If there’s one man who is happy the international break is here, it has to be Julian Nagelsmann, the Bayern Munich manager. It has been a tough season for Bayern Munich as their dominance in the past years has been checked and for the first time in many years, the Bavarians look like they will be dethroned in the Bundesliga title race.
Going into the first international break of the year, Bayern Munich finds itself in unfamiliar waters. They are second in the league standings, two points behind league leaders Borussia Dortmund, who are not only in great shape but also have considerably few matches and more rest in their schedule.
The last of play in the Bundesliga before the international break had Bayern Munich suffer a 2-1 loss away to Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and as club action takes a break, the scrutiny is sure to rise on the manager. His comments before the loss to Leverkusen will definitely not make things easy for Nagelsmann after the youthful manager indicated that there is a mole within, sharing team information.
These sentiments come in the wake of the earlier sacking of goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic, apparently for sharing information from the coaches’ meetings with goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Bayern Munich are seriously struggling defensively in 2023 and the Germany Bundesliga predictions available on SportyTrader haven’t been so great for them in this aspect. If they are to seriously challenge for the title, this is an area to improve on, after keeping just two clean sheets in 10 league games this year. It doesn’t help matters that their opponents are doing well on that front.
The bottom line still will remain, how Nagelsmann performs, and how he deals with issues when his team is struggling. While the Bundesliga giants aren’t known for sacking managers, this one stands out as a potential one to get the boot.
Tapalovic’s sacking just about raised the tensions at the team and reports indicate there’s a lot of unease under the manager. Nagelsmann, who has served two seasons as Bayern Manager seeing through the sacking of a member of the team who has been there for 11 years, and with a great personal relationship with Manuel Neuer has served to raise tensions and performance after the international break will say a lot about his future.
However, it is not all bleak for Nagelsmann; beating French giants PSG in the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League means the Bavarians still have a chance at winning bigger silverware and this may be the major bargaining chip for the coach.
Injuries to some of his top players, coupled with key departures have not helped a lot and as Nagelsmann takes stock of everything that has happened this season, such will be important to consider. The club’s top scorer Robert Lewandowski left for Barcelona while his replacement Sadio Mane has struggled with injury for the better part of the season after a good start to life in Munich. Injuries to Lucas Hernandez at the World Cup and later Manuel Neuer have made things further complicated, and Nagelsmann can only hope the ‘mole’ is found out, and things improve on the pitch.
