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There is again a need for discussion at Bayern Munich.
And a lot of work for the so far used head coach Hans-Dieter Flick.
Once again it was the old Bayern rival Borussia Mönchengladbach who in the revived Bundesliga classic showed the record champions' defensive problems with such serious consequences as no team had done for a long time.
“When you see our game, you can see somewhere where we have problems.
We just have to improve, ”said Flick after the 2: 3 (2: 2) on Friday evening.
It has long been known that Bayern are vulnerable in defense this season.
Also that the French world champion Benjamin Pavard is in a crisis of form and national player Niklas Süle occasionally affords dropouts that you would not necessarily expect on the defense of a triple winner.
Nevertheless, Bayern had not lost 20 competitive games in a row until Friday because of their individual strength and world footballer Robert Lewandowski.
Until an opponent like Gladbach came back at the top level.
“Gladbach was very efficient.
They brutally exploited three of our mistakes, ”said Flick appreciatively.
“They did one thing.” Flick has lost four Bundesliga games as Bayern coach so far.
Twice the opponent was called Mönchengladbach.
As in the 1: 2 at Borussia-Park 13 months ago, coach Marco Rose's team turned a deficit.
This time Munich was already 2-0 after a hand penalty from Lewandowski (20th minute) and a long-range hammer from Leon Goretzka (26th).
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The fact that the record champions lost again shows that Gladbach is on the best way back to old strength with the recovered double scorer Jonas Hofmann (36th / 45th).
"After a 2-0 win you can still go to Munich with three points," emphasized Flick.
Together with Goretzka, he openly addressed Bayern's other problem: the individual mistakes in defense.
New in ten games not without conceding a goal
“I think it's not that difficult to explain.
We lose the ball twice where we are not allowed to lose it, ”said Goretzka about the ball losses in the forward gear in the first half, which Gladbach's captain Lars Stindl took advantage of with two perfect passes to Hofmann.
Especially outrageous was Süle's mistake before the 2: 3 by Florian Neuhaus (49th).
"We clearly invited the opponent three times and they took their chance," said Goretzka.
In particular, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer brought the blunders to despair.
With eyes wide open, the national goalkeeper roared after the goals conceded and, after the final whistle, thrashed the ball into the stands in anger.
No wonder: For the first time in his career, he conceded at least one goal in the tenth game in a row.
For weeks he has been waiting to finally set Oliver Kahn's record of 196 games to zero.
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Even if Bayern have always been able to score despite the defensive problems, the defensive is currently hardly ready for the title.
The last time they conceded 24 goals - as many as Arminia Bielefeld - after 15 games was in the 1981/1982 season.
In 1982 FC Bayern finished third
At that time, the defense around Klaus Augenthaler and Wolfgang Dremmler even conceded 25 hits in the first 15 match days, in the end it was 56, and Bayern were in third place.
Even if this should happen again, the champions would be different - at that time, Hamburger SV celebrated its third of four Bundesliga titles to date.
Klaus Augenthaler (left) in the early 80s in a running duel with Lothar Matthäus from Gladbach
Source: pa / United Archive / Werner Otto
The current defensive behavior is also problematic with regard to the tasks in the Champions League.
They got a foretaste of the first knockout rounds from the Lower Rhine, who deliberately wanted to take advantage of Bayern's high attack with vertical balls on Hofmann and did so.
“We will work on it.
That's our job as coach, ”said Flick.
"That we protect against the ball and, if the ball is lost, also the depth." But there is little time to practice: There are four competitive games in the next 14 days.