Bochum Add to Bayern’s Misery

This article written by Rainer Pompermayer

Match Recap

After the more serious injury of Boey and the “lighter” ones to Sané and Pavlović during the week, Tuchel went with a 4231/4222 with Mazroui, de Ligt, Kim, Guerreiro – Kimmich, Goretzka, Müller, Musiala – Choupo-Moting and Kane. 

Bayern started the match better than Bochum, controlling the flow of the game just suffering a bit in one or other counter attack by the home team. But, after a couple minutes, Musiala scored a goal with his second consecutive shot, after a beautiful dribble. In the following minutes, it seemed that order was restored and the team played a little bit lighter and more organized. 

But after more than 10 minutes of the match being stopped by protests the Bayern team clearly lost a bit of rhythm and energy. In less than 10 minutes Bochum took advantage of this and turned the match around with two almost consecutive goals. The first one a good counter attack with the Bayern midfield playing as badly as we are used to, with Jamal losing an easy ball, Kimmich making a ridiculous tackle and Goretzka nowhere to be seen. The second one, a corner where the Bochum player headed the ball, completely unmarked, with De Ligt out of position running desperately trying to do something.

The second half wasn’t much better, but the players seemed to have a bit more urgency and started playing with more energy. But after another delay due yet another protest, the team was out of the picture again. In another unfortunate mistake, Upamecano once again gave a penalty to the opponent, being sent off once more…Neuer almost managed to save it, but in the end the ball ended up on the back of the net.  

After a couple of changes on the team, the Bavarians went further and more eagerly to the attack, especially via Tel, who made a good impression and played well, and Sané, who missed some clear chances again… In the end, Bayern managed to score via another tap in by Kane, but it wasn’t enough even to save one point on this away match. 

Things We Noticed

It was pretty clear how disorganized the team was on the field and how little confidence the players, and the coach, had in themselves and their colleagues around them. The team seemed to be missing everything: concentration, fire, composure, energy, and much more. I think this is the first Bayern team I have seen that doesn’t have confidence when playing a team from the bottom of the table. We could spend a few hours talking about all the mistakes that Tuchel has made in the last months, but unless the players are willingly trying to sack the German coach, they don’t have any excuses of how bad they are individually playing .  

Not to say that Tuchel needs to be excused and allowed to retain his position until the end of the season without question of course. It’s pretty clear that the coach doesn’t trust the players and the players don’t trust the coach. I have no idea how the board will be able to maintain this current situation. I have always been against dismissing technicians in an impetuous manner, but I think that we have more viable alternatives at the moment, and that perhaps a friendly and mutual decision would be better for everyone involved.

Bayern Player of the Match

None

Bayern “Really Needs Improvement” Player: 

All 

Match Stats

Goals : 0:1 Musiala (14’), 1:1 Asano (38’), 2:1 Schlotterbeck (44’), 3:1 Stöger (78’), 3:2 Kane (87’)

Yellow cards : Bernardo, Losilla / Kim, Goretzka, Upamecano

Red card : Upamecano

VfL Bochum: Riemann – Oermann (46’, Gamboa), Ordets, K. Schlotterbeck, Bernardo – Masovic, Asano (89’, Förster), Losilla (95’, Loosli), Stöger, Antwi-Adjei (79’, Kwarteng) – Broschinski

FC Bayern: Neuer – Mazraoui (28’, Upamecano), de Ligt, M.-J. Kim, Guerreiro (79’, Dier) – Kimmich (63′, Zaragoza), Goretzka, T. Müller (79′, Tel), Choupo-Moting (63′, Sané), Musiala – Kane