display
His speeches were long and very clear.
Hansi Flick, 55, has brought his players together on Säbener Straße several times in the past few days: as a team, in small groups, for individual discussions.
And he made it clear what he expected from them.
“A top team does not only stand out when things go well.
It excels when things
don't go
well, ”said the Bayern coach.
This Sunday (3:30 p.m., in the sports ticker of the WELT), the German soccer record champions in the Bundesliga will receive SC Freiburg.
After five wins in a row (club record!), The Breisgauer are as self-confident as the Munich team would like to be.
The Bavarians, which have long been unbeatable, inviolable and unstoppable, have become defeatable again, fragile and vulnerable.
The opponents have adjusted to them, the enormous stress of the packed Corona season poses problems for the squad.
"It stutters a bit, we had to experience that brutally on Wednesday," said Flick.
That is very mild to say.
The triple Bayern have currently lost their shine and somehow seem deciphered.
With the claim, it's a crisis
display
After just one defeat in 2020, they lost two of their three competitive games this year, the 2: 3 against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the league was followed on Wednesday by the end of the DFB Cup at the second division club Holstein Kiel.
In a world association with Mia-san-Mia self-claims, that's a crisis.
And in one of these, the focus is automatically on the trainer.
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.
Activate external content
I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
Flick, the architect of the triple.
After the three titles in the preseason, there was talk of a new era that he should shape.
Now the issues are completely different: conceded goals, coordination problems, purchasing policy and lack of concentration.
Now even Flick's game philosophy, which was decisive for the success in 2020, is being questioned.
However, it is by no means just Flick's crisis.
Questions pop up: Is the squad well positioned enough across the board?
Was it just an accident at work - or are the problems more profound?
How harmoniously do the coach and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic work together?
Are the players fed up?
Flick looks back on an incredible debut year at Bayern.
The players celebrated his successes like in this photo after winning the DFB-Pokal
Source: POOL / AFP via Getty Images
display
The outstanding form of the preseason is not normal for Bayern either, said Flick on Friday: "I actually expected that we would get a slump earlier."
A look at his previous crises as a coach shows how special his career is.
As head coach, he only had two positions before Bayern: at FC Victoria Bammental and at TSG Hoffenheim.
With Bammental, he rose from the league at the end of the 90s.
With TSG Hoffenheim, Flick was too far away from promotion to the club patron Dietmar Hopp in the Regionalliga in 2005, and the club separated from him after five years.
As head coach there was a break afterwards.
Until Flick took over Bayern at the end of 2019.
After the tensions between the team and then coach Niko Kovac, the players were happy to get a coach in Flick who would have a lot of conversations.
He improved the atmosphere, strengthened the team spirit.
Bayern won everything, Flick set records and brought plenty of trophies to the club's museum four months ago.
Now for the first time he is challenged as a crisis manager in the football elite.
Conceded 31 goals in three competitions
display
After the historic success, it was a gradual process that led Bayern into crisis.
Your defensive problems have become more and more extreme in recent months.
They have already conceded 31 goals in the three competitions.
In the fall, the offensive was able to compensate for this weakness, now it no longer works.
Since the end of October, Munich have not remained in a game without conceding a goal.
Club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge puts pressure: “The big individual defensive mistakes need to be eliminated.” They want to “play like FC Bayern again” not only offensively but also defensively.
The reasons for the master's weaknesses are complex.
Flick analyzed that little things were missing.
They add up, a tired team cannot compensate for them.
The Munich team do not defend effectively enough, and they also miss the last percent offensively.
"The mental freshness is missing," Flick recently stated.
It is human that players are fed up with titles and records.
Bayern are in the triple hole.
Flick and the players said a long time ago that such a phase could come because of the many games.
But you also emphasized that this should not be an alibi.
Neuer writes to the fans
Manuel Neuer addresses the fans in the current club magazine.
The captain writes about the lack of an audience in the stadiums: “For my part, I feel everything in a game, for example when a shot flies past the goal, this murmur in the stands - all these noises make you tingle as to why you are up gives everything to the place. "
Neuer talked longer with Joshua Kimmich about it.
They all agree: the team and the coaching team are still very close, the players want to push each other on the pitch.
But that doesn't work out as hoped.
Bayern look drained.
Flick complained that his professionals had recently talked too little to one another on the field.
This is where you will find third-party content
In order to interact with or display content from third parties, we need your consent.
Activate external content
I consent to content from third parties being displayed to me.
This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.
This may require the storage of cookies on your device.
More information can be found here.
In sport, great successes are often followed by phases of weakness.
It's always a fine line for coaches. There is a lot to be said for continuing to rely on the previous top performers.
At the same time, changes are good for you and are often even essential.
display
An important player left the club in Thiago in the summer, including Philippe Coutinho and the reliable Ivan Perisic.
Bayern spent 62 million euros on new players before the season, eight were added.
Including offensive star Leroy Sané, defender Bouna Sarr, midfielder Marc Roca, attacker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, defensive talent Tanguy Nianzou and winger Douglas Costa.
No winter access planned
But the entrances seem to have not really arrived so far.
The substitutes put too little pressure on the starting eleven, Sané is seldom the "difference player" he is supposed to be.
The Bavarians are not planning winter access.
Instead, they demand more concentration in the club.
Flick calls it “being more awake”.
Another question that concerns the club: Does Flick have to change tactics and play more energy-efficient?
The coach annoys that the goals conceded arise from situations that he has pointed out over and over again.
There has hardly been time for training in which a team can develop a tactical plan B for months.
Bastian Schweinsteiger won the 2014 World Cup with Flick as assistant to national coach Joachim Löw.
The ARD expert analyzes: “You can tell with the teams that play against Bayern that they are trying to exploit this high level of defense.
It seems to me as if the code is being deciphered so slowly. "
Flick, on the other hand, emphasizes that you don't just follow a stubborn tactical plan, "we'll keep adjusting one or the other".
He won't be the "nice Hansi" in the coming weeks.
The coach has announced that he will not accept any excuses.
By the end of February, the Munich team has eleven games, including the Club World Cup in Qatar.
Board member Oliver Kahn recalls the 2000/01 season.
At that time, he and Salihamidzic also retired with Bayern in the second round of the cup, against the fourth division club 1. FC Magdeburg.
"Half a year later, we won the Champions League," says the goalkeeper legend.
"Now we have to get to the New Year as quickly as possible!"
A sentence that is both a motivation and a warning for the Bayern stars.
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.
Source: WELT AM SONNTAG