“When you wear the jersey, you behave like champions, there’s no other way.”
It sounded like another exasperated, ‘This is Manchester United!’-themed lament, hurled off the punditry couch by one of the club’s former greats as part of the post-script to another limp effort against a side of inferior resource, but bolder application. Like, say, Bournemouth.
Bad news, then, that it came from the mouth of Thomas Tuchel, talking about his own Bayern Munich team and his expectations ahead of Tuesday night’s Champions League clash.
Having seen his side hammered 5-1 by Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, and lose their 100 per cent group-stage record by drawing with Copenhagen prior to that, the former Chelsea boss on Monday night set about deconstructing the hopeful Mancunian theory that Harry Kane and Co might arrive at Old Trafford this evening with the group won and a cigar lit.
“I understand that some people thought that against Copenhagen it looked like we weren’t throwing everything into it,” said Tuchel, Bayern having wrapped up qualification with four wins in their first four matches. “But when you sign for Bayern or United, you sign to give 100 per cent every day. We have high expectations, even if we’re always under pressure. We expect a top performance from us.”
To have a sniff of advancing, United will surely need their best of the season, and even then a helping hand from elsewhere. Ten Hag’s men currently sit bottom of Group A and to reach the last-16 must both beat Bayern and hope the night’s other match, between Galatasaray and Copenhagen, ends in a draw. Anything less than a victory will leave even the consolation of third place and a Europa League knockout berth to fate.
Paradoxically, it is only Bayern’s dominance that has kept United alive to this point, the group woefully top-heavy and, heading into the final matchday, still posing every chance that the eventual runners-up could advance having won only a single match.
When the draw was made, United looked firm favourites to qualify on Bayern’s tails, but their campaign has been of the exploding clown car variety; the season punctuated with nights of such hapless lows that even the more encouraging runs of domestic form never felt truly representative of a permanent upturn. Should it be put out of its misery on Tuesday evening, pressure will surely intensify on Ten Hag, though with the club’s leadership in a state of flux until Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s partial takeover is complete, what exactly that looks like remains to be seen.
“What I know is I never think of a negative scenario, we think positive, we know what to do, we have to win to stay in Europe, it’s about that,” Ten Hag said on Monday. “We will prepare with that feeling, with that belief we have shown in the last weeks. When we are at our best we can do it.”
The Dutchman cited recent victories and performances against Chelsea, Everton and Galatasaray as those to inspire his belief, for all that is not exactly a hit-list to match the calibre of tonight’s opponents, who have not lost at this stage of the competition in more than six years.
“I know we can perform at really high levels, and it’s not that we did it three months ago,” he added. “No, we did it last week, so I know we can do it.”
Victor Lindelof is an injury doubt, while Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford both missed training on Monday through illness. Bayern will be without Serge Gnabry with a groin injury.
