FC Bayern and Tuchel – is that still going well?

DThe man with the microphone hadn't quite finished his question when Thomas Tuchel already answered. “I have no idea, I have no idea,” said the FC Bayern Munich football coach, who stood on the lawn of the Stadio Olimpico in Rome late that Wednesday evening and spoke to the man with the DAZN microphone.

His answer would have been completely understandable if the question had been about what the secret to a good spaghetti carbonara actually is. But the question wasn't about spaghetti carbonara, but rather about the reason why his team lost confidence in themselves in the Champions League game against Lazio Rome.

And so one had to remember on this evening, on which the probably most pleasing realization for him was that this round of 16 first leg only ended in a 0-1 defeat: Thomas Tuchel has said surprisingly often this season that he should have explanations: that he has no explanations.

Anyone who believes in Thomas Tuchel will point out that some things no coach could explain at the moment: Why suddenly even center forward Harry Kane didn't shoot the ball into the goal from the best center forward position in the seventh minute?

Why did the defender Dayot Upamecano not block the ball in the penalty area in the 67th minute but foul his opponent that there was not only a penalty for Rome (which Ciro Immobile used for the goal of the day), but also a red card against Upamecano ? And why can't the midfielders Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka, as the saying goes, take control of a game like this?

And perhaps that is the big question that is not only hovering over FC Bayern, but over the national team: How can it be explained that this generation of German players, who have already failed several coaches, have repeatedly shown their resilience and confidence in themselves seems to lose?

But with a view to coach Thomas Tuchel, the crucial question for now is a different one: How will his superiors explain what he cannot explain?

“We're all in the same boat,” said Christoph Freund, FC Bayern's sporting director, when asked about his coach in the interview zone of the stadium on Wednesday evening. And it's true: the Bayern boat may be in distress, but it can still maneuver itself out of it. As bad as the result of the first leg was, there is a good chance that it can be corrected in the second leg in Munich (March 5th, 9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Prime Video) – without the abolished away goals rule.

But on the other hand, they won't be able to watch the game in Rome without context. And the context is Leverkusen. Because anyone who was with FC Bayern during this important week, in which the leading German football club lost not only in Rome but also in Leverkusen, and looked for explanations, found fewer and fewer people who believed that this was the case This team and this coach will become something permanent.

As Thomas Tuchel sat in the media room of the stadium in Rome on Wednesday evening, he was asked whether he was worried about his job. “No,” said Tuchel – and when the reporter wanted to know why he thought he was the right coach for this team, he replied: “I would like to talk about the game.” He was allowed to do that.

He said that the first half was a good reaction to the Leverkusen game. That two or three good chances in an away game against an Italian team should be enough. That there was a drastic drop in performance in the second half. And at the end he said: “We will continue.”

It will probably be decided by March 5th at the latest, when the second leg against Rome takes place in Munich, as to how long he can continue.