Bayern Munich: Thomas Muller flabbergasted by Gladbach defeat
After 24 hours since the historic 5-0 defeat at Borussia Park, it is still difficult to digest the performance from Bayern Munich. The German Champions were thoroughly outplayed by the home side, which eventually turned out to be their heaviest defeat in DFB Pokal history.
The defeat comes as a major surprise as Die Roten has been steadily improving under Julian Nagelsmann. The defending Bundesliga Champions have been delivering good performances along with perfect results in the past couple of months. They did suffer a blip against Eintracht Frankfurt before the international break, but Wednesday’s result and performance were just mind-blowing in the wrong sense.
Rekordmeister has been scoring goals for fun in the past month or so. The defensive unit has also looked solid, conceding very few chances every game. Against Monchengladbach, Bayern was just hapless offensively and defensively.
After the way Die Roten started on Wednesday night, the game was over in the first quarter as Gladbach raced to a three-goal lead. The performance against Gladbach in DFB Pokal has also come as a shock for the players. While talking to Sky Sports after the game, Thomas Muller insisted that the defeat against Gladbach was the worst collective performance in a big game during his time in Bavaria.
"“I haven’t seen such a collective failure from a Bayern team in an important game before. That’s why it’s difficult to wrap your head round, to be honest.”“We never got to the point where our Bayern engine kicked in. We can only apologise to the fans and congratulate Gladbach. With the exception of Neuer, it was a catastrophic performance from us.”"
Die Roten has managed to make strong comebacks after going goal or two down in the recent past. On Wednesday, they never looked like coming back in the game at any point. At one stage, it was more about damage limitation as Monchengladbach was efficient with every attacking move.
Muller’s thoughts about collective failures will echo with fans’ opinions on this game. The players on the pitch were struggling to win individual duels. They were not winning the second balls, while the defensive line was consistently making individual errors. It was a complete horror show for the defending Bundesliga champions.
For the second season in a row, Die Roten has exited DFB Pokal in the second round. They had suffered a defeat on penalty shootouts. The DFB Pokal is not at the top of the list of trophies Die Roten targets every year, but the manner of defeat on Wednesday is concerning for the rest of the season.
Next. Tolisso could get flurry of offers in January. dark
The players will be raring to bounce back against Union Berlin on Saturday. The bitter taste from Wednesday’s defeat will be there for the Bavarian faithful for a few weeks, but a good result on Saturday is crucial to get back on track. It remains to be seen whether Julian Nagelsmann will be on the touchline against Union Berlin. The German manager has been working remotely since testing positive for coronavirus last week.