Hamann vs. Tuchel
The game of barking dogs has escalated
Dietmar Hamann doesn't let up. The football nation's chief critic takes on FC Bayern and its coach week after week. He can't find a good hair. Not only Thomas Tuchel is extremely annoyed, the club also intervenes. Does this never stop?
Woe betide, FC Bayern loses the top game of the Bundesliga this Saturday (6.30 p.m. on Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de), then something is going on. In this case, Munich would be five points behind Bayer and the scenario of a new champion after eleven years of dominance would take on further, concrete features. Even if, of course, nothing has been decided. The big football debates would still break out in the country. And as surely as the Amen in church, the intoxicated expert Dietmar Hamann would again pounce on the record champions and their coach Thomas Tuchel.
He's been doing this for weeks, months. Ever sharper in tone, ever more merciless in judgment. But recently he had overdone it. The expert tore up a statement from the Bayern coach that Spain would interest him professionally. He spoke of an “insolence”. And that “Tuchel is the biggest misunderstanding since Jürgen Klinsmann” with the series champion. Apparently shocked by his own sharpness of tone, the former professional quickly backtracked and apologized. In vain. Tuchel ignored the outstretched hand again and didn't buy Hamann's remorse.
Tuchel and Hamann dogged each other like two dogs. Unforgiving, unyielding. They act differently than they speak. The expert said in an interview with ntv.de last year that for him it was always about the matter, never about the personal. And Tuchel confessed after the cup embarrassment against third division club 1. FC Saarbrücken that he never reads anything about a work. No praise, no criticism, “because that always does something to you.” Now these beliefs no longer fit with actual practice.
Matthäus turns down the controls
What was once a game has long since escalated. That experts criticize That's the way it is, it's always been that way. They always provide a great template for the reporting of the following days. The louder the better. That's how the game works. Hamann has mastered it, whether you like it or not. And with FC Bayern he has found a great opponent for almost ten years now.
But back to the experts' game: The fact that trainers refer to the criticism or react in direct confrontation at the interview table is also an established workflow. During his time at BVB (and also in Liverpool), Jürgen Klopp was known for being able to dish it out when things got too much for him. But he didn't hold grudges. In the dispute between Tuchel and Hamann – Lothar Matthäus, the nation's second chief critic, has long since turned down his controls – things are different and have reached the point of being unacceptable. Does this ever end? The mood between Tuchel and Hamann and Matthäus had already escalated last year. The coach also reacted unforgivingly and rejected offers to discuss the matter.
Wild rumors after the cup knockout
Tuchel stood until the embarrassing cup knockout. under the protection of the events of the turbulent previous season. Hardly anything critical had come back to him. That changed with force. After the cup game, “Spiegel” even raised the question of whether things could get tight for the coach. At Sport1 it was said that there were dissonances between the coach and the team. He is said to speak a lot with his supposed favorite players Harry Kane, Leroy Sané and Jamal Musiala, but hardly or not at all with others. Has he perhaps already lost the cabin? Just like his predecessor Nagelsmann supposedly did? Open fire against Tuchel. In the end, Bayern emerged stronger and won their games without any shine. Great quality too.
This dispute has long since left the level of substantive debate. What is now being negotiated is where the red lines are for experts and what a club and a coach have to endure. Especially when the record in the league and Champions League is remarkably good. In the premier class, all games were won apart from one draw and in the Bundesliga, FC Bayern has an outstanding average of 2.5 points per game. The team is only in second place because Bayer Leverkusen has had the (almost) perfect season so far and hasn't even lost yet.
For the first time in the history of the Bundesliga, two teams have at least 50 points in their account after 20 match days. Leverkusen has already collected more points than in the entire last season – only Bayern under star coach Pep Guardiola did so in the 2013/14 and 2015 seasons. 16 better at this point. But it's not the truth of the numbers that speaks. But the feeling on the pitch, where the Munich team has not shown the brutal dominance of previous years for a long time. There are only a few festivals there, and most of them are laborious and tough.
Bavaria no longer wants to accept unobjective criticism
So, what do you have to endure and what don't you have to endure? And in Munich they found an answer for themselves that is, above all, an urgent warning. The bosses said in an official statement that they would not accept unobjective criticism. What this means was not explained in more detail. At least this time they decided against another campaign of revenge like at the press extermination conference in October 2018. They had already achieved their first success with their current reprimand. At least temporally, Hamann's apology followed Bayern's statement of power.
Hamann himself learned in England. There the sound is rougher and rougher. In the media anyway, but also in the expert circles. But also the skin of those who come under the bull's eye of criticism is thicker. The British “don't feel attacked so quickly. In Germany, criticism is quickly taken personally,” he explained. The fact that Tuchel reacts so thinly despite all the excessive criticism, doesn't let up and shows no willingness to discuss things, is quite surprising. He recently revealed in an interview with ESPN that he felt more recognition in England than here in Germany. Of all places where the experts are even more aggressive and merciless.
But what about these stubborn dogs? An online guide states: “If someone doesn't let go, violently tearing the animals apart can lead to massive injuries. If this happens, a bucket of cold water can help.” Water is released instead of fire.
