The manager of the most pragmatic of clubs sounded distinctly unpragmatic. He knew it, too. By his own admission, Thomas Tuchel’s words were scarcely those of a Bayern Munich manager. But then three weeks ago, he wasn’t Bayern Munich manager. His side – or Julian Nagelsmann’s team, under a new manager – had just suffered their heaviest defeat of the season and Tuchel was taking the positives.
“I have seen so many good things that I refuse to focus on the result,” he said. “I know this may sound silly and you may say that is not Bayern but everyone must accept that I was very proud on the sideline. We were courageous, we showed the right character. This does not feel a 3-0 but it is a 3-0.” He had been far less forgiving of his previous 3-0 defeat, an increasingly irascible figure showing his tongue had barbed wire after his Chelsea team were embarrassed at Leeds.
Eight months on, he was not in the mood to scar Dayot Upamecano, the culprit for Manchester City’s crucial second goal, when he was dispossessed by Jack Grealish. “Upamecano is still young,” he said. “It is just what it is, everyone who has played football will make mistakes. Nobody takes his head off and is mad at him but this is a mistake that should not happen.”
Mistakes did not happen when Tuchel made his reputation on this stage. He has been a mid-season appointment before. Parachuted into Chelsea two seasons ago, his new side only conceded two goals in seven Champions League games. Thrust into the Bayern job at a still later point in the campaign, his new team let in three in 90 minutes at the Etihad Stadium. History will not repeat itself; not the same way, anyway, because Tuchel’s Chelsea mounted a monumental comeback in the quarter-finals last year. It was in vain, but they went 3-0 up against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu. Now he needs something similar simply to take City to extra time next week.
The idea of Tuchel as the magician of the knockout stages proved seductive for Bayern. He was an opportunistic appointment, dramatically summoned in the search for a personal sequel. Instead, Bayern’s Champions League campaign could be consigned to the past. They had been arguably the competition’s best team until now. They had won eight out of eight in Europe under Nagelsmann, beating Inter Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain home and away, all with clean sheets. The Tuchel-esque defensive statistics were compiled by Nagelsmann, the wunderkind cast aside to make way for him.
Perhaps it was easier to replace Frank Lampard. Four games in, Tuchel has lost two. It scarcely looks his side yet: but perhaps he is the reason why he was expected to have an immediate impact. He devised a Champions League-winning formation before he had taken a training session with Chelsea, before his plane had even landed in England.
He has inherited more attacking talent at Bayern. Yet it feels incongruous he has benched Sadio Mane and missed Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. The runner-up in the Ballon d’Or has not scored since October; the man who has replaced Robert Lewandowski as Bayern’s top scorer is the injured journeyman. Tuchel could have done with a striker on a night when they had precious little threat in one box: he could have done with a centre-back of the defiance of Ruben Dias – or Antonio Rudiger in his Chelsea side – when Upamecano was erring.
Tuchel had begun with a plan and then conjured another. Bayern played reasonably well at 0-0. Tuchel rued the rarity of Rodri scoring from 25 yards with his left foot. “Not even a half-chance,” said Tuchel. “The No 6, from 20 metres, with his weak foot: I am happy if that is the chance we give away in Manchester.” It was the sort of thing that never happened on Chelsea’s frugal march to glory. Bayern began the second half brighter with Leroy Sane’s pace threatening to yield a leveller. “Leroy was outstanding,” said Pep Guardiola. He sang the praises of Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman, the rest of Tuchel’s front four of wingers. “We had a lot of shots,” Tuchel said. “We did not have the precision that it finds the top corner.” He did not have a striker either. Nor, indeed, did he have the injured Manuel Neuer.
And the scoreline suggested Bayern were less than the sum of their considerable parts. Two years ago, the scoreline was everything for Tuchel. Now the hard-headed realist, the king of clean sheets, presented himself as a lover, a dreamer and an adventurer. “We are not going to give up ahead of the second leg, we are much too excited,” he said. “Of course, the result is bitter for us. I fell in love with my team a little today, the way they performed. Even if sounds strange, that was a lot of fun.” He didn’t sound like a Bayern manager. He didn’t really sound like Thomas Tuchel either.
