Max Eberl's Bayern Challenge: Navigating Tuchel's Tensions and the Champions League Crunch

Key Takeaways

• Max Eberl steps into Bayern Munich amidst a flurry of challenges, including internal spats and crucial matches.
• Thomas Tuchel's handling of Bayern's young talent and the club's strategy has sparked controversy.
• Bayern's upcoming Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid puts additional pressure on the team and management.

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 clarity of thought are 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, Phillip 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.

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, which shut out Bukayo Saka, 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.