Bayern Munich, who has only suffered a few losses, is currently on the verge of a crisis despite having won an astounding 11 straight Bundesliga titles. In addition to widening Xabi Alonso’s team’s lead at the top of the league by five points, the team’s recent 3-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen raised questions about their previously unchallenged supremacy.
Their misery was made worse by a 1-0 loss to Lazio on Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals, which made Thomas Tuchel and his team feel even more vulnerable. After years of unmatched success, the German giants are now at a critical crossroads, battling unanticipated obstacles.
Bavaria is currently battling not just unsettling outcomes but also poor performances that have sparked serious worries. Bayern has had trouble scoring goals in their last two games, which is concerning in and of itself. What makes things more concerning is the fact that they just had one shot on target in each of the two games. This offensive inefficiency is a bigger problem that needs immediate attention and strategic reevaluation; it is not just a statistical anomaly.
Tuchel: I’m at a loss for words.
After a devastating loss to Saarbrucken, a third-tier team, in the second round, Bayern Munich is now without a DFB-Pokal fallback. Concerns over an upcoming season devoid of trophies for the England captain were raised when Tuchel’s team lost the German Super Cup to RB Leipzig on Kane’s debut. There is very little season tolerance in the center of Munich. Tuchel is navigating rough waters less than a year into his command, under increasing pressure as the possibility of a campaign devoid of trophies looms big.
When Thomas Tuchel took over as Bayern Munich’s manager in March of last year, he quickly orchestrated a victory as he won his first Bundesliga championship. But much of the preparation had already been done by his predecessor, Julian Nagelsmann. Even though Bayern was only one point behind leader Borussia Dortmund, Nagelsmann was unexpectedly fired. Taking the reins in the middle of the race, Tuchel led the squad to victory with a smooth transition and tactical brilliance that epitomized his coaching ability. The team won a title as a result.
After breaking the record of a single window spending worth £250 million, Chelsea’s new club owners have fired the club’s well reputed manager, Thomas Tuchel. It is saddening news, but with recent Chelsea losses, the owners claim that it was the right decision to make. Tuchel managed to build a strong team while running Chelsea.
The recent Champion League loss with Dinamo Zagreb was the alleged cause of his sacking. The game also marked the 100th and final game that Tuchel will ever be involved with a Chelsea game as of now.
Tuchel, now 49 has an incredible resume under his belt, as he was a former player and has been fascinated with football since he was a child. Originally from West Germany, he apparently joined to play football at the age of 19 and retired at 25 after suffering from a chronic knee injury.
Now, according to a sports site, the current owners of Chelsea are looking for his potential replacements, namely Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino and Zinedine Zidane. Note that most of these people have a similar background as Tuchel, but many acknowledge that Chelsea will never be the same without him.
The former owner of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich sold the team to Todd Boehly who so happens to co-own the Los Angeles Dodgers. Chelsea managed to revamp their line up with nine new players, partially thanks to them.
A statement from Chelsea, “On behalf of everyone at Chelsea FC, the club would like to place on record its gratitude to Thomas and his staff for all their efforts during their time with the club. Thomas will rightly have a place in Chelsea’s history after winning the Champions League, the Super Cup and Club World Cup in his time here.
“As the new ownership group reaches 100 days since taking over the club, and as it continues its hard work to take the club forward, the new owners believe it is the right time to make this transition.
“Chelsea’s coaching staff will take charge of the team for training and the preparation of our upcoming matches as the club moves swiftly to appoint a new head coach.
Furthermore, Erik ten Hag who is the manager for Manchester United admitted that the firing of Tuchel made him feel bad. Noting that Manchester United had a terrible start to this season, but has seemed to have gotten their bearings right after a few games.
Ten Hag then stated, “I feel sorry, but there is nothing I can say. It’s Chelsea, not Man United. It’s early in the season, yes.”
Netizens on Twitter also have a lot to say on Tuchel’s sudden sacking. Many made remarks on Tuchel’s handshake with Tottenham’s Conte as they said this is probably his last interaction with him.
