After crashing out of Champions League at the hands of Manchester City, Bayern are stuck in limbo as they face what’s next. Thomas Tuchel was brought in to ensure that the team had the best chance possible to advance, but while the club played a better second leg against City, at the end of the day the best case scenario for Bayern is winning the Bundesliga, and even that isn’t guaranteed with the club leading Borussia Dortmund by only two points.
Even winning the league isn’t so much an accomplishment for Bayern in Germany as the minimum expectation. After winning the league 10 times in a row, it’s hard to celebrate doing it again, especially when cracks are beginning to show around the roster. A winter that saw Manuel Neuer break his leg and need to be replaced by Yann Sommer was one of many bumps in the road along the way for Bayern. From new signing Sadio Mane and Leroy Sane getting into a spat to firing Julian Nagelsmann after only 1.5 years in charge the club doesn’t seem to know what they want.
Questions were asked about how Robert Lewandowski would be replaced but Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has done that with 17 goals and four assists in all competitions. The issue has been that the defense hasn’t held up against top teams.
“I’ve been here [at the Allianz Arena] quite a few times. It’s normally a very confident place. Its always shown great leadership, it’s always dealt with whatever problems have come their way in a good manner but also, very quickly. But at the moment, they are being criticized, literally from everywhere. All of their fans, the media, and former players,” Peter Schmeichel said on the CBS UEFA Champions League Pre-Match show before.
“And it’s by not dealing with the problems that arose… they are heavily criticized for not having reported out what the punishment is [between Mane and Sane]. Normally they deal with these things. So the criticism goes for…
