"The challenge couldn't be higher!" During his first press conference, a week ago at the Allianz Arena, Thomas Tuchel summed up in one sentence what awaits him for his new challenge after his three spells at Dortmund (2015/17), Paris (2018/2020) and Chelsea (2021/22) concluded in tumult.

With the weather changing at the end of winter, "TT" showed up at the training ground at Säbener Strasse sometimes with hat, gloves and warm parka in the Bavarian cold for its first session on Tuesday, sometimes with cap and lighter tracksuit on Wednesday and Thursday, but still under the threat of a heavy rain shower.

A threat in the sky but also on the pitch, because the winner of the Champions League 2021 with Chelsea arrives in a complicated context for Bayern, deprived of its chair of leader nine days from the end of the season. Unheard of (or almost) in Bayern's hegemonic decade (2012/22) and its ten consecutive German league titles.

Offensive puzzle

Placed immediately after the international break, this "Klassiker" does not offer the best timing to Tuchel, who has recovered his internationals only in dribs and drabs, from Tuesday, to be full only on Thursday (with the exception of Canadian Alphonso Davies).

A fan of training sessions, he could well "corner" one more Saturday morning, match day, but has already warned that he "will not implement big changes in game systems or scenarios", while three-quarters of the season took place under Nagelsmann.

During his time at Chelsea for just over 21 months, the native of Krumbach (a hundred kilometers from Munich) essentially played with a three-man defense, a system that Nagelsmann put in place after the January break, around the Frenchmen Dayot Upamecano and Benjamin Pavard, and the Dutchman Matthijs De Ligt.

Bayern's new coach Thomas Tuchel leads his first training session in Munich, March 28, 2023 © Michaela Rehle / AFP/Archives

It is especially offensively that the puzzle for Tuchel will arise with a plethora of players and no less than seven world-class players (Kingsley Coman, Sadio Mané, Jamal Musiala, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry). Inevitably there will be disappointed, with only three or four places to take.

"We have to make sure we create a good combination very quickly, so we can win games," said midfielder Joshua Kimmich, one of Nagelsmann's main relays in the dressing room.

Stop constancy in inconstancy

In a nod to history, Tuchel will find himself on the coaching bench for a Bundesliga match against Borussia Dortmund, which he left with force and a bang in the summer of 2017.

Marked by the attack on the bus of his team in the quarter-finals return of the Champions League against Monaco in April 2017, he had strongly criticized his president Hans-Joachim Watzke for having agreed to reschedule the match the day after the attack.

Edin Terzic's Borussia Dortmund remain on a convincing victory during the reception of FC Cologne, March 18, 2023 © INA FASSBENDER / AFP/Archives

After Dortmund, the program will not be easy, far from it, with the double confrontation against Freiburg in the Cup on Tuesday (20:45) and in the league the following Saturday (15:30), then the quarter-final of the Champions League against Manchester City.

Tuchel's first challenge will be to find consistency for Bayern, who have distinguished themselves this season by consistency in inconsistency that has cost Nagelsmann his place.

© 2023 AFP