“The season is not yet lost, it will be over when it is over,” said Thomas Tuchel, the coach of a convalescing Bayern Munich, before facing Arsenal on Tuesday in the Champions League, a competition where the club German has “more experience”.
The German giant with six Champions League titles is going through a difficult season in the Bundesliga, completely left behind in the title race by Bayer Leverkusen after two new losses conceded in a row. “We are being criticized and it is deserved after our performances in the league and the Cup,” admitted Tuchel at a press conference on Monday in London. “The consistency in our performances was not there, (nor) the hunger, the passion that is expected of us in the Bundesliga,” he listed.
But Bayern played at “a higher level” on the European stage, once again reaching the top 8. “The minimum target has been achieved, there are also great teams who are not in the quarter-finals and we often forgets it,” underlined the coach who will leave at the end of the season.
Tuchel highlighted the time given to Mikel Arteta to grow his team, a veiled criticism aimed at his own leaders. “There has been a complete culture change with Arteta, you see his signature there. The club clearly knew the path they wanted to take with him, and it’s paying off massively now. The team and the coach are one, it shows,” he said.
The North London team plays a “very fluid, dominant, aggressive game, it’s very difficult to score them goals. They deserve the highest compliments. But, because there is always a but, we will try to be strong tomorrow (Tuesday), we will try to find solutions. It’s not the Premier League, it’s the Champions League. We have more experience in this competition. Arsenal are playing their first C1 quarter-final since 2010. Conversely, Bayern are there for the 22nd time in their history (a record), the 12th time in 13 years.
