In the past few days of the Champions League semi-finals, Bayern has been particularly lively.
Hoeness once again showed that he did not keep the door in his mouth, and he did not let Kroos go for decades, as if he was engaged in psychological warfare, but at the same time, Hoeness also had a lot of criticism about Tuchel's training of young people, which made Tuchel himself unhappy.
Many Germans don't know how to judge the situation, and Hoeness is a prime example.
However, no matter how chaotic and changing Bayern's side is, Real Madrid, which they will play against, is actually quite stable. Before this Champions League semi-final, Ancelotti, who has already stepped past Manchester City, does not have to worry about the problem of thinking, and can and can only continue in the same vein, and only needs to solve the personnel problem in individual positions.
Therefore, Bayern does need to mess up the situation, but it is difficult to say whether they can win in chaos.
After the opening, Bayern and Real Madrid had a clear standing structure:
On both sides is the 442 system.
Real Madrid, for their part, followed the same line of thought as Manchester City, with Vinicius and Bellingham up front and Rodrygo on the left. That's pretty much the best option for this season when there are no good centre-forwards available, and it's hard for Rodrygo to be used off the bench.
Relying on this idea to provoke Manchester City also proves that the tactical height of this idea is sufficient, but it is necessary to accept the process of most of the ball and the field to be sidelined.
On Bayern's side, Tuchel made more changes, surprisingly bringing on Muller, who was not used in both legs against Arsenal, but the change in Tuchel's thinking was best exemplified in the opening attack:
It was a classic combination of wing-centres: Mazraoui used technique to find centre-forward Kane, who played the ball in front of the Real Madrid defender and winger Leroy Sane sprinted into the ribs.
In general, the process is unusual, but at the level of details, the reason why Bayern played neatly this attack and finally got off smoothly has a lot to do with the fact that Sane is a smooth winger along the way, and he doesn't have to twist his waist when he starts to attack the goal.
That's actually what Tuchel wants to play in this game. He wanted to play fast in the attacking phase, and even by deploying wingers so that they could directly pick up their thighs in the ribs to play faster, Bayern worked on the right ribs in the 5th minute, and Muller gave Musiala the same idea:
So, Kane and Muller are the relay points for Tuchel's attack, and the two wingers of Sane and Musiala on the right side are the initiators and finishers, which is why Bayern today have Sane on the left and Musiala on the right.
But note that Sane finished the goal, Musiala didn't.
In this game, Bayern not only played more fiercely in the possession link, but also invested a lot in the off-ball stage when they were playing at home, and there were a lot of attacks through tackles in the opening stage:
So in the opening stages, Tuchel and Bayern did put a lot of pressure on Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid, both through the special positioning at the player level and the energy invested at the team level, which obviously needed time to adapt.
However, when Real Madrid keeps up with Bayern's intensity, Bayern's advantage will naturally be reduced.
In the 13th minute, you can see that Bayern completely pressed Real Madrid at the back, and their own width was completely stretched out, and they entered the link of attacking the position:
However, Bayern could not play the same swift attack as they opened the game.
This is not only because the space has become smaller, but also because the Real Madrid players have also coped, and at this time, Bayern's people at the back are revealed: Dier and Kim Min-jae.
These two have obvious shortcomings in their defensive ability in large spaces, they seem to be tall and strong, Kim Min-jae still has some speed, and when it comes to the length of the whole season, after covering all the games, their various statistics may be good, but in the real high-intensity game, the defensive ability is not worth mentioning.
So based on this, Real Madrid should be able to play some content immediately after keeping up with the intensity, but in the first half of the first half, Rodrygo and Vinicius, who performed well against Manchester City, both made some mistakes:
This is understandable given the away factor, but Bayern's backfield hole is here, and the Brazilian twin didn't hit it in time, which actually allowed Bayern to regain space.
Real Madrid switched from defending to attacking, and the formation naturally needed to be stretched apart, but after the ball changed hands, it was difficult for you to gather quickly, and the gaps in this will allow Bayern to see the opportunity to play faster again.
However, these opportunities died at the feet of Musiala:
Of course, Kane and Muller, who were the relay points during this period, were not fully effective, and they also had to bear some responsibility for the lack of attack.
