus on our next matches.”
Bayern midfielder Leon Goretzka compared Bayern’s run of losses — to Leverkusen, Lazio in the Champions League and now Bochum — to a scary film.
“It feels like a horror movie that is not ending. Everything is going against us at the moment,” he said.
“We can again sit here and say we started well. But now you feel stupid to limit yourself to half an hour. In the end we tried everything, so you can’t blame us.”
Bayern’s defeat to Bochum was temporarily halted by fan protests against a proposed deal to sell a future stake in the league to a private equity investor.
“That interruption threw us off our rhythm. Today it was a win of mentality over quality,” Dreesen said.
“If we play this game five more times, we win it five times,” Tuchel added. “I don’t blame the players today.”