Kolkata: Oliver Kahn was the wrong appointment. Hasan Salihamidzic did not have the stature. They replaced Julian Nagelsmann with Thomas Tuchel when it was not necessary. And Bayern Munich suffered.
Players, past and present, tend to stick to the straight and narrow during media interactions. Unless you are Mo Salah wanting to make your unhappiness public. Or, even at 63, Lothar Matthaus caring as much for convention as he did for Diego Maradona’s reputation in the 1986 World Cup final.
“I do not like to criticise coaches and players but sometimes you have to do it, maybe to wake them up,” he said in an interview to HT before Saturday’s Bundesliga clash between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich which will be telecast on Sony Sport 2.
Matthaus was explaining why he had spoken out against Nuri Sahin, the Dortmund manager. “He was being too nice. He liked to give all players a chance and was always changing the first 11. When a coach is new to a team, he has to find his first 13 or 14 players. The rest has to wait.”
That is the Vincent Kompany or Nagelsmann way. “Kompany is (also) talking with the captain the same way he is talking with the youngest player in the squad,” said Matthaus. For Matthaus, it is why Bayern are 10 points ahead of Dortmund. “This is, “mia san mia.” The Bayern Munich motto means, “we are who we are”, an amalgam of professionalism and caring that has made them champions of Europe six times and the best in Germany on a record 33 occasions.
Matthaus made it clear during the virtual interaction arranged by the official broadcasters in India and Bundesliga that no one gets Bayern like Uli Hoeness and Karl Heinz Rummenigge. Both are back as supervisory board members and the “klima” is again good, he said.
It wasn’t when Kahn succeeded Rummenigge as CEO in 2021 and Salihamidzic was the sporting director. “Oliver was in my time the best goalkeeper in the world. But he has a different mentality. He would come to the dressing room and not even say “good morning.” He would train like a pro, take his shower and leave without a goodbye… He was with us but nobody saw him. He was concentrating on the job,” said Matthaus.
It was the same when he was CEO, he said. “That didn’t make for a good atmosphere.” At Bayern, you need to interact with not just the players but the “the secretaries, the cleaning lady, the bus driver, the guy who cleans the boots. Small details make the difference.” And though Salihamidzic played 234 times for Bayern, Matthaus said he didn’t “have the standing like Hoenesss or Ruminnegge.”
Matthaus said he didn’t understand why Nagelsmann was sacked and Tuchel appointed in March 2023. “Bayern were still in the German Cup, in the Champions League and, possibly, a point behind Dortmund in Bundesliga. There was a good “klima” between him and the players…Tuchel would communicate with one or two players and the rest would not understand why he is not talking with them.”
Matthaus said Germany have moved “not one but five steps ahead” under Nagelsmann in 2024. He also said a reason for the poor performance in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup was politics had disturbed focus. A player should talk politics but “not during a World Cup. In Russia and Qatar, they didn’t seem to know why they were there.”
Tuchel will also succeed as the England coach. “I was not saying maybe nice things about Tuchel earlier but this is different. A club job is a daily job. Now, he has the players for 10 days every five-six weeks. And he decides which player he calls. This is the perfect job for Tuchel and I see England as one of the favourites for the next World Cup.”
Since his criticism, if not because of it, Sahin has changed things at Dortmund. The team is settled and, despite an iffy season, they are doing well at home, said Matthaus. So, much as he, a Bayern legend, would want to show Dortmund that “red is better than yellow,” he knows it won’t be easy.