However, Kane and Muller are both 30+ veterans, and at this intensity in the Champions League semi-finals, they already need to manage their fitness, so the problem is still with Tuchel:
Your offensive tactics need to be played from 0-90 minutes without stopping, so obviously you shouldn't just buy a player like Kane for ability, but if you buy Kane, you have to solve the problem of Kane's offensive efficiency when paddling.
It can't be solved, and it doesn't make sense to say after the game that the players don't work hard enough.
So, in this period midway through the first half, there were some chances for both sides.
Real Madrid can fully see Bayern's obvious shortcomings in the back-up link, but they can't take advantage of it because of the players' play, Bayern has taken this risk, so as to get out of the dilemma of positional warfare, but their own offensive efficiency is also not guaranteed.
At this time, it is the ability to fight a single ball, and in this ring, Real Madrid is obviously stronger.
In the 21st minute, Bayern dropped the ball at the feet of Sane in a row:
Less than two minutes later, Kroos touched Kane's back from front of him, went directly into the space between the forward line and the midfield line of the 442 structure, and connected with Vinicius, who first dropped back and then reversed:
This goal fully exposed Kim's defensive ability: following the striker's retreat, the idea is right, but after the opponent has the ball, the man and the ball always have to take care of one end, either intercepting the ball or bringing people down.
If you can't take care of the person and the ball, that is, your ability is not good: the comprehensiveness on the board can only be used in low-intensity games, and once the opponent's ability comes up, this comprehensiveness becomes an all-round failure.
However, except for the single-defense Kim Min-jae, Laimer in front of him and Dell on his side have no ability to adapt, which is also the reason why the single-point short-board directly spreads into the overall failure.
After dropping points, Bayern pulled up the intensity again, and the attacking attempt recreated the pressure again, although Musiala's performance was still poor:
In contrast, Sane's play is useful:
But at least Real Madrid can't send high-quality passes anymore, and at this time, Kim Min-jae's play scene comes:
Therefore, Real Madrid is still missing a center forward after all.
You put Vinicius in direct competition with Kim Min-jae for confrontation and speed, and when the quality of the ball is not enough, Vinicius has little chance of winning, and the same is true for Bellingham and Dier's side.
However, if you have a centre-forward who plays some attrition in front of Bayern's backline, or even can make some balls, and let Vinicius and Bellingham hit the side of Bayern's centre-back, it doesn't work.
Like this goalball near the end of the first half, Valverde actually acted as a centre-forward, creating an effect in front of Dier and Bellingham profited from it by creating a set-piece:
So, both teams have some obvious shortcomings, and it's up to them to see who can put the pressure on better.
After falling behind at home, Tuchel was well aware that he would not have any more opportunities to make quick transitions, not to mention that Sane and Musiala had clearly shown their inefficiency in the first half of the positional battle, so after returning from half-time, Tuchel switched the two back to the backfoot and replaced Goretzka with Guerreiro in an attempt to add more players in central midfield.
These continuous adjustments, you say how subtle, in fact, are not, but in the end they will be a little better than themselves in the first half, so in the second half, the pressure created by Bayern has become greater, which is reflected in the fact that Real Madrid needs central defender Nacho to solve more and more problems:
And Nacho wants to come out to solve the problem, which actually means that the back in front of him is already difficult to maintain, and the back in front of him is Kroos.
As soon as the name comes out, you know it's hard to criticize.
Kroos is also a veteran, and it's normal for defenders to not be able to cover defenders, and he also provided an assist in the first half that is difficult for others to deliver.
In the 51st minute, Nacho stepped forward to break the ball this time and created a counterattack for Real Madrid, and Kroos even rushed to the front of the field to hit a good quality goal:
So, it's not surprising that the problem lies in this area.
In the 53rd minute, Bayern also did Real Madrid in the first half, Laimer received the ball from behind Bellingham, connected to the lateral movement to the right, and Sane scored:
However, in addition to Kroos' failure to block the space in the ribs at the end of the day, Rodrygo also had problems with this goal.
Because when Sane was getting up to speed, Kimmich was also interspersed with quick edges, so in defence, Mendy was actually playing one-two.
So in this goal, Rodrygo had to settle quickly, either following Kimmich to the end, or handing over responsibilities quickly with Mendy, he didn't do it, Kroos is also a veteran, and it was inevitable that he would be knocked in by Sane in the end.
