Former Bayern Munich star Lothar Matthäus is not one to hold back when it comes to his old team.
But Matthäus is a lot more optimistic these days now that the Bavarians are led by Vincent Kompany. And Matthäus went as far as to express disbelief that former coach Thomas Tuchel could ever have been hired — especially after Tuchel’s stints at Chelsea FC, Paris Saint-Germain, and Borussia Dortmund all featured the same frictions he again exhibited in Munich.
What is the difference? Matthäus elaborated at length in recent comments captured by Sport Bild.
“Kompany is looking for internal discussions, not public ones,” Matthaüs explained (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “The players like that. Before, they were criticized publicly, they were too bad for Bayern Munich. If I had heard ‘This is not a Matthäus game’ in the past, I would have asked the coach if he was crazy. Thomas Müller dealt with it in a better way. There are players with eight league titles like [Joshua] Kimmich and then I’m looking for a holding midfielder. There are coaches who want to change everything, which is actually good, I think Thomas Tuchel was one of them. Kompany took all the players on his journey like Alonso did in Leverkusen. I often said that I miss the Mia san mia feeling, that wasn’t FC Bayern, that family. They changed it, now the fans say: This is our FC Bayern again, it’s fun to go to the stadium again.
“The players have a sense of security now and would go through fire for the coach. The players did not feel free under Thomas Tuchel. I have nothing against Tuchel, and it’s not about having a different opinion at the table. But that didn’t work out with Bayern Munich. We knew that beforehand. It’s not as if Bayern didn’t see what problems he had in Dortmund, in Paris, and what problems he had in Chelsea, despite winning the Champions League. Something must have happened. PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi said to me: Lothar, I don’t understand why Bayern signed Thomas Tuchel. That’s a clear statement.”
Why did Bayern hire Tuchel, indeed? At least now it looks like the nightmare is over.
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