After a kick up the backside for Julian Nagelsmann came one for Leroy Sane. The wunderkind of German management was sacked by Bayern Munich, the first significant setback in his precocious coaching career, in part because of the availability of Thomas Tuchel. Bayern had spent £21.7m to get Nagelsmann; it only took a few days of thinking after defeat to Bayer Leverkusen to decide to dispense with him.
And so enter Tuchel, caught on camera in his first training session with his new charges aiming a kick at Sane – playfully, rather than violently, it should be stressed – but charged with finding a way to galvanise Bayern. Tuchel’s time at Chelsea suggests he could be the ultimate short-term manager, taking a team in ninth in mid-season, having the clarity of thought and coaching prowess to reconfigure them and becoming champions of Europe four months later. Now the short term has got even shorter: Tuchel could be a treble winner barely 10 weeks after getting the Bayern job. Nagelsmann was dismissed because of one game in particular, and that will be Tuchel’s bow.
Theirs is a peculiarly Bayern type of crisis, with 72 Bundesliga goals and a 100 per cent record in the Champions League that includes home-and-away wins over Barcelona, Inter Milan and Paris Saint-Germain. In all competitions, a team stripped of Robert Lewandowski have already scored 112 times this season, even though the flagship signing, Sadio Mane, has missed some of the campaign through injury.
If the numbers suggest Nagelsmann was mistreated, the league table offers an insight into Bayern’s thinking: Borussia Dortmund lead it. Tuchel’s former club are his first opponents. They have nine wins in 10 league games since the World Cup; add another at the Allianz Arena and the longest spell of domestic dominance in the history of Europe’s five major divisions could be nearing an end that few foresaw until recently.
“It’s German football’s biggest clash. It’s taken on a new explosiveness,” said Tuchel, not seeking to downplay the occasion. Der Klassiker could be the most seismic meetings between two German clubs since Bayern beat Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund in the 2013 Champions League final. Admittedly, Dortmund have since topped the Bundesliga at a later stage of the season and before facing Bayern; that was in April 2019 and the resident superpower duly crushed their closest rivals 5-0. The balance of power was restored. So perhaps this is now or never for Dortmund.
In several respects, Tuchel’s appointment is an entirely typical way for Bayern to seek to extend their hegemony. Their 10 consecutive league titles have come in a time when they have been willing to sack managers mid-season, as Carlo Ancelotti and Niko Kovac can testify. They have long used their financial might and allure to attract the best of the Bundesliga or the finest German talent: the 2013 Champions League final came to a backdrop of Mario Gotze swapping Dortmund for Bayern, a path that Lewandowski and Mats Hummels later followed. If Nagelsmann had represented the best German manager available – certainly given Jurgen Klopp’s enduring lack of interest in managing Bayern – an out-of-work Tuchel altered that equation.
If, amid questions about his man-management and tactics and a search for an apparent “mole” in the dressing room who the 35-year-old accused of leaking confidential information, there was the suspicion a job of Bayern’s size came too soon for Nagelsmann, Tuchel is now established among the supercoaches. A Champions League finalist with Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea has the charisma and confidence to make an immediate impression. The optimism he mislaid when dealing with Todd Boehly sounds restored by a six-month sabbatical.
“There are risks involved, of course,” he said at his unveiling. “But we love the pressure and the stress.” He used to describe the Chelsea squad he inherited as a “gift” and this group is arguably still better; certainly it has more firepower. “Bayern is about winning, also about the way of winning,” he said. “The squad is one of the most talented and best in Europe.”
That they have only lost three times in 37 games – as many defeats as Chelsea had suffered before they sacked Tuchel in September – bears that out and suggests there is a case for minting medals for Nagelsmann in all three competitions. Bayern have nevertheless conceded nine goals in their last six games; Tuchel brought such early defensive improvement to Chelsea that they only let in two in his first 14 matches and something similar now could render Bayern European champions. That there are early dates with Pep Guardiola, who he beat three times in six weeks at Chelsea, may bode well.
That this season has the feel of an isolated chance for Dortmund, before Jude Bellingham leaves, when Edin Terzic’s team have acquired a rare momentum, adds still more significance to Saturday. “The fact that it’s still so exciting overall shows the league’s attractiveness,” said Dortmund sporting director Sebastian Kehl. “Because when I look beyond our borders, the other leagues are almost decided.” Normally, however, the Bundesliga tends to be decided more simply: its appeal lies in the competitiveness of the rest. If German football needs a Dortmund win on Saturday and a new champion, Tuchel and Bayern could seem the marriage of the pragmatists designed to ensure a familiar outcome.