Bayern's second goal, Real Madrid actually had the same problem:
Muller slipped in the middle from Kroos' flank and then crossed to the left, before Musiala fouled Vazquez and Kane slotted the spot-kick:
You can say it's Vazquez's problem like Mendy in the first goal, not to mention that the latter's cross when he had the ball in the first half was not good and he was terrible throughout the game, but Vazquez was just a substitute when Carvajal couldn't play, and it wasn't a game he should have started.
Vazquez is like this, so he needs to be protected by the players in front of him, but Kroos was wiped in by Muller, Tchouameni started a step late, Valverde still has an attacking task, can Vazquez still let Muchiala in if he doesn't get his feet?
So in a short period of time in the second half, Bayern completed the reversal.
This is of course related to Tuchel's adjustments, but it is also related to Real Madrid's own defensive problems, not to mention the home and physical advantages, after all, in the early stages of the first half, Bayern played a similar attack, but it was not as efficient as it is now.
At this point in the second half, Kane and Muller clearly started to pull off, and the attack in the 60th minute was a good example:
At this point, Kroos' inability to keep up with the pace became clearer:
On the other side, Tchouameni has no way to look after Musiala, so he can only let Musiala defend himself:
It was the tightest time for Real Madrid, as after conceding the goal, Carlo Ancelotti only replaced Nacho with Camavinga and reintroduced Tchouameni to the back line.
It was a change that had to be made, but just two positions, combined with the more energetic Vinicius playing at wing-back and trying to protect him on the wing, were not enough, as Bayern were not far from scoring a third:
It wasn't until the 75th minute that Carlo Ancelotti brought on Luka Modric and Brahim Dias to reinvigorate the midfield area.
After Modric came on the field, he immediately completed the connection with Vinicius and played a sharp attack:
This side came back to play and became the strong side of Real Madrid's attack again.
So in the 81st minute, Tchouameni, who had been given plenty of space, sent a long diagonal pass, Vinicius and Rodrygo hit a small ball on the left rib, and the latter created Kim Min-jae's slowness on the foot, so as to play the penalty opportunity:
After Vinicius Jr. hit the penalty, the game was over.
For Real Madrid, a 2-2 away result is acceptable, and they will have a physical and mental advantage back at home, which will be the best boost on the road to the final, but it can also be seen from this game that Real Madrid also have a lot of problems in defence.
From front to back, Rodrygo is obviously not the third man in attack, so he can't do the job of defending the eighth man, which can be clearly reflected in Bayern's first goal. Kroos and Tchouameni are also not strong enough at the back, but the former has passes that can offset the problems back and forth, while the latter's passes can only be played in large spaces, so it is better to play at the back.
In fact, Carlo Ancelotti has long understood these problems, but the players themselves do not want to understand, so Real Madrid needs some games like this, so that the players are willing to make sacrifices for the team, because if you don't make sacrifices, the team will pay a bigger price.
In a way, this is why Carlo Ancelotti always reacts after it happens, because only smart enough people can understand the meaning of planning ahead, but many people can understand the importance of making amends.
It's like this game, something happened, but nothing big happened, so it's good to transform the players.
For Thomas Tuchel and Bayern Munich, the problem is not so simple, as he has rather contradictory ideas.
Strictly speaking, Bayern is right for a northern team to play a quick transition, which is the attacking appearance that best reflects the physical quality of the northern team, but if you play a quick transition, you can't be afraid of losing the ball, which touches Tuchel's dead end.
When the score is deadlocked, when you have physical fitness, and when the opponent is also strong, it is not difficult for Bayern to play a quick transition, just like the previous two games against Arsenal, Bayern does not lack opportunities to convert, but as soon as Real Madrid shrinks away from home, Bayern falls into confusion:
If you don't look up at the weak side and rush forward, it is more likely that the Bayern players will show cowardice, as Musiala played today, and if you play crosses, you will lose possession frequently, which will make the game uncontrollable, and thus deviate from Tuchel's morality as a believer.
The ground can't be chiseled, the high ball is unwilling to play, the offensive efficiency is completely dependent on the efficient handling of Sane and Musiala, once the ball is lost, there are players like Kim Min-jae and Dier behind him, so Tuchel's thinking is contradictory, it is chaotic, like using a red tassel gun to make a sweater needle, do you say it is possible to embroider a good-looking sweater, or is it more likely to exhaust yourself to death?
The answer is self-explanatory.