Harry Kane appeared distraught in the wake of Bayern Munich’s 3-0 loss to unbeaten league leaders Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.
Now five points from the top of the Bundesliga, knocked out of the domestic cup by third-tier side 1. FC Saarbrucken and appearing to be a long way from Champions League-winning form, Kane and Bayern’s trophy hopes are increasingly slim.
This pressure is clearly affecting the team. Against Leverkusen, Leroy Sane punched a camera, Leon Goretzka threw a tantrum and Thomas Muller produced an extraordinary rant about the squad’s inadequacies. Bayern registered just 0.27 xG from their one shot on target against a Leverkusen side missing key players.
This felt like a season-defining loss which encapsulated all the squad’s and the club’s deepest issues.
But Kane is still in line to win one trophy this season – the Torjaegerkanone, the Bundesliga’s golden boot.
Literally meaning “goalscorer cannon”, the physical trophy is a golden cannon, which almost suspiciously resembles the one at the centre of the Arsenal logo. The former Tottenham Hotspur captain currently leads the top scorer standings with 24, seven ahead of VfB Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy.
Of course, there are still opportunities for Kane to add more silverware to his first-season haul in Munich, but it’s hard to look past the grim irony of the current scenario.
And past that, there are rumours Kane is set to be reunited with former Spurs boss Jose Mourinho, with Thomas Tuchel’s position heavily under threat.
What’s gone wrong for Bayern Munich this season?
While the Leverkusen loss has brought all Bayern’s problems into focus, there are issues here which have been ongoing for years.
One of the most obvious concerns is also often credited as the root of the German national team’s poor form since 2016: the core group of players are viewed as arrogant, poor under pressure and disruptive when benched. Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Goretzka, Sane, Muller and Manuel Neuer are crucial to both sides, and all have underperformed of late.
In the German media, these players are now almost considered damaged goods, deeply scarred by the national team failures in Qatar and Russia and the Champions League defeat to Villarreal in 22.
After the Leverkusen defeat, Muller said: ‘There are of course some symptoms on the pitch. To be honest, I’m pissed off.
“To quote Oliver Kahn: What I miss from us players are balls in the game. We are showing significantly better approaches in training. It’s okay to feel pressure, but there needs to be energy and freedom. That’s missing in our game.
“Sometimes we have to speak about us players. It’s not just about the coach. We have many international players at the highest level, we need to step up our game.”
Bayern’s recent transfer policy has also been incoherent and reactive, fuelled by ever-changing executive personnel. Christoph Freund joined as a sporting director in December, knowing that former Borussia Monchengladbach chief Max Eberl was set to take over the role in the coming months. Freund oversaw the signings of Eric Dier, Sacha Boey and Bryan Zaragoza, none of which will become instant starters.
Their greatest transfer success of late has been Kane, but Bayern still appear devoid of ideas when their No 9 is marked out of games.
Against Leverkusen, Kane had just 18 touches. In his early matches in Germany, his teammates marvelled at the work he did off the ball, dropping deep to collect the ball in midfield and provide creative influence.
But in Bayern’s last three defeats – Leverkusen, a 1-0 loss to Werder Bremen and a 5-1 shellacking by Eintracht Frankfurt – Kane has had 22 touches or fewer. In matches in which he’s scored, he easily surpasses 30-40. Teams appear to be working out how to handle Kane’s role within Tuchel’s system, while the form of other key figures like Sane and Jamal Musiala has also collapsed.
Could Thomas Tuchel actually be replaced by Jose Mourinho?
Tuchel attempted to alter Bayern’s tactical system against Leverkusen, matching Xabi Alonso’s trademark 3-4-3.
Yet this meant playing new signing Boey at left wing-back, a position he hadn’t played for four years, and a back three of Dier, Kim Min-jae and Dayot Upamecano. Dier had barely started a game of football in two years, Kim had just returned from the Asian Cup and Upamecano was fresh from an injury absence.
Tuchel also chose to bench Matthijs de Ligt, who had started the last five matches and some consider the club’s best central defender.
Meanwhile, Alonso dropped a twist of his own in using Bayern loanee Josip Stanisic at right wing-back, a more defensive option than Jeremie Frimpong. Stanisic then scored Leverkusen’s opener.
Tuchel claimed simply blaming his formation change was too narrow-minded, while second-half substitute Kimmich said “a team like ours should be able to adapt to a new system”. Yet such a landmark loss has inevitably led to calls for Tuchel’s sacking, with Mourinho reportedly learning German ahead of a potential move.
Yet Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dressen said: “Nothing changes. We knew beforehand that it would be a difficult game. We would have liked a different result. We are concentrating on the next games.
“I don’t like to repeat myself [about Tuchel’s future], it remains as I just said.”
With Bayern still in touching distance of Leverkusen, a club so famed for bottling title charges they’re known as Neverkusen, the club likely believe change could cause more damage than it’s worth.
But under Tuchel’s leadership, Bayern may well be on track for their first season without a major trophy since 2011-12. With this goes the primary reason Kane left Tottenham – the chance to challenge for trophies across the board and finally break his career drought.
As things stand, all he’ll have to comfort himself is a gold-plated Arsenal logo and some memories.