We may be disgusting, but we have standards. Performances have been horrendous for 6 games.
Others are openly defending him, stating that Chelsea will not be able to find an amazing coach like him especially during this season. Fans have criticised the team for not re-considering the situation better as Tuchel helped them win the UCL.
Leeds has defeated Chelsea thanks to goals done by Brendan Aaronsen, Rodrigo and Jack Harrison. Chelsea were stretched to their limits that day, while still putting up every ounce for a fight.
Thomas Tuchel is probably the most popular manager in the English Premier League due to reaching the sports headlines every week. Chelsea was considerably subpar this season so far, according to reports.
Coupled with the recent defeat by Leeds, the Blues manager is in hot waters after winning in Everton and a draw with Tottenham. In his postgame comments, Tuchel assured fans that Chelsea is still considerably the best and blamed the loss due to travelling to the match by bus.
On Twitter, the media went wild with Tuchel’s statement, mainly mocking him for implying their loss contributed to that. Trolls took to the scene and wrote profanities on the tweets that are related to him blaming the bus.
It’s absolutely bonkers to me that Tuchel lives in a country where people are literally worrying about having enough money to pay their gas and electric bills and thinks that “we had to get a bus not a plane up the M1” is an excuse worthy of sympathy.
Others say that he has a lack of sympathy for the people who are having to save every penny due to the current inflation and energy crisis. Complaining about not getting a private jet for travelling should be the last thing anyone should be worried about, said a netizen on Twitter.
Regardless of the comments said against Tuchel, he got what he wanted when he made that statement, which is the press going all out at him. There are those that defend Tuchel’s statement by saying the players are reliable on marginal gains, and any problems faced while travelling may affect their abilities to play.
‘Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong,’ Tuchel said.
‘It started yesterday. We had no plane to arrive so we came on the bus. The players could fly but for the coaching staff it was a long ride on the bus. It continued today.
‘We lost the game in the first 20 minutes, where we were clearly better and had huge chances. A lot of touches in the box but we miss the target and do not take what we deserve.’ He further elaborated.
Jamie O’Hara, a former Tottenham midfielder, told Tuchel to “get in the real world” after the coach explained why his team lost the recent match.
“Tuchel to come out after the game and he was making excuses, having to get a bus and saying that they were the better team and it was [Edouard] Mendy and that Leeds weren’t the better side than them, Leeds were way better than Chelsea,” O’Hara told TalkSPORT.
Thomas Tuchel is a successful manager and is on top of his game despite his brutal Chelsea exit in September last year but that does not diminish his position as a good manager while Erik Ten Hag is having a great time at Manchester United with a series of wins that has the club in the next round of the FA Cup and in 4th place in the Premier Leagues.
However, if in the world of journalism it is the great stories you leave behind that counts in your career, it is the trophies you win in football that is a sign of a great manager.
In comparison between Tuchel and Ten Hag, the latter has a long way to go to claim the title of the better manager.
Image of Erik ten Hag, from Wikipedia.
How many trophies did each manager win?
Ten Hag has won several trophies as a manager, including:
2x Dutch Eredivisie (2018-2019, 2019-2020) with Ajax
1x Dutch Super Cup (2019) with Ajax
1x Dutch Cup (2018-2019) with Ajax
1x German Regionalliga Bavaria Champion (2013-2014) with FC Bayern Munich
As he recently joined Manchester United in April 2022, he has yet to win any trophies for his current team. However, that might change in the future if he manages to upkeep his statistics and players.
