The criticism of the past few weeks has left its mark on Julian Nagelsmann. The Bayern coach questioned everything during the international break. In the analysis, he inevitably came to one conclusion: Bayern mostly stood in their own way.
Four games, three points – that’s FC Bayern’s most recent record in the Bundesliga. The crisis Bayern was often mentioned among fans and in the media. In fact, fifth place in the table – even after only seven matchdays – is not what the record champions are claiming.
There were enough numbers these days to illustrate the crisis: FC Bayern had their worst start to the season since 2010/11 with a 1-0 defeat in Augsburg. For the first time in 87 games, Bayern could not score their own goal. The last time there were four winless games in a row was in 2001. Across the seasons in the Bundesliga, you could only win three of the last ten duels.
In Munich on Säbener Strasse it was time to go into the analysis and “question everything”. The international break provided the framework for this. Before the duel against Leverkusen on Friday, Nagelsmann then commented and named points of his detailed analysis.
“We don’t have to change everything,” was one of the insights. In terms of content, he worked out a lot, but it wasn’t “extremely new”.
“We’ve had 93 shots on goal in the last four games, I think. We had a 76% conversion of big chances at the beginning of the season, now we’re like 20%. We just didn’t use a few situations the way we can use them,” this is Nagelsmann’s formula for the poor Bundesliga results of the past few weeks.
To be very clear: You absolutely have to agree with the FCB coach here! The conversion of chances was the main point for the result crisis. With more efficiency, Bayern would now definitely be at the top. In general, there should be no reason to panic.
Nevertheless, the lack of exploitation of opportunities raises further questions. The clearest of course: Does this squad need a world-class center forward like Lewandowski was. The others: why was Sadio Mané’s form curve pointing so much down and what’s going on with Serge Gnabry?
Questions that need an answer sooner or later. The fact that Julian Nagelsmann was also criticized and was particularly under the burning glass is common in the football business – especially at Bayern Munich. Criticism has not left him untouched in recent weeks, he admitted on Thursday: “It would be a lie that the last two weeks have left me totally cold. Everyone has to feel personal responsibility, I feel it too. But I’m not either I’m responsible for everything. I’m a decent person and treat the players properly. I’ve read my name exceptionally often. Football is a very important part of my life, but that’s how I define myself as a person and for my happiness in life,” said FCB -Coach.
Nagelsmann continues: “I always question myself, look in the mirror in the evening and think about what I did well and what not. I make notes on a piece of paper or speak on my cell phone and try not to make the mistakes again the next day. But I didn’t have any thoughts of retiring. It was just that I just didn’t feel like not winning the games and that I wanted to be German champion again on payday.”
It is clear that Nagelsmann now needs results to free himself from the constant criticism. After the international break, there are now nine competitive games until the end of October. Among them was the classic against BVB on match day 9. If the lack of efficiency continues and Bayern don’t win, speculation about Nagelsmann’s future will continue.
The fact that the criticism of the coach and the team is not always objective is due to the nature of the matter. On Thursday’s PK, Nagelsmann was asked why two faces were shown in the Champions League and the Bundesliga. In the end, you could win against Inter and Barça.
Such a designation would, however, stick purely to the results. Because against Barça, FC Bayern was lucky not to fall behind, especially in the first half. The Catalans were the better team. Thanks to the efficient exploitation of chances in the second half, we were still able to win 2-0. And that brings us back to the heart of the FCB problem: the exploitation of chances! Above all, it should be up to the players to be more efficient again and thus bring in the corresponding results again. Then – and only then – do the question marks resolve themselves. Otherwise it will be really uncomfortable in autumn on the Säbener.
This article was originally published on 90min.com as Nagelsmann’s Handling Criticism: Waiting for Efficiency to Return.
