da pixbet： The former Chelsea manager's position has been called into question after a series of unconvincing performances from his star-studded squad

da stake casino： Bayern Munich never really looked like scoring against Werder Bremen on Sunday. All of the post-match statistics – 22 shots, seven on target, 1.9 expected goals – suggested they should have done, but only once did the Bavarians truly come close to make the visitors sweat, when teenage substitute Mathys Tel cracked a header off the post late on.

Werder, for their part, defended well, and hit the Bundesliga champions on the break, scoring via a fine finish from ex-Bayern youngster Mitchell Weiser, who danced around Alphonso Davies before lashing the ball into the roof of the net for the game's only goal.

The Bavarians are now seven points behind league-leading Bayer Leverkusen – albeit with a game in hand to be played on Wednesday against Union Berlin – and are showing very few signs of improvement under manager Thomas Tuchel. Harry Kane has been prolific, but the team around him is crumbling. Rumours of a mass squad overhaul are brewing, brought about by stalling contract negotiations with several key players.

It must all feel very familiar for Tuchel, who despite his successes, is no stranger to being fired when things start to turn. The former Chelsea manager has lambasted his players in the media, but his football his stale, and after a promising start to the season, the future looks murky at best.

GettyNo real new manager bounce

When Tuchel took over from Julian Nagelsmann in March, Bayern winning an 11th successive Bundesliga title was in slight jeopardy, even though they remained a point clear of Borussia Dortmund at the league's summit. They were also into the Champions League and DFB-Pokal quarter-finals, and thus it seemed the ideal role to walk into.

Still, Tuchel did his best to chuck it all away. Despite beating Dortmund in his first game in charge, Tuchel's Bayern then won just four of their next seven games while also crashing out of the Pokal at the hands of Freiburg. Going into the final day of the season, they sat second in the table, but a late Jamal Musiala winner against Koln, coupled with a Jude Bellingham-less Dortmund being held to a draw by Mainz, meant they edged out their great rivals at the last. Celebrations were appropriately raucous, but could do little to mask the fact that Bayern had almost failed to meet the most basic of expectations.

There was no such reprieve in the Champions League, though. Tuchel had proven himself an excellent European manager at Chelsea, while perhaps more importantly ahead of Bayern's clash with Manchester City, he was one of few managers who had tasted semi-regular success against Pep Guardiola. City, though, were rampant on their march to a historic treble, and the 4-1 aggregate scoreline didn't reflect well on Tuchel, given he was brought in to navigate such difficult continental tests.

Tuchel kept his job, but CEO Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic were sacrificed. With those who had appointed him now gone, Tuchel had work to do to prove himself worthy of the top club job in Germany.

AdvertisementFC BayernBig summer plans

Still, if there were any concerns from the Bayern hierarchy, they weren't obvious. Functioning without a full-time sporting director, the Bavarians went to work assembling the kind of squad that could compete for the biggest prizes in Europe. Out the exit door went flop summer signing Sadio Mane, and he was followed by Lucas Hernandez, Ryan Gravenberch and Benjamin Pavard, all of whom were deemed surplus to requirements.

Targets were quickly established to upgrade on those who departed, with Kane the major coup, giving Bayern a clear focal point in attack that they had been missing since Robert Lewandowski left for Barcelona. Bringing in Napoli centre-back Kim Min-Jae was just important, however, with the South Korean having just marshalled a backline that brought the Serie A title back to Naples for the first time in 30 years.

As has become tradition, Bayern also raided their domestic rivals, bringing in Dortmund full-back Raphael Guerreiro and RB Leipzig midfielder Konrad Laimer on free transfers, though they were left frustrated in their pursuit of a new defensive midfielder, with the denouement coming when Joao Palhinha flew in for a medical on transfer deadline day, only for Fulham to reject Bayern's offer for the Portugal international.

GettyPuzzling tactical decisions

The way in which that squad has been used, though, is far from orthodox, even if Tuchel has always been one for slightly odd tactical decisions. Guerreiro, for example, arrived as a left-back who had been tried in the trendy, John Stones-esque inverted role for Dortmund. Under Tuchel, though, he has become an out-and-out central midfielder in a reprise of a role he hadn't played for at least six years.

Laimer, a workmanlike midfielder for Leipzig last year, has gone the other way, and is being utilised as a right-back. His only previous experience at the position was as an emergency at Leipzig in 2018, and even that stint lasted for just half of the season. With Joshua Kimmich, a far more capable right-back, available, the decision was met with raised eyebrows. And perhaps more importantly, it hasn't really worked, with the free-agent signing failing to convince at the position. It's no surprise that the club have made signing a right-back – be that Kieran Trippier, Nordi Mukiele or someone else – a priority this January.

These individual tactical quirks are not entirely to blame for Bayern's malaise, but while the team underperforms, they offer ammunition to those who believe Tuchel is holding them back.

(C)Getty ImagesBig names unhappy

Tuchel has also opened himself up to criticism by failing to use some big names, while not getting the best out of those he does play. Matthijs de Ligt is perhaps the most flagrant example; a world-class centre-back who went on record saying he was leaving Juventus with the aim of starring for a bigger club has seen his career stall somewhat this term. Tuchel has claimed that De Ligt doesn't move the ball as quickly as he'd like, and has often left the €77 million (£65m/$79m) defender on the bench, leading to reports that the Dutchman is keen to leave the Allianz Arena.

Other former leaders are struggling, too. Once the jewel of a new generation of exciting German talents, Joshua Kimmich has not looked the same player in 2023-24, and it was telling that Tuchel replaced the midfielder after an hour Sunday given there are rumours that they do not see eye-to-eye.

In response to his early substitution, Kimmich did not hold back on his assessment of the game, saying: "You could tell that Bremen were hungrier than we were, and that must not happen to us at this stage of the season. You don’t get the feeling that we know what was at stake."

Reports have suggested that Kimmich, whose contract is up in 2025, is keen to move on this summer, and he is not the only one. Davies, for example, seems to have his heart set on Real Madrid, and some of his recent performances suggest he might already be planning for life at the Bernabeu. Serge Gnabry, meanwhile, has fallen out of the picture entirely.

What was once one of Europe's elite squads seems to be falling apart when it should still be at its prime, and the manager is at least partially to blame. His comments after Sunday's loss, however, seemed to suggest that he feels his players need to show more.

"For the first 70 minutes, we didn’t look like a team who wanted to win and play for the title," he said. "The win was very deserved for Werder. We conceded too many counter-attacks, lost too many duels, lost our structure. There was little positive energy today. We were sloppy and static. It’s not enough. I can’t explain why so many players fell short of the levels they showed in training."