Thomas Tuchel opened up his Bayern Munich managerial tenure with a 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund. A brace from Thomas Muller and goals from Dayot Upamecano and Kingsley Coman saw that goals from Dortmund’s Emre Can (penalty) and Donyell Malen were only consolations in the second half, though it did cause some nervy moments towards the end of the match after Tuchel had made all five of his subs.
The scoreline does perhaps flatter Dortmund a bit, as Bayern were well and truly the better side for the majority of proceedings, but Bayern just couldn’t find a fifth goal and truly kill off the match when they had the 4-1 lead. Both Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Serge Gnabry had goals ruled out by the offside flag that would’ve been Bayern’s fifth at the times that each of them struck.
Despite the overall dominance, Tuchel admitted that we wanted to see a bit more control from his new side.
“It was a very good first step, although for me it was too open and frantic,” Tuchel said (via FCBayern.com). “We actually wanted to have more dominance in the opposition half. We started very nervously in the first half. Across the game as a whole we gave the ball away too much, which made the game very hard work.”
All things considered, Tuchel only had a few days with the full squad before der Klassiker as most of Bayern’s players were away on international duty with their respective nations. The performance — the good as well as the bad — will give the new manager much to think about.
“The desire to work without the ball was very high. There are lots of positives but also room for improvement,” Tuchel offered. “Everyone was aware of what was riding on the match. The desire to withstand and suffer when something goes wrong was 100 percent there — that’s the most important thing. Overall it was a very good start with a win. That will give us confidence and desire to improve.”
And indeed, there’s work yet to be done, starting with settling down. “When we played calmly, we created top-class chances. Now we are top of the table, that will give us peace and confidence,” Tuchel added (via @iMiaSanMia).
“We have a lot to analyze. The team is extremely willing to learn. I understand that some things haven’t worked out yet,” Tuchel concluded. “We want to be calm and composed in possession. It’s a bit like a band or an orchestra. We have to find our rhythm.”
Interested in a more in-depth look at the game? Curious about why Thomas Tuchel chose a 4-2-3-1? How did it differ from Nagelsmann’s Bayern? We talk about all that and more in our postgame podcast. Listen to it below or at this link.
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