On the other hand, Tuchel has also won a number of trophies during his time as a manager, including:
1x German Cup (2016-2017) with Borussia Dortmund
1x UEFA Champions League (2020-2021) with Chelsea
1x World’s Best Club Coach (2020-2021) with Chelsea
1x Fifa Club World Cup Winner (2021-2022) with Chelsea
1x Uefa Supercup Winner (2021-2022) with Chelsea
2x French Champion (2018-2019) and (2019-2020) with Paris Saint-Germain
1x French Cup (2019-2020) with Paris Saint-Germain
1x French League Cup (2019-2020) with Paris Saint-Germain
2x French Super Cup (2018-2019) and (2020-2021) with Paris Saint-Germain
History of both Ten Hag and Tuchel as managers
Manchester United’s Dutch manager Erik ten Hag arrives for the UEFA Europa League Group E football match between Manchester United and Real Sociedad, at Old Trafford stadium, in Manchester, on September 8, 2022. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP)
Erik ten Hag had success managing the Dutch club, Ajax. He has led them to the Dutch Eredivisie title in the 2018-2019 season and the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League in the same year. In addition, under his guidance, Ajax has developed young talented players, who attract the interests of big clubs.
Ten Hag currently has a 73% success rate for Manchester United and his team scored 1.77 goals in every match. Regardless of his issues with Cristiano Ronaldo, he does in fact provide some statistics to his current team.
Image of Tuchel holding the Champions League trophy, from Wikipedia.
On Thomas Tuchel’s side, he has had success managing a number of clubs in Germany, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain. He has led Dortmund to the German cup final in the 2016-2017 season and has helped PSG to win the Ligue 1 cup in the 2020-2021 season.
Tuchel has also helped his team (PSG) win the French Cup. Furthermore, he reached the UEFA Champions League final in his first season with PSG, and won it this last season.
Not to mention that Tuchel has also won the Champions League for Chelsea in the 2021 season. At the time he was new to the reins of Chelsea and was hailed as a hero for the Blues. Unfortunately for Tuchel, his statistics were not as good as Ten Hag. He had a 42% winning percentage and has secured 1.14 goals for every match.
Regardless of his lower statistics score when compared to Ten Hag, Tuchel has won a lot more trophies than he did. It appears that he is in it for the trophy winnings rather than maintaining a perfect non winning score for his teams.
How was Erik ten Hag as a football player
Apparently, Ten Hag was not a professional football player. He has dabbled in football before as a defender in a semi-professional level in Dutch football. However, over time, he decided to switch over to the managerial side of the game. He then developed his career towards that aspect of the game.
Thomas Tuchel as a player
Thomas Tuchel was a professional football player until he was 25-years-old. He did not win any extravagant trophies as he was still quite young when his tenure as a player ended. He was a defender and played mostly for the lower divisions of German football.
He began his career at SSV Ulm 1846, and went on to play for several other clubs, including SC Freiburg II, Stuttgarter Kickers, and Augsburger SC. His career as a player was unfortunately curtailed by injuries, and he decided to retire from playing at a relatively young age and transitioned into coaching.
He has since gone on to have a very successful career as a coach, known for his tactical acumen, ability to develop young players, and his ability to quickly adapt to different clubs and situations.
Despite not being a famous or successful player, his experiences as a player certainly helped him in his coaching career. This gave him an advantage over many other managers as he knew how to handle the players as he was once in their exact shoes.
After Thomas Tuchel’s departure from Chelsea, the players apparently had somewhat of a warm up time with Graham Potter but is there trouble in Potter’s paradise. Initially when he took control of the team, they lost and he said that he would just keep on encouraging them to play better in the upcoming matches.
It is true that Potter is a completely different coach from the former Tuchel and that he tries to successfully implement the former coach’s strategy while tweaking it. Many stated that it is a commendable response to do so.
Potter needs time to adjust himself when it comes to running a major Premier League club along with the harsher conditions while having more on stake. Unfortunately, according to Chelsea’s fan page on Facebook, it appears that the Blues are having trouble in paradise.
Chelsea’s injured players
Apparently, under Tuchel’s strict reign, a subsequent number of his players were selected to join the FIFA 2022 World Cup. For obvious reasons, Tuchel complained heavily against the decision as the players would still need to focus on the Premier League and the Champions League.
