A Summer For Self-Reflection At Säbener Straße

Many billed the alliance of Bayern Munich and Julian Nagelsmann in 2021 to be the beginning of a new dynasty. Der Rekordmeister was willing to break the bank and secure the services of one of the brightest brains in the game, shelling out a record fee of 25 million euros. Yet, within two years of the transfer, manager and club parted ways. This article looks back at a season of stumbles to examine how the union ended and why the Bavarians are not still back at their best.

Written by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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Nagelsmann’s predecessor Hansi Flick set the highest of standards. The beauty of his work was in its simplicity. He respected the hierarchy, assembling seniors in his squad to inspire Bayern to do what they do best. A ferocious intensity and furious forays from the flanks swept aside all the competition on the way to a treble. And once the squad was at the summit, he was glad to slip into the background. Nagelsmann is also of Bavarian association but cut from a very different cloth. His scheme required a revolution to remain at the top. So, this style threatened to disturb the usual order at the institution.

Detachment from a fixed Pole

Nagelsmann likes the halfspaces. He likes flat diagonal passes through the center of the field. He wants to finalize attacks with a compact, tight network. The focus on the flanks that distinguished the Bavarian game model in the last decade does not fit this strategy. But disruption to an equilibrium brings resistance. Not all the old guard wished to pull in the same direction as their new leader. Robert Lewandowski sought pastures anew in Catalonia and presented a hole in the middle of the offense.

No star striker arrived at the club during the summer to take his place, and Nagelsmann modified his framework. His 4-2-2-2 system was not a radical departure from his body of work in his first year at Bayern. The buildup still looked to open the center with line breaking passes and layoffs to put the opponents in motion. If the ball ended up at the feet of the fullbacks, it was only a matter of time until it returned to the middle of the field. Away from the action, the forwards did not stand too far wide of the penalty area. The manager’s commands had now effectively demarcated a smaller field of play.

4th minute: combination for Sané’s goal against VfL Bochum (21.08.2022). Sané pivots away from his marker and fires a vertical pass into the path of Mané. The winger immediately motions diagonally into the space between the lines and follows up to carry the momentum to the goal. Extreme pressure in the center permits Coman to be only as wide as necessary and hit a short cutback toward Sané.

That development did not please Lewandowski. In the last few years, the striker was the figure to shape affairs in the final third. The rest of the team trusted his physique, movement, and temperament to allow them to settle around the box and wait for a better breakthrough. Once Nagelsmann put more players in the center near him, he lost some of his old freedoms. However, those constraints proposed different openings. Sadio Mané, his indirect replacement, would reveal some of these possibilities.

A more dynamic, direct profile revved up the accelerator of the attack. Mané and Jamal Musiala were targets for many passes between the lines, forcing defenses to collapse with their dribbling. He and Serge Gnabry rotated laterally with the tens to pull apart markers. Like Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sané, his explosive speed kept defenders in check. This more flexible front four did not have one appointed killer but four suspects able to shift from one role to the next. If every forward could deliver a fatal blow, they could all pass on the duty to strike until one man got a clear opportunity at goal.

19th minute: buildup to Mané’s disallowed goal against Wolfsburg (14.08.2022). Dayot Upamecano dribbles into space, attracting Maxence Lacroix and Josuha Guilavogui to Thomas Müller. Mané’s deep run pins Wolfsburg’s defenders, allowing the defender to break the lines diagonally and attack a broken defensive chain. Musiala’s ball carrying forces the rearguard to tighten. The other forwards continue to sweep the ball across to Gnabry, whose delivery reaches Mané inside the six yard box.

Reaction in moderation

The Bavarians bagged 20 goals in their first four matches, but euphoria did not last long. The reigning champions suffered a streak of four fixtures without any wins and squandered a two goal lead in Der Klassiker to sit in third place in the middle of October. Who was at fault? The blame game had begun.

Lewandowski loomed large over this debate. Bland can be better, and a shift to a paradigm of fluidity was a two-edged sword. The 4-2-2-2 system did not stand the test of time against low blocks that kept a dense center. The offense still prized a figurehead to tie together their efforts and manufacture space where there was none, but Mané could not shoulder such a burden. A reliable reference point was no longer at hand as a bailout, and Nagelsmann’s new ideas did not always translate well onto the field.

However, not all new problems require new causes. Kimmich might have brought some calm to this offense in a higher role, but no one in the squad could take his place at the base of midfield. The club still lacked another individual that could mimic his command in the middle of the park. Nor could they turn to a surefire scheme for defensive stability. Nagelsmann preferred to dial down the higher pressure in the post, but his men did not display the discipline to master this conservative strategy.

This period was a sobering reality check. Nonetheless, the reality was the Bavarians were still the best of the bunch in Germany and a feared opponent in Europe. Nagelsmann duly crafted another layout: initiation for the offense came on the right and more direct breakthroughs on the left. He also called on Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as a striker to hold up and distribute the ball and reaped the rewards. His men won their last ten contests in a row before the break for the World Cup. Crisis? What crisis?

26th minute: buildup to Leon Goretzka’s goal against Werder Bremen (08.11.2022). Choupo-Moting shields the ball from Miloš Veljković and slides a first time layoff pass to Kimmich. Christian Groß filled the defensive chain, but must step out and Goretzka is free to run deep from midfield into space. Note that Mitchell Weiser, the left wing-back, stayed higher to offer more cover of preferred options in the center, allowing Bayern to shift the ball to their left flank and pick up the tempo several times.

