It has been an extremely disappointing start to his Bayern
Munich tenure for Niko Kovac. The Croatian is certainly experiencing his
toughest spell in management in comfortably his biggest job to date. A terrific
spell in charge of Eintracht Frankfurt seems a distant memory for Kovac with life
in Munich proving extremely tough right now and the pressure is severely
mounting on him.
Bayern find themselves 9 points off their bitter rivals Borussia
Dortmund after another winless weekend in which they threw away at 3-1 lead
against strugglers Fortuna Dusseldorf. While credit must go to the strugglers
for a brilliant fightback, Bayern Munich look lost as a team with a severe lack
of belief and confidence. This does stem from the management and Kovac knows
things must improve and the Champions League against Benfica this week is crucial
to his stay of execution. 2 league wins in their last 7 games highlights their
severe struggles and they’ve conceded 17 goals in their 12 league games and
that is not good enough. Kovac is clearly struggling to get his ideas across
with several senior figures frustrated within the squad and injuries to the
likes of Corentin Tolisso and Serge Gnabry. Kovac is also struggling to get the
best out of the likes of Arjen Robben, Frank Ribery and Robert Lewandowski. The
Polish striker regular scores 25 goals a season in the Bundesliga but so far
has 7 in the 12 games played including a brace in the recent Klassiker defeat
to Dortmund but goals consistently have alluded the prolific pole. The striker’s
form is a real frustration for Kovac and the fans with nobody really suited to
replace him. Yes, Muller and Gnabry could but Kovac prefers them as wingers as opposed
to the central attacking threat. There is Sandro Wagner, but the German has
struggled for game time, form and confidence when he gets that opportunity. The
strikers aren’t the only ones struggling with the defence also suffering a loss
of form and confidence. The likes of Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Niklas Sule,
Josh Kimmich and David Alaba are all shadows of their usual selves and this can
only be adding to Kovac’s problems and the fans frustrations.
Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge gave a passionately
heated press conference back in October giving their full support of Kovac and
again today Kovac has spoken passionately about his job status in his press
conference ahead of the Benfica game. ‘Those who know me know that I am always
a fighter. My whole life has been to assert myself, giving up or waving the
white flag does not exist in my vocabulary. I will always fight’. "Criticism
is always there if you don’t live up to the expectations - we need one point
tomorrow to progress, but we want to win. And then we hope we'll perform better
in the Bundesliga than we have before”. There is something not right at the club
whether that be the manager, playing staff or the hierarchy at the top. A lack
of summer transfer activity has highlighted some issues with only Leon Goretzka
walking into the first team on a free from Schalke. Their only other recruit is
highly rated Canadian winger Alphonso Davies who joins very soon following the
conclusion of the MLS season. Just £10M spent in the summer on improving the
squad and while they do have one of the best squads in Europe, the squad is ageing,
and youthful exuberance is lacking despite some promising talent breaking
through from the youth academy. Kovac is doing his best to use what he’s got
but he must certainly want to stamp his authority and identity on the Bavarian
giants. Bayern Munich are a huge football club that are on the brink of a
crisis both on and off the pitch with just 6 wins in their 12 league games
overall and the clock is very much ticking on the Kovac tenure which started
excellently with 5 straight wins in all competitions. A draw to Augsburg back
in September really started Bayern’s slow decline of form.
Kovac is no doubt feeling the heat and certainly the Allianz
Arena is not the fortress it once was. They have won just 2 of their 6 league games
at home and that is a severe problem considering it is usually one of the
toughest places to go in Europe let alone Germany. They are winless in their
last 4 home league games so it’s no wonder the fans are unhappy. A humiliating
defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach at the start of October really hit the players
and the fans hard. They were completely outplayed and outclassed by Dieter Hecking’s
team and since then, they have failed to recover from that at the Allianz Arena
with 2 consecutive draws against Freiburg and Fortuna Dusseldorf. Teams are
finding a way to talk something away from the Allianz Arena and is clearly
emphasising Bayern Munich’s struggles to take their chances, kill off games and
see out results. These are factors usually associated with relegation battlers.
There is no denying Bayern Munich are in crisis certainly on
the pitch and this is a crucial week for the club with important matches
against Benfica in the Champions League and a trip to Werder Bremen in the
Bundesliga. Surely wins in both are imperative for the club and Kovac to keep his
job. They cannot surely pull Jupp Heyneckes out of retirement yet again to rescue
their season but certainly it could a thought that has crossed the mind of
Hoeness and Rummenigge. Their season has been very poor by their high standards
and they must improve and fast to save their season and Kovac knows he must get
them going otherwise it will be curtains on his very short time in Munich.
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