Bayern Munich fires Julian Nagelsmann

Wherever he’s, George Steinbrenner should’ve smiled and nodded on the information of Bayern Munich firing their supervisor with three-quarters of the season gone. Not solely would which have reminded Large Steinn of his “glory” days (clearly the Yankees didn’t regain their spot atop the baseball world till Steinbrenner calmed the fuck down), however so would the requirements that Munich apparently discover acceptable and unacceptable. Julian Nagelsmann obtained shitcanned after successful the Bundesliga final yr, and presently one level off the highest of the league and within the Champions League quarterfinals. This was not ok on the Allianz Enviornment, by some means.

However that is how issues take a look at a membership like Bayern when the membership has gained the final 10 Bundesliga titles and didn’t should sweat all that a lot for any of them. All of the sudden being in a title race would possibly sound all of the “battle stations” cries within the membership places of work… nevertheless it additionally looks as if probably the most first-world issues of any membership on the planet. Although Juventus did fireplace Maurizio Sarri after he gained the Serie A as a result of Cristiano Ronaldo informed them to, and so they haven’t been shut since. May very well be a lesson there.

So what was Munich’s reasoning? There was a downshift of their performances this season for certain, however one wonders how a lot that’s Naglesmann’s fault. They’re down from 2.26 factors per recreation final season to 2.08 this, thus the title race they’re mired in (although a few of that’s attributable to enchancment from Borussia Dortmund, the newest staff to go full Ewing Principle after the departure of Erling Haaland). The underlying numbers kind of inform the identical story. Whereas Munich’s objective distinction is +45, nearly on monitor with final season’s +60 after the entire season, their anticipated objective distinction has shrunk from 52.7 in 2021-2022 to “simply” 25.9 this season.

Maybe what scared the Munich higher-ups, in the event that they seemed this deeply, is that Munich have been wildly outshooting their metrics thus far this season in assault. They’ve 72 objectives from an anticipated objectives rely of 53.2. There’s been an uptick in Bayern’s goals-per-shot and goals-per-shot-on-target with none improve within the quantity of probabilities or pictures they get. That’s been greatest exhibited by Jamal Musiala and Eric Maxim Choupo-Mouting each nearly doubling up their anticipated objectives tally with their precise objective tally. There was some luck concerned (Choupo-Mouting is scoring on 77 % of the pictures he places on track for fuck’s sake), and perhaps Bayern was afraid that luck would dry up within the season’s final two months.

You possibly can level to, nevertheless, Munich dropping Robert Lewandowski earlier than this season and his alternative, Sadio Mané, barely getting on the sphere after the World Cup because of damage. If Munich solid a watch to Mané’s former teammates in Liverpool and noticed the ravages the 63-game marketing campaign of final season had wrought, they’d in all probability conclude they obtained barely broken items in Mane. It must be to Nagelsmann’s credit score that he’s been capable of cobble collectively a lot and not using a primetime central striker for a lot of the season.

A tough man to like

It’s onerous to consider that Munich would make this transfer that reeks of desperation so near the tip of the season purely based mostly on metrics although, and with a lot to nonetheless lose. It’s not onerous to see Nagelsmann guiding this staff to a treble, which remains to be very a lot on. And so they might lose all three of these trophies as effectively, and there might be lots specializing in the change in supervisor ought to that occur.

From some stories, Nagelsmann was fairly onerous on his gamers, and that didn’t actually soften over his one-and-three-quarter-year tenure. Nagelsmann additionally had a behavior of bending his ways to that week’s opponents, which rubbed some gamers the incorrect approach. In spite of everything, that is BAYERN MUNICH. You present up, do what you do, and make everybody else alter to you. You don’t concern your self with the tendencies of the plebes. Or perhaps it was simply this jacket.

Nonetheless, that was extra a behavior of his when at RB Leipzig, who did want the additional juice of being tactically versatile provided that they only didn’t have the expertise that Munich had. At Leipzig, Nagelsmann would recurrently bounce from a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 to the standard Crimson Bull set-up of a 4-2-2-2. Munich this season have nearly completely performed in a 4-2-3-1, which orbits the staff across the energy of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Gortezka in midfield. Nagelsmann did swap to a three-at-the-back system for the primary leg in opposition to PSG, which noticed Munich stroll out of the Parc de Princes with a win and eventual development. He’d been utilizing that system extra within the league of late too. Is that what scared Bayern?

There have been additionally rumors that Nagelsmann by no means gained over Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller, two establishments on the roster. However they’re each effectively into their 30s, and Neuer is out for the season with an damage, so if that have been true how for much longer does Munich plan on catering to those two?

If it was all this, Thomas Tuchel is a humorous appointment then, given how a lot he favors a 3-4-3 system too. Tuchel as effectively has been identified to drive his gamers nuts after a short time together with his rabid consideration to element. His groups have been additionally by no means identified for being terribly dynamic in assault, and Munich have already got a water-tight protection. What precisely are they aiming for?

It’s additionally simply concerning the worst-possible timing for a brand new supervisor. There’s presently a global break, that means Tuchel gained’t get his full squad again to coach till Tuesday or Wednesday. Saturday sees the go to of Dortmund, the largest recreation in Germany this season. 10 days after that’s the Champions League quarter in opposition to Manchester Metropolis, who simply dispatched Leipzig eleventy-billion to at least one or no matter it was within the final spherical.

This positively feels a bit just like the play the outdated “FC Hollywood” days. It’s a chilly, chilly world the place even the potential for solely having gained 10 of 11 Bundesliga titles is taken into account a failure, however that’s apparently the deal at Bayern Munich.