FC Bayern Forum

IsiahRashad wrote:

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Who the fook is making those ratings ?!

Lewandowski only 89 haha
Thiago only 87
No Lucas ? in the first 100, which is unacceptable. He's at least 87. At least.
But they put Süle on 85.

IsiahRashad wrote:

Can't see tweet? Click here!

Who the fook is making those ratings ?!

Lewandowski only 89 haha
Thiago only 87
No Lucas ? in the first 100, which is unacceptable. He's at least 87. At least.
But they put Süle on 85.

Niko Kovac looked crestfallen after Bayern Munich’s historic 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. His expressions thoughtful, his face color ashen after a disastrous performance by his side.

“How should I know just after the game?” Kovac said after the game when asked about his future. “My feeling is not important. Those who make the decisions are the ones that you should ask."

Kovac, however, also spoke about the usual mechanisms of the game. "I know how this business works,” Kovac said. “I'm not naive. I did not give up before and will not give up now. You have to stick to the things you believe in.”

Then on Sunday, several outlets reported that Kovac would be given another two games—the Champions League match against Olympiacos and the Klassiker against Dortmund—to rescue his job.

On the surface, it was an odd decision. While Bayern’s Champions League round of 16 is not in doubt the Klassiker against a Borussia Dortmund in the state that Bayern presented itself would have invited another disaster.Nonetheless, on Sunday morning, Kovac led the practice session at the Säbener Straße. Then in the evening, Kovac and the Bayern bosses got together to discuss the situation with the conclusion that it was no longer possible to work together.“I think that this is the right decision for the club at the moment,” Niko Kovac said in a public statement published by the club. “The results, and also the way we played lately, made me come to that decision.”

“We all regret this development,” Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in the public statement issued by the club. “I would like to thank Niko Kovac on behalf of FC Bayern for his work, especially for winning the double last season.”

“The performance of our team in recent weeks and the results have shown that there was a need for action,” Rummenigge added.

Officially, Bayern and Kovac have mutually terminated their agreement that would have run until 2021. Below the surface, however, the divorce between Kovac and Bayern might be more complicated than what it appeared in the statements made by both parties.

First, there is the fact that Kovac said that he would like to fight for his job. Somewhere between his statement in Frankfurt, the practice session on Sunday, and the decision to part ways, Kovac must have had a change of hearts.

The likeliest explanation is that Kovac realized that he was leading a group of players no longer willing to follow. A development that he was partly responsible for with statement made in recent weeks.

“You have to have the players for that kind of pressing game,” Kovac said just a couple weeks ago when asked whether Bayern could play like Liverpool. “You can't drive at 200 on the Autobahn with a limit of 100.”

The statement about players not being able to play 200km/h football, in particular, raised eye-brows in Germany. But it was the second part of the quote that underlined Kovac’s problems with the squad.

“Klopp has also been there for four years now,” Kovac said. “We talk about continuity, which apparently doesn't exist anymore.”

In other words, Kovac demanded time to rebuild Bayern. But where other coaches protect their team, Kovac underlined his importance, playing the victim rather than taking responsibility for the product that Bayern put on the pitch.

It was not his only faux pa. A month ago ahead of Bayern’s 2-1 defeat to Hoffenheim Kovac declared Bayern legend Thomas Müller was nothing more than a last resort, a stop-gap player should others go down with an injury.

Without a doubt, Müller has long been looking for the sort of form that made him one of the best players in the world. But the statement was ill-received inside the dressing room where Müller still holds a substantial amount of power.Ultimately, when the dust settles, Kovac might point towards the injuries of Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernández when trying to explain Bayern’s defensive problems.

Under Kovac, Bayern, however, struggled already last season to keep clean sheets. High-pressing teams, in particular, found it easy to overwhelm Bayern. The defeat to Liverpool is a good example. But smaller sides like Fortuna Düsseldorf and Hertha also found ways to hurt Bayern.

Even with Süle and Hernández in the lineup, Bayern had poor results. The bottom-line is that the absence of both players does not explain Bayern being vulnerable when losing the ball in counter-pressing situations.

It is here where Kovac can rightfully deflect some of the blame onto the club. As it was not Kovac’s fault that Bayern’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić failed to address the need for a defensive midfielder.

Instead, Bayern focused on signing Leroy Sané and when that failed brought in Philippe Coutinho. Both are wonderful players and in their own ways, can strengthen Bayern’s attacking play. But the focus on Sané, the last-minute transfer of Coutinho, which was brought across the line by Rummenigge after Sané tore his ACL, also highlights a lack of a transfer strategy.

“I now expect a positive development from our players and an absolute motivation to achieve our goals for this season,” Salihamidžić said on Sunday. But what about beyond this season?

The search for a new head coach is now officially underway at the Säbener Straße. But the club will also have to conduct some soul searching and ask itself whether it needs structural changes that go beyond former head coach Niko Kovac.