Bayern Munich’s crushing defeat in Frankfurt was bizarre, and it’s bad news for Manchester United

The last time Bayern Munich lost 5-1 away to Eintracht Frankfurt, just over four years ago, coach Niko Kovac was sent out the door the next day.

Kovac had long lost the respect of the dressing room by then. But things are not at this final stage for Thomas Tuchel after Saturday’s disaster. far from it.

Bayern’s first defeat of the season in the league was shocking because it was so bizarre, an unexpected collapse that punctuated a run of consistent results – with the notable exception of a 2-1 cup exit at third-tier Saarbrücken five weeks ago – and because a lethargic performance flies in the face of accepted wisdom. .

In a season where everyone complained about too many games, Bayern enjoyed a rare 10-day break before this season because their home match against Union Berlin fell due to a lot of snow in Bavaria a week ago.

Oddly enough, this pause may have worked against them. Midfielder Leon Goretzka said it was “unusual” not to play for a long time in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, but he was quick to add that yesterday’s loss was much more than that.

Tuchel also pointed to a “long list of shortcomings” that certainly did not end with the scheduling anomalies, even if they could have started with them. “When you have a whole week to prepare and you don’t get the message that we need to be aggressive and vigilant from the first moment here, you haven’t done your job well enough,” he said, taking some of the blame. Himself.

He also confirmed that some last-minute tactical instructions regarding a possible change of the back line by the home team were misplaced and poorly timed. As it turned out, Frankfurt played with four players in defence, as the visitors had expected all along. Tuchel believes that talking about formations before kick-off may have unnecessarily diverted the players’ focus to more important matters such as application. “We were not ready for this match,” he lamented.

Tuchel’s public remorse seemed genuine and not an excuse to blame his team, but nothing he did or did not do in the lead-up to the game could fully explain why Bayern played so poorly.

From the first minute, they had major problems playing out from the back and “exerting dominance and tempo in midfield,” as Tuchel said. They missed the easiest passes and looked so shaky in defense that Dino Topmüller’s aggressive Frankfurt side threatened to score on every counterattack.

And I kind of did.

Frankfurt got their five goals from an xG figure of 1.5 – less than Bayern’s 2.2. Not only was it a testament to their quality in Tuchel’s estimation, it also underscored the champions’ inability to defend half-chances properly.

For all the individual mistakes that plagued the game, such as Joshua Kimmich losing the ball, Dayot Upamecano’s terrible positioning, and full-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Alphonso Davies all over the place, Bayern always had the numbers at the back to fix those mistakes. . But their manager pointed out in bewilderment that they simply couldn’t do it.

The truth is that some problems did not occur suddenly.

Bayern’s inaccurate play was a feature of their season, as was the inability of the midfield partnership of Kimmich and Goretzka to provide consistent balance and protection in the middle of the team.

Tuchel’s summer demand for a pressure-resistant midfielder seems more prominent with each passing month.

But even taking those structural hurdles into account, Bayern were a long way from their usual levels yesterday, so it’s probably best to avoid sweeping conclusions. “It is important not to lose our heads,” warned veteran striker Thomas Muller, adding that he expected his teammates to use their frustration over the result as an “engine for anger” over the next few weeks.

So for Manchester United, who must beat Bayern at Old Trafford in Tuesday’s Champions League group final to advance to the last 16 of the competition, their heavy defeat in Frankfurt is largely bad news.

What had been a dead rubber from the Bavarians’ point of view, having already won the first set, suddenly turned into the kind of “we need to show a reaction” game that often gets them at their best.

(Top image: Neil Baines/Getty Images)