Now, unfortunately a number of these players might not even be joining the World Cup as they are currently injured. There are four of them and Chelsea fans are not too happy with the situation.
According to Football London, the list of injured players are Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Wesley Fofana and N’Golo Kante. Regardless of the World Cup, Chelsea relies on them quite a bit and for them to be absent even in Premier League matches would be quite bad for the team.
One of their fans stated that Chelsea needs a change in management in order for incidents like this to happen less frequently. There is a clear sign that there is a management issue as there might be some internal problems with the medical staff and fitness coaches.
Furthermore, the fan stated that the medical staff need to be relooked at again due to the stark number of injuries. Other fans agree that this is bad news for the team and others hope that they will come back stronger than ever.
Two straight Premier League losses for Chelsea
Another problem that is being faced by the Blues is that they have two straight losses in the Premier League. Furthermore, they have accumulated only two points out of the possible 12 points in their last four league matches.
A fan commented that Potter is still the “best boss” for Tuchel haters and the new owner of Chelsea. The fan then added that Tuchel is innocent and did the best he could for Chelsea, adding that Chelsea should learn a “lesson” for sacking the German manager.
More criticisms were sent towards Potter’s direction as fans said his coaching skills are “useless” and another stated that Potter is not Chelsea material. They claim that Potter has never won any major trophies and a team such as the Blues’ stature must have a qualified manager that knows how to win.
The criticism he is currently facing is one of the most intense for a manager. Furthermore, this is adding to the fact that the new owners are not that well liked by the fans. Other fans joked that the team will play just the Champions League and not the Premier League at all.
Emphasis on the fact that fans still love Tuchel and regard him as their hero. They are adamant that sacking the German man was wrong and should not have happened. Others were begging for Zidane to come aboard as a manager if Boehly is still adamant against bringing Tuchel back.
Thomas Tuchel, fired from Chelsea in the early stages of the English Premier League season, has broken his silence on social media.
“This is one of the most difficult statements I have ever had to write – and it is one which I hoped I would not need to do for many years.” Thomas Tuchel stated on his social media. This is days after he was fired from the club by Chelsea’s owner, Todd Boehly.
The official reasoning to Tuchel’s departure was the Champions League loss against Dinamo Zagreb. Graham Potter, formerly from Brighton and is the replacement for Tuchel, reportedly received a £21 million compensation from the club.
As it is, Chelsea has already spent almost £250 million in player transfers during the summer and apparently there were rumours then that Tuchel’s departure was coming in close. Tuchel took over Frank Lampard’s position at the start of the 2020 Premier League and under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea won the Champions League that year.
Tuchel stated “The pride and joy I felt at helping the team to win the Champions League and the Club World Cup will stay with me forever.”
“I am honoured to have been a part of this club’s history and the memories of the last 19 months will always have a special place in my heart.”
Now, Potter has a challenge as stories are spreading around that before the Chelsea match against Liverpool, the locker room looked as though it was in shambles. It is still unclear if the game will still proceed as Queen Elizabeth II’s burial is dated on September 19th at Westminster Abbey.
There are concerns on the logistics of the games and other games such as Brentford and Arsenal will be playing on the same weekend. If the game is running on schedule, it will be the first game Potter will be leading Chelsea in the Premier League.
Robbie Fowler, a columnist for the Daily Mirror stated, “The dressing room looks a mess as well. Maybe that’s Tuchel’s fault, maybe not.
“There are a lot of big egos in there, and some of them seem to be butting up against each other. I didn’t like the body language of that free-kick exchange between Reece James and Hakim Ziyech, which spoke volumes on the issues Potter will be inheriting.
“I’ve already heard questions about whether he’ll be able to handle those big egos, and win over players who seem to have the power at that club to get managers sacked. He’s shown at Brighton he can improve players massively, and he’s also shown he knows the game, has refreshing ideas and is astute technically and tactically.
“How does he deal with a split dressing room though? The answer is to go in there without preconceptions.”
