Max Eberl was hot property for a reason. In just shy of 15 years at Borussia Mönchengladbach he became one of Europe’s most admired sporting directors, returning one of Germany’s most famous names to prominence through multiple qualifications for the Champions League and Europa League. He built through smart signings and the promotion and development of quality academy products. The only surprise was that it took ill health – which he has thankfully recovered from – to shift him from his post rather than the overtures of one of the continent’s giants.
His experience and his clarity of thought is clear, with his work having spoken for itself over a number of years. The 50-year-old has also ridden out bumps in his career path, such as the venomous reaction of some Gladbach supporters to his choice to join RB Leipzig, and then Leipzig’s decision to abruptly part ways with him in September last year when they felt he was flirting with the possibility of work elsewhere.
There is dealing with difficulty and there is sorting out a spat at Bayern Munich with a pair of season-defining matches on the horizon. As Real Madrid roll into view, the head of sport has his hands full, even before an anticipated summer of change. Eberl might have had an Amazon Prime or Netflix documentary in mind; now, it should be clear to him that he is starring in The Thick Of It. Less than two months after he officially started work at Säbener Strasse, this is a formal Welcome To Bayern.
The on-the-pitch bit of Saturday’s 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, which contained Harry Kane’s 34th and 35th Bundesliga goals of the season, was almost anecdotal set against a backdrop of last week’s exchanged barbs and the coming week’s Champions League semi-final first leg. Thomas Tuchel, so often publicly defined by the intensity of his manner, cut quite a relaxed figure, talking of his players’ “exuberant” mood in the changing room as they looked forward to their big nights with El Real, starting at a throbbing Allianz Arena on Tuesday, unfettered by domestic pressure (even if they would have preferred it).
Maybe it was a sense of relief that there had been some football to sweep away the controversy, started when honorary president Uli Hoeness had criticised Tuchel’s work with young players in a panel discussion for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “He doesn’t think that you can improve [Aleksandar] Pavlovic, that you can improve [Alphonso] Davies,” said Hoeness. “And when he thinks that you can’t get any further, he thinks you should just go and buy.” Tuchel had responded before Saturday’s game in his pre-match words with Sky with “a little hurt” before going on to defend his record in “the last 15 years,” with no hint of belligerence. “We have proven young players always have a place.”
The tone of the criticism seemed designed to sting, and aimed to underline why Bayern must move on from Tuchel after a week in which some supporters had begun a petition calling on him to stay at the club next season. Bayern’s academy is a cornerstone of the club not always seen from the outside, with onlookers blinded by the lights of the star billing. Working with and developing young players, from Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Thomas Müller down the years to Jamal Musiala and Pavlovic today, is an absolute non-negotiable.
Dealing with Hoeness’s outbursts are a fact of life at Bayern. Still, Eberl would not be human if he did not privately curse having to get involved in a very public and untimely crossing of words between club legend and head coach on the eve of a game that is as crucial as it gets. “[I] don’t have to do anything,” insisted Eberl, asked on the disagreement. “These are two men who will pull themselves together and then focus everything [on Real Madrid].” He did, in a subsequent breath, admit that it had given him a taste of the specific atmosphere of Bayern. “It’s intense,” he said. “It feels like this coaching search is being talked about every two hours. It’s a club that seems to interest the whole nation.”
That Eberl didn’t exactly deny that the “one candidate” in mind is Ralf Rangnick, who will lead Austria to Euro 2024, offers some clue to why some Bayern fans might have Tuchel as their best [or least worst] option. Rangnick should not be defined by his time at Manchester United but has not spent much of the last decade as a frontline head coach. With Eberl working in tandem with sporting director Christoph Freund, formerly of Red Bull Salzburg, the arrival of Rangnick might suggest a Red Bull-ification of the boardroom – where Bayern used to define strategy, not take their favourite bits of someone else’s.
Bochum 3-2 Hoffenheim, Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 Stuttgart, Freiburg 1-2 Wolfsburg, Leipzig 4-1 Dortmund, Augsburg 0-3 Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt, Darmstadt 0-1 Heidenheim, Mainz 1-1 Köln, Mönchengladbach 0-0 Union Berlin
So ahead of Carlo Ancelotti and company arriving in Bavaria, Tuchel is the constant. On the pitch, it feels as if he is getting into the mindset that took Paris Saint-Germain to the 2020 final and Chelsea to victory in the following year. He treated Saturday’s win as a mini rehearsal, rather than an obligation to be fulfilled. The left-sided duo of Noussair Mazraoui and Raphaël Guerreiro, who between them shut out Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka in the quarter-final, were used again in the Frankfurt game. With Konrad Laimer prominent with a lung-busting run for Kane’s opener, it feels like Bayern will lean on physical power to try and prevail, just like Chelsea three years back.
If those Bayern players are feeling good ahead of the moment that makes or breaks their season, it could be because they are free of the pressure of being favourites. Or it could be because in Tuchel, they know they have a coach who has frequently traversed the back end of the Champions League with great success in recent years.
Talking points
• Dortmund had perhaps even more focus drawn to their own upcoming Champions League semi-final, against Paris Saint-Germain. In any other context their trip to Leipzig would have been a titanic battle for fourth place; instead, the combination of the knowledge that fifth place will almost certainly be good enough for Champions League qualification and the upcoming face-off with the newly crowned French champions meant it was a strangely pallid BVB, even after Jadon Sancho’s delicious curling shot to open the scoring. Marco Rose’s team responded firmly, scoring four times to move five points clear in fourth. “It really pisses me off to be so far behind [them],” sighed goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, acknowledging a vast improvement is needed to keep the Wembley dream alive.
• Do we even need to say Leverkusen kept their unbeaten run going with an equaliser against the ever-excellent Stuttgart in the seventh minute of stoppage time? Robert Andrich was the man to step up this week, driving in an uncleared corner. Xabi Alonso will miss the next leg of the bid to complete the Bundesliga season without losing; a fourth booking means he is suspended from the touchline in Frankfurt next week.
• If we’re talking the ultimate pressure penalty, let’s look no further than Köln captain Florian Kainz, netting in the 95th minute to earn a draw at Mainz and [only just] keep hope alive of an Effzeh great escape from relegation, five points adrift of the relegation playoff spot.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 31 | 55 | 81 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 31 | 51 | 69 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 31 | 32 | 64 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 31 | 38 | 62 |
| 5 | Borussia Dortmund | 31 | 20 | 57 |
| 6 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 31 | 5 | 45 |
| 7 | Freiburg | 31 | -12 | 40 |
| 8 | Augsburg | 31 | -4 | 39 |
| 9 | Hoffenheim | 31 | -8 | 39 |
| 10 | Heidenheim | 31 | -8 | 37 |
| 11 | Werder Bremen | 31 | -9 | 37 |
| 12 | Wolfsburg | 31 | -14 | 34 |
| 13 | Borussia M'gladbach | 31 | -7 | 32 |
| 14 | Union Berlin | 31 | -24 | 30 |
| 15 | VfL Bochum | 31 | -25 | 30 |
| 16 | Mainz | 31 | -17 | 28 |
| 17 | Cologne | 31 | -30 | 23 |
| 18 | Darmstadt | 31 | -43 | 17 |
