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Gabriele Marcotti, Senior Author, ESPN FC
Lame geese nonetheless quack. Do additionally they information their flock to Champions League titles?
Make no mistake about it, Thomas Tuchel stays a lame duck at Bayern Munich. It may possibly’t be in any other case if you’re instructed, with three months to go, that regardless of being underneath contract, your companies will not be required subsequent season.
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When the information broke final month, I made the purpose that this was a silly choice by the membership. Not as a result of he is accomplished an excellent job — he hasn’t, as I see it, and evidently, as Bayern see it the identical means — however as a result of in these conditions, you both lance the boil and usher in an interim boss otherwise you fireplace him on the finish of the marketing campaign. Leaving him there in these circumstances means leaving Bayern with a humiliated, undermined Tuchel, which is a worse model than the Tuchel they’d earlier than.
And but, after the 3-1 mixture win over Lazio, they’re by means of to the Elite Eight of the Champions League, elevating the query: can Tuchel truly win it and ship the final word kiss-my-bony-backside farewell as he rides off into the sundown?
To be clear, I am not getting carried away as a result of they beat Lazio, who’re a measly ninth in Serie A and have gained simply three of their previous 9 video games — one in every of them was the primary leg in opposition to Bayern. Bayern’s wage invoice is 3½ instances increased than Lazio’s. When Bayern wanted a striker in the summertime, they signed Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur for €100 million ($108.6m) … Lazio picked up Taty Castellanos from New York Metropolis (through a mortgage spell at Girona) for €15m. These are golf equipment that stay in several neighbourhoods.
Nor do I believe that Bayern are the perfect crew left within the Champions League — that will be Manchester Metropolis, far and away — and even the second-, third- or fourth-best, however this solely issues a lot. Why? As a result of it is a knockout competitors, which suggests there are foibles and quirks, incidents and bumps within the highway, favorable attracts and much more beneficial referring errors, goalkeepers standing on their head and journeymen turning into Ballons d’Or.
Assume again to this time final yr. Who would have had Inter coming inside some Romelu Lukaku misses and Éderson saves of profitable all of it in Istanbul? No person.
Stuff occurs — heck, even on this two-legged tie in opposition to Lazio, issues might have taken a really totally different flip. Think about Gustav Isaksen buries his likelihood within the first leg and Ciro Motionless converts his header on Tuesday evening, and all of a sudden, Bayern are 0-3 down on mixture, Tuchel is in sensory overload, and the group begins to murmur.
The fundamental (if unimaginative) method of shutting up store and letting your particular person superstars conjure up objectives can work in knockout competitions. Bayern have each gifted people and a supervisor in Tuchel who, for all his faults (actual and imagined), already gained a Champions League enjoying that means with Chelsea in 2020-21. They’ve the perfect center-forward not named Erling within the competitors (Kane). They’ve gamers who, on an excellent day, can dribble previous a complete again 4 and the keeper (Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané … Kingsley Coman too, on an excellent day). They’ve eight guys of their squad who’ve gained it earlier than together with Manuel Neuer, who can nonetheless be a shutdown keeper on his day, Joshua Kimmich, who remains to be the Golden Boy and Thomas Muller, who remains to be the final word Bavarian folks hero.
And, after all, the silver lining of getting screwed up the Bundesliga — they’re 10 factors behind Bayer Leverkusen with 10 video games to go, which suggests there’s an excellent likelihood they are going to not be topped Germán champions for the twelfth consecutive yr — is that Tuchel can shift all the main focus onto the Champions League. Which means resting gamers domestically, testing out new ideas and treating each league recreation as a coaching session for the subsequent spherical.
Does it matter that relations between Tuchel quite a few senior gamers are reportedly — to place it mildly — strained? Does it damage them that each time Tuchel exhibits up on the Bayern HQ on the Sabener Strasse, he is aware of that hiding behind the blinds are the blokes who don’t need him there? Is it a priority that each time he talks in coaching, somebody might flip round and say “Yeah, however you are the man who managed so as to add Kane to the squad and make issues worse!”
Sure to all of these items, however the flip facet is that no one has something to lose. The massive reset button is being pushed this summer season. There isn’t any long run, solely the right here and now. 5 video games to make historical past.
We have all seen these dangerous motion pictures the place the coach says “Males, you do not like me and I do not notably take care of you, however we’re both going to face collectively, as a crew, or we are going to crumble, as people.” That is the factor about sports activities. There’s all the time a standard objective: profitable. It advantages everybody, regardless of how a lot or how little they like one another.
Does Tuchel dare to dream? How candy would it not be — and the way silly would the boys who fired him look — if he walks away along with his second Champions League title in 4 years?
What if the lame duck has one final magical flight left in him?