Fitting End To A Terrible Season
May 18, 2024 Tuchel was forced to into a makeshift lineup with so many injuries. Neuer started in goal with de Ligt, Upamecano and Dier forming a back three. Kimmich and Davies played as wing backs with Pavlović and Laimer playing the double pivot and Goretzka, Tel and Müller playing in the attack.
Things would start off well as Bayern scored twice in the first six minutes. First Davies crossed to Müller who volleyed onto Tel who headed home 0-1. Two minutes later Tel passed onto Davies in the box who slotted it into the corner 0-2.
Hoffenheim would pull one back quickly in the eighth minute as Baier scored 1-2. The match would remain like that till Kramarić netted a second half hat trick ending Bayern’s dismal season exactly how it should 4-2.
Three Things We Noticed
A Little Good
Especially given the limited options for Tuchel, it was a fantastic start to this match. Davies, Tel and Müller all particularly looked dangerous and were directly involved in goals. The first seven minutes showed just how good this team can be when they’re playing well.
Davies particularly looked very good driving to the line several times and making very dangerous passes into the box. Despite a rough season, he certainly ended things with a bang and provided a bit of hope that he can be the player we know he’s capable of being rather than liability he was far to often this year.
A Lot of Bad
However, that good start went bad all too quickly as it so often had this season. Hoffenheim’s first goal turned the tide and stabilized the match for them. More importantly it seemed to put Bayern back to sleep.
Then Kramarić decimated Bayern in the second half with his hat trick in 19 minutes. After the equalizer in the 65th minute, I think we all knew what was going to happen. We’ve seen this story too many times and Bayern this season have never handled adversity well.
There were once again mistakes and poor decisions and while you can make some excuses regarding the team available to Tuchel, this performance follows the narrative of the entire season.
Even More Ugly
The sad fact is that this is now unquestionably the worst Bayern season since at least 2010/11 and I think it’s very arguable that this was worse than that season.
With this loss they solidified third place behind Stuttgart. While the Super Cup is generally a meaningless trophy, it is still another blow to this team as they no longer have the potential of playing in the opening game of the season against Leverkusen.
Moreover, the club is still scrambling to pick up the pieces of this season. Tuchel will not be back. There seems to be no solid idea who they might bring in to replace him. The squad needs to be refreshed. Bayern’s hierarchy has a lot of work to do in the next three months.
All in all this was a fitting end to what has been a horrific season. Bayern deserve to finish third. They deserve to be trophyless. They all deserve to have their jobs and roles questioned. This team is in need of real leadership and real direction.
They have to address all of the underlying issues and they have to do it in a very short amount of time. Whether they’re able to do that will ultimately decide whether this season was just a blip on the radar or if it will become the start of something worse.
