Opponent check – Bayern Munich

A similar scenario is unlikely to occur this season. Stable and dominant Leverkusen are already ten points ahead of Bayern. The long-term subscriber to the championship title with eleven titlesin a row is threatened with the end of a series and there is also a lot of change on Säbener Straße. A new sports director, Max Eberl, is now at the helm. In addition, the coaching position that will be vacant for the coming season must be filled and the future of some players is also unclear.

Bayern were able to end the negative series from February with three defeats in a row with a 2-1 win over Leipzig on matchday 23 and also move into the quarter-finals of the Champions League thanks to a confident 3-0 win against Lazio at the beginning of March. While Bayern had 52 points at the same time last season, they currently have 57. But the better points tally is somewhat overshadowed by Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s outstanding season.

Despite the rather rough season by Munich standards, Thomas Tuchel’s team is still the measure of all things. The Lilies also felt this in the first half of the season when they were beaten 0:8 in the Allianz Arena. On the offensive, Sané and Kane regularly dizzy the opposing defenses and are among the absolute top scorers in the league. Manuel Neuer has once again become the desired support at the back. In the Champions League he set the record for the most clean sheets in the competition against Lazio with 57. There are also young talents in the ranks of the record champions who are pushing their way to the fore. Above all, of course, Musiala, but also Tel and Pavlovic. A squad full of superstars, a great history and a bulging trophy cabinet – FCB is one of the biggest and best clubs in the world. We’ll take a closer look at the Lilies‘ upcoming opponents before the home game on Saturday (03/16/3:30pm). FC Bayern Munich in the opponent check.

Thomas Tuchel’s favorite team? Anyone who now thinks, for example, of Mainz, his first Bundesliga stop as a coach, or of Augsburg and Stuttgart, which are close to his birthplace of Krumbach, is wrong. During the coach’s childhood, completely different clubs were present: „Gladbach and Werder were my teams in my youth and as a child,“ says Tuchel at a press conference. Both teams were most likely to be able to stand up to Bayern at the time. “Gladbach was dictated by the family. There was no choice. “Werder was always a spectacle,” says Tuchel about his motives. Little Thomas then re-enacted the big games, moves and goals in the garden.

However, the tactical fox was not granted a long professional career. The Krumbach native had to hang up his football boots at the age of 24. Cartilage damage in the knee and problems with the patellar tendon forced Tuchel to end his career prematurely. What initially seemed like a setback turned out to be a blessing in disguise in the years that followed. Encouraged by his then coach Ralf Rangnick, Tuchel began his coaching activities and eventually came to Mainz after working in Augsburg and Stuttgart.

This is where the meticulous and ambitious Tuchel made his breakthrough. With the Mainz A youth team and players like André Schürrle, Jan Kirchhoff and Stefan Bell, he won the championship in his second year. „He demands a lot. But he also gives a lot if you commit yourself 100 percent to the cause,“ said Schürrle in a Kicker interview at the time. In Mainz and Dortmund he followed in Jürgen Klopp’s big footsteps before it moved him abroad to Paris St. Germain. The French capital was followed by the English one – London with Chelsea. Victory in the Champions League with the Blues, Tuchel finally became a top coach. He formed the young and assembled Chelsea squad at record speed to a disciplined and functioning unit. In 2021 he was voted FIFA World Coach of the Year.

It was barely a year ago that Thomas Tuchel was introduced to Bayern. The Swabian presented himself full of energy and anticipation about his new task. Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic welcomed the now 50-year-old. “We are happy that he is there and have great hopes that we will be successful in the next few years,” Salihamidzic hoped at the time. The Bayern bosses are already gone and Tuchel’s days are numbered. At the end of the current season, he and the record champions go their separate ways. Last season they were eliminated prematurely in the premier class and the DFB Cup and were only able to snatch the championship trophy away from BVB with luck and at the last second. A similar picture emerges this season. Ten points behind league leaders Leverkusen, no longer in the cup. The only hope: the Champions League, in which Munich reached the quarter-finals thanks to a 3-0 home win over Lazio. FC Bayern and Thomas Tuchel – what began so hopefully will soon come to an end.

The 27-0 win in the first test match of the season at FC Rottach-Egern was already an indication of the games to come. Back then, the Munich team warmed up for the season and they haven’t lost their hunger for goals even after 25 games. Thomas Tuchel’s team has already scored a whopping 73 goals. This makes the offensive the showpiece of the record champions. The lilies don’t have fond memories of this attacking power. Although the game went into the dressing room goalless, Bayern’s attack department turned up the force in the second half and scored a total of eight goals. VfL Bochum also came under heavy pressure in the first half of the season, winning 7-0. Last weekend it was 1. FSV Mainz 05 who also felt the brutal Bavarian offensive power in the 8-1 win at the Allianz Arena.

Of course, top striker Harry Kane stands out here. The man with the number 9 on his shirt has already scored an impressive 30 times in 25 games and also added eight more assists. He has now netted 14 times more than last season’s top scorers Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku (both 16 goals). In addition to the Englishman’s goal-scoring ability, another strength to be mentioned is the record champions‘ consistency and opening quarter of an hour: Bayern have only remained goalless in two league games so far and twelve goals in the first 15 minutes are the league’s best. In many games, the Munich team starts like the fire department. The SV 98 should be wide awake from the start. Because if Bayern takes the lead, there is usually nothing that can be counted for the opposing team. With 21 leads this season, there were 18 wins for FCB. Only Bochum was able to win after Tuchel’s team took the lead (3:2).

Establishing a place in Bayern’s professional team is a big challenge for the youth players, which is often postponed with a loan deal – as was recently the case with Frans Krätzig. But after Jamal Musiala, the next name that seems to master the challenge comes to mind: Aleksandar Pavlovic. “It was always clear to me that I would play football. I started playing football with my sister in the apartment when I was three years old,” says the homegrown player in a club documentary. At the age of seven, Pavlovic, who played offensively at the time, was discovered at an indoor tournament and from then on played through all of Bayern’s youth teams. But there, challenges arose for the now 19-year-old young star: “From the U15 to the U17, I was always the smallest. I was a baby. Physically it was always difficult against the others,” reports Pavlovic. But then the man with dual citizenship (Serbian and German) grew in height by around 20 centimeters in a short time and now measures 1.88 meters.

Now the current shooting star of FC Bayern Munich has reached the first team. The Munich native is celebrating his breakthrough this season. It started in the first half of the season against the Lilies. When the score was 7-0, Pavlovic made his Bundesliga debut and impressed. All 14 of his passes found their teammate. A day later, he signed his professional contract until 2027. The man with the number 45 shirt justified the trust and early praise with an assist in Dortmund and another good performance in his starting eleven debut against Heidenheim.

Pavlovic is two-footed and has good game intelligence. He is also strong with his passing game. Sometimes the fine technician also goes beyond the standards. He could embody the type of player needed for a “holding six” in the future. However, head coach Thomas Tuchel warns that his protégé should “leave the church in the village” when it comes to his development. Nevertheless, the coach is pleased with the 19-year-old’s development: “I’m very happy for him. He is a fine footballer and, more importantly, a super fine guy. All conditions are in place for him to go his own way.“ After serving a yellow card suspension against Mainz, he is back for the upcoming away game at the Bölle.