Thomas Tuchel will not be the perfect manager for Man United, but it's hard to imagine him tolerating a team as tactically flawed as Erik ten Hag.
Just 11 minutes into the second half of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid's Champions League showdown at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday night, Thomas Tuchel showed exactly why he is the way he is. Top candidates to become Manchester United's next manager.
The former Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea manager will leave Bayern at the end of the season, regardless of whether he leads the club to a seventh European Cup win. And according to reports, the 50-year-old is the front-runner if Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS braintrust decide to let Erik ten Hag go as part of the Old Trafford overhaul. It is said that there is.
What United will gain from Tuchel's appointment was clear in the way he adjusted his team's approach as Bayern went into half-time leading 1-0 through Vinicius Junior.
Bayern have typically used a 4-2-3-1 formation this season. Against Madrid, they started in a 4-2-2-2, with Leon Goretzka and Konrad Reimer as the deepest midfielders, with Leroy Sane and Jamal Musiala in front of them as the two No. 10s, and Harry Kane joined the attack point. Thomas Müller, full-back, provided width.
This set-up allowed Bayern to control the center of the pitch and limit the visitors to just one shot. The only problem? Madrid needed that shot to score. Bayern, on the other hand, had left-footed Sane placed in the center left and right-footed Musiala on the right, but they lacked bite in the final third.
The problem was discovered when Tuchel sat his players down during the break. Bayern switched to their usual 4-2-3-1 in the second period, with Sane returning to the right flank and Musiala on the opposite flank.
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“We started very well. In the first half we wanted two strikers and two wingers, and we wanted to support them at full-back,” Tuchel explained after the match.
They were strong at the beginning of the match, but after conceding a goal, they lost a bit of their rhythm and confidence in exploiting gaps, and also lost their passing speed. Therefore, in the second half, we changed players, placed more aggressive wingers in wider positions, and tried to make our passes more aggressive by increasing dribbling from outside to inside.
done. And soon. Sane equalized just eight minutes after the match restarted, cutting in from his usual position on the right and firing a left-footed shot past Andriy Lunin.
At the other end of the pitch, Musiala, Bayern's most talented dribbler, began to trouble Real right-back Lucas Vazquez, twisting the converted winger inside out as he streamed in from the left. The former England youth international did just that in the 57th minute, winning a penalty which Harry Kane converted.
However, Vinicius scored his second goal of the game after a clumsy penalty in the 83rd minute. Tuchel's ingenuity would have given Bayern an important win in the first leg..
Still, the fact that the coach pointed out the flaws in his team and quickly corrected them affected the game, giving Bayern the upper hand. It was an example of the quick tactical thinking that stood out at Old Trafford, where he seems to have been praised. Tuchel responded to his team's needs within minutes, but months later, United are still plagued by the same tactical problems.
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It's hard to imagine Tuchel's tactical thinking making it easier for a team to play centrally, as United have this season, for example. Or you can watch your opponent score regularly with roughly the same pattern of play. Without blocking the hole, he moves the ball all the way to the byline, inevitably cutting back to an unmarked shooter somewhere between the penalty spot and the edge of the 18-yard box. .Or will you stand by his side? Driven to the brink of humiliating defeat After giving up a three-goal lead in the FA Cup semi-final against a Championship team, they were unable to regain control of the game.
Tuchel is far from United's perfect candidate if the Red Devils decide they need a change in the dugout this summer. He was abrasive and difficult, and almost every job he held ended in conflict with higher-ups. His hard-hitting tactical style is tough on his players, and the longer he stays in his post, the more tired he becomes of his methods and the less his results tend to be. And now he has the unwanted honor of being Bayern's manager, relinquishing the club's 10-year reign in the Bundesliga.
However, there is no doubting his tactical acumen. He has the deep understanding of the game to identify the types of on-field problems that have plagued United all season, as well as the communication and coaching skills to find and implement solutions quickly. Masu.
If, as seems increasingly likely, Ten Hag's tenure proves hopeless, and Tuchel takes over, another opponent will cut through Man United's heart. The confused looks on the sideline and the score from yet another simple cutback will go down in history.
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