3 reasons why Bayern Munich lost the Bundesliga title race

Bayern Munich usually dominate Klassiker rivals Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena, but in a matchup between the biggest clubs in Germany that suddenly didn’t have title ramifications for both, Die Roten flopped hard.

Dortmund took a 2-0 win that wasn’t in much doubt, as Mats Hummels and Nico Schlotterbeck shut down a Bayern attack that was suddenly toothless in front of their own supporters.

After the game, Thomas Tuchel, an ex-Dortmund manager, conceded defeat in the Bundesliga title race to Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, stating the battle was “obviously” over, hearkening to their own blowout loss to Die Werkself.

So why did Bayern go from 11-time record champions of German football to a clear second place? Here are three reasons for Die Roten’s 2023/24 demise.

They fired Julian Nagelsmann

A lot of the issues go back to Bayern Munich’s first imprudent decision, which was to fire Julian Nagelsmann in the middle of the 2022/23 season when the club was already doing relatively well despite a clearly flawed squad.

Bayern committed to a long-term future with Nagelsmann, the best young coach in world football at the time, and paid a hefty fee of 25 million euros just to secure the manager. In mere months, Bayern fired him just so they could hire Thomas Tuchel, believing they were adding a better manager.

To no Bayern fan’s surprise, things are not better under Tuchel, who took mere weeks to alienate half the squad and turn Bayern into a dysfunctional product on and off the pitch. Now, some of the clubs most valuable players like Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich are contemplating leaving for the greener pastures of Real Madrid.

Imagine how good Bayern would be right now if Nagelsmann had a world-class striker like Harry Kane to work with. That’s literally all he was missing. Instead, he had to deal with an oft-injured Sadio Mané cosplaying as a 9.

Bayern Munich didn’t take the midfield seriously

Bayern signed Harry Kane and nabbed a player who has made Robert Lewandowski feel like a forgotten ghost of the Allianz Arena, but they didn’t really do anything to upgrade a midfield that Tuchel already had reservations about.

Much of the criticism of Joshua Kimmich is overblown, but he has to have a better midfield partner to work with than Leon Goretzka if he is going to start as an anchor.

Bayern are now desperate to get rid of Goretzka, but most teams around Europe are smart and see him as a limited player who looks good on paper but has done absolutely nothing since a great half-season under Hansi Flick in 2020.

If the Bavarian giants don’t sign two top-class midfielders this summer, especially if they let an upset Kimmich walk, then they are going to have another season of sitting outside of the Bundesliga title race.

Bayer Leverkusen has a better manager and a real team

Xabi Alonso is undoubtedly doing a better job than Thomas Tuchel. His tactics are actually sensible, he doesn’t overthink things, he actually develops young players, he supports his stars, and he is someone the players respect on a technical level.

Tuchel seems to have no supporters or respect from the Bayern locker room, save for a couple of new faces like Kane, who is never one to have a spat with the manager anyway.

Bayer Leverkusen are undefeated and the best team in Germany by some distance. They proved that head-to-head with Bayern. Leverkusen have assembled a complete squad with more hunger and unselfish personalities than Bayern, which truly feels like “FC Hollywood” and nothing like an 11-time champion.

Bayern fans have to face the harsh reality that their squad is filled with complacent players, overpaid has-beens, and faces who are bringing the same dire performances from the German national team to their own squad. At least Germany is picking things up under Nagelsmann and the non-Bayern young guns like Kai Havertz. Meanwhile, Bayern is effectively carried by a few players, mainly individual attackers like Kane and Jamal Musiala.