The power of patience

That bubble burst for the Bavarians within weeks of the restart. The offense was too stagnant; the defense wilted if opponents risked putting on pressure. The signings of João Cancelo and Daley Blind in the winter window could not fully fix those faults. Their record after 18 games was telling. A haul of 43 goals from ten victories contrasted to just nine from the other eight contests in which they dropped points. A year and a half into the job, these inconsistencies were becoming less permissible.

In a crisis, a leader might fall back on the tried and tested or be willing to adopt a new course. Perhaps the nerves were getting to Nagelsmann, who started to dabble between these two paths. He switched between a back four and a back three. Even with Davies and Cancelo at his disposal, he also deployed Gnabry and Coman as wing-backs. Sané earned more minutes as an interior. None of those ideas were new, but like their implementation in the past, these solutions brought up other problems.

59th minute: offensive transition from Mainz against Bayern Munich (01.02.2023). Lee Jae-Sung closed down a loose pass from Cancelo to turn over possession. Such ball losses, more frequent in the second half, revealed the vulnerabilities of Bayern’s three man defense. Mainz launch forward and turn toward the open right flank, where Danny da Costa breaks free from a slowly retreating Coman.

On the other hand, Nagelsmann went back to the tried and tested for the highest stake scenarios. For the visit of Union Berlin and the second leg against PSG, he set out his classic 3-1-5-1 shape on the ball. The Bavarians shifted into this structure from a back four. Josip Stanišić stayed as a deep right back, Davies’ advances pushed Musiala inside from the left, and Goretzka came into the fold in the middle of the park. This selection added aggression and security sorely missing in previous weeks.

Several figures were now on the fringes. Cancelo was without a starting spot, while Sané and Gnabry also dropped to the bench. The sacrifice for stability was sparkle, but the unit ended up as more than the sum of its parts. Goretzka’s efforts left Müller to direct from the front, Davies and Stanišić could manage danger on the flanks, and the bedrock of the central defense blossomed. Nagelsmann trusted these players to carry out his commands and deliver on the defensive details that decided these duels.

9th minute: defensive transition from Bayern against Union Berlin (26.02.2023) that illustrated these defensive developments. When Rani Khedira claims Müller’s loose layoff, Coman immediately attacks the ball to counterpress. Benjamin Pavard and Stanišić double up on Jordan Siebatcheu, so Matthijs de Ligt can assertively pressure Sheraldo Becker; Goretzka also drops to plug gaps after the ball loss.

Offense wins games, but defense decides championships. If this proverb was true, could the Bavarians bring it all together for the final furlong? We will never know. The board relieved Nagelsmann of his duties near the end of March. Advocates on both sides of the debate could advance a compelling case.

FC Hollywood (nearly) pay the price

The reigning champions had dropped 12 points from ten outings in 2023 and fallen into second place. Yet, for all their fluctuations, the outfit were still in three competitions and only endured three league defeats. The last of those losses, away at Bayer Leverkusen, was five days before the dismissal. No matter the height of expectations, this verdict was not merely in response to sporting affairs. Their new manager would be a man attuned to environments of power plays and politics: Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel is no stranger to stepping into the belly of the beast, catering to the culture and the context of clubs he has managed. His debut in the dugout, a 4-2 triumph in Der Klassiker, relied on a familiar focus. Switches to wide wingers, a 4-2-3-1 structure, and a Müller brace: the countercultural era was over. However, high risk does not appeal to Tuchel, whose wishes for security at the back were clear.

Reorganization of the offense kept five figures in reserve against attacks on the break. This principle affected the roles of several players. Kimmich was still at the base of midfield but now acted as an anchor to shore up the center of the field. At first, both fullbacks were also in reserve as safeguards.

Tuchel had reined in the offense, revoking his men the right to crash the box with a brutally high offensive presence. However, Nagelsmann lost his job at the point when he had brought balance back to this strategy. At a point in time when the devil in the details mattered most, it might not have been a worthwhile gamble. Now, the automatisms were absent to take apart low blocks at the highest level, and the squad still suffered from self-inflicted wounds their new manager was attempting to avoid.

Although signs of Tuchel’s style were present by May, the campaign continued to spiral. Bayern were out of the cups and on the cusp of calamity with a 3-1 loss to Leipzig. Only the disaster in Dortmund saved their crown. It was a far cry from the efficiency with which the Bavarians had conducted their business. This chaotic conclusion to the year would be the final straw. Tuchel could fix his focus on preseason, but Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić were casualties of the battle in the boardroom.

52nd minute: offensive rotation from Bayern against Werder Bremen (06.05.2023). Musiala drifted to the right and offered between the lines. Mazraoui passes to the midfielder, runs diagonally into the gap in Bremen’s defensive chain, and Coman attacks the space inside Anthony Jung. Coordinated movements released the edge of the penalty area, where Kimmich swept up a defensive clearance.

Takeaways

There was no guarantee Nagelsmann would have stayed in his post past this season. Over 21 months in charge of the club, he could not meet the brutally high benchmark of performance that has become the yardstick of judgment at Bayern Munich. Caught at a crossroads between what worked in the past and a radical appeal to the future, he never truly flourished to leave a lasting impression on the outfit.

However, he is not solely at fault for this outcome. If his allure lay in all that is new and modern, the board’s backing should have followed. A manager is only as good as the tools with which he enters the arena. Indeed, neither Nagelsmann nor Tuchel could overcome planning problems in the roster.

Signature signings have been slow in response. The striker saga is finally over: Harry Kane is at the club. But Konrad Laimer is no more of a sitting six than Kimmich, and defeat in the DFL Supercup was an indictment on preparations for the season. Though their extra firepower should blow apart most of the competition in the Bundesliga, the highest heights of the game still appear out of reach.