Well, he’s made the near-perfect start to life in the Bundesliga, leading FC Bayern to a 4-2 win in Der Klassiker to put the Bavarians back in charge of the title race, and now Thomas Tuchel can settle into his new job.
The sacking of Julian Nagelsmann dominated the Bundesliga 2023 news last week and he has now been linked with a Premier League club. Following the departure of Antonio Conte from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Nagelsmann emerged as a front-runner in the UK press. But maybe Chelsea, who have just sacked Graham Potter, will be interested in the 35-year-old coach… and that would be an interesting twist.
The Blues should never have potted Tuchel in the first place after he delivered a Champions League win in his first season at Stamford Bridge but they did, and Chelsea’s loss may well turn out to be Die Bayern’s gain. It certainly looks that way after the Bavarians tore apart an in-form Borussia Dortmund as a Thomas Muller brace, an own goal from Gregor Kobel and a strike from Kingsley Coman saw them race into a 4-0 lead before Emre Can and Donyell Malen scored BVB’s late consolations.
He’s already delivered a huge three points but what will Tuchel bring to his new role? The Bundesliga 2023 betting odds say he will win the title now that his team has retaken top spot, and they have a Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City coming up. I wonder how Pep Guardiola will deal with the fact that the man who masterminded the Sky Blues’ defeat in the 2021 final will be in the opposition dugout?
He knows he will face a coach with superb tactical knowledge and innovative training techniques. And Tuchel has long been an admirer of Guardiola, once pausing a documentary on the Spaniard for two hours, so that he and his players could study Barcelona’s passing patterns. And when Guardiola was boss at Bayern, he discussed tactics with Tuchel in a four-hour session.
As Dortmund boss Tuchel used a 4-2-3-1 formation which created overloads in space between the lines of the opposition, but he is flexible, using over ten formations during his tenure at Paris Saint-Germain. He emphasises the importance of psychological strength and critical thinking in his players, but his teams almost always use gegenpressing, a tactic where, after losing the ball, his players attempt to win it back straight away rather than settling back into formation.
When he was at Chelsea he was known for his rapid squad rotation, making 39 changes to his first 11 in ten games early in 2021. But all of his players knew that possession took precedence in the Premier League focusing on passing retention in the lead-up to big games. But he showed when Chelsea beat Manchester City to win the Champions League that he will happily concede possession and defend deeply against exceptional teams and use the pace in his team to hit them on the break.
Die Bayern are at SBOTOP odds of 1.12 to win the title, with Borussia Dortmund at 5.00, so they are now back in pole position, and the Bavarians’ task in the Champions League looks a little more achievable now.
Will Tuchel go back for Havertz?
Some of Bayern’s players, including midfield duo Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka, were stunned by the sacking of Nagelsmann; and Tuchel has work to do to give them confidence that they will still be listened to, and continue to be part of the best team in Germany. But there will inevitably be chatter around the likelihood of him returning to a previous club for player reinforcements. And rumours have begun to surface in the UK media that Tuchel might pay a visit to Stamford Bridge, with Kai Havertz a possible target.
The Germany international has proved he can be a brilliant player, but he has struggled for form this term, often played out of position as a lone striker, following the departure of Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku. Havertz has only scored seven goals in 27 appearances for the Blues who are already pretty much out of the top-four race, sitting 11th in the Premier League table. And when the 23-year-old was asked by the German press if he might rejoin Tuchel at Bayern he certainly didn’t rule the prospect out, saying: “Bayern are a huge club that it’s hard to say no to as a German player, but my personal goal has always been to play abroad at some point.
“I had a very good relationship with him and am grateful for everything. You never know what will happen in football. Everything can happen very quickly. Never say never.”
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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