Alexander Zverev cannot fully understand the recent change of coach at Munich. “I should have been more patient. Even if Tuchel is one of the best coaches in the world: I don’t know how to fire Nagelsmann immediately, even though you’re still in three competitions,” said the Olympic tennis champion on the sidelines of the Munich clay court tournament. The 25-year-old is a fervent FC Bayern fan. The leaders of the Bundesliga, surprising many, parted ways with Nagelsmann at the end of March and signed Thomas Tuchel.
At that time, the Munich treble would still have been possible. The team has since been eliminated from the DFB Cup. In the Champions League this Wednesday evening (9 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker) there is a risk of losing against Manchester City in the quarter-finals. The first leg in second place in the English Premier League was clearly lost 0:3.
Zverev, who was born in Hamburg and wants to win his third title on the Iphitos facility, recently found a lot of things with the German record champions to be “a bit hectic”. Nevertheless, Zverev believes his favorite club can do the miracle against the Cityzens. “You can never cut a team like FC Bayern out of the picture,” said Zverev.
For Zverev himself, the round of 16 game at the Munich tennis tournament this Wednesday was postponed due to heavy rain. He is now scheduled to play on his 26th birthday on Thursday against the significantly lower placed Australian Christopher O’Connell. “I don’t really like to play on my birthday,” the man from Hamburg said on Monday. Zverev’s match is scheduled as the third game after 10.30 a.m. on Center Court.
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich CEO Oliver Kahn has increased the pressure on the team after the recent blunders against Manchester City and TSG Hoffenheim. “We have more than 20 national players in our squad, it’s definitely not due to the sporting quality,” said the 53-year-old SPORT BILD. From his point of view, the players of the German soccer record champions were currently missing a lot: “Recently there was too little will, too little willingness to recognize. Inconsistency is our consistency, that cannot be the claim of this team.”
Before the second leg against Manchester, in which Bayern need a little football miracle after the defeat in the first leg, and the final sprint in the championship with a lead of only two points over Borussia Dortmund, Kahn called on the professionals to do their duty. “Everyone has to know what the decisive phase of the season is all about: showing who FC Bayern is,” he said. “We only have a chance against Man City if we get that on the pitch.”
Despite his record of only two wins, one draw and two defeats from his first five games, he did not question the new coach Thomas Tuchel. “Under Thomas, the team will find their form and consistency again,” said Kahn, emphasizing that the separation from Julian Nagelsmann was the right thing to do: “The last few games have shown that there are some major adjustment screws that Thomas has to turn .”