Thomas Tuchel, the manager, has conceded the title race to Bayer Leverkusen after their loss last night. Although it's not definite at this point, Bayern Munich's dominance will soon come to an end. They had won the Bundesliga for the past 11 years, consecutively. It looked like their reign would never end.
After the loss in Der Klassiker (the matchups between them and Borussia Dortmund), 2-0, Tuchel has given up on the title. This result was a total shock as Borussia Dortmund hadn't won in Munich for 10 years and a first win for them in 5 years. This result could epitomise Bayern Munich's season. This result has left them 13 points behind Leverkusen with 7 league matches left in the season.
It's hard to argue with Tuchel. Leverkusen are unbeaten in 38 matches and made an amazing comeback yesterday against Hoffenheim. It's looked like the former was about to lose their first match of their season. This was because they were 1-0 down with the clock ticking on the 88th minute. However, Robert Andrich would score the equaliser and then Patrik Schik would score the winner three minutes later.
Coming into the season, everything seemed to be all rainbows and sunshine. Bayern Munich had finally replaced Robert Lewandowski with Harry Kane and had signed highly sought after defender, Kim Min-jae. They were still under the care of a high profile manager.
However, as time went on, it could be argued things things got worse and worse. They remained without their captain, Manuel Neuer due to injury at the beginning of the season. After August of last year, they were second. They continued well into September by being in third. Their first defeat was a heavy one, a 5-1, to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Unfortunately, they continued to have mixed results. These results made them lose pace with the leaders. Despite having the star power that they possess, they were unable to maintain their domineering power over the league.
The situation wasn't helped by the announcement that Tuchel would leave the club at the end of the season. Speaking of which, controversy was made when Bryan Zaragoza brought up that Tuchel hadn't even spoken to him. It was later identified that Tuchel wasn't consulted when signing the player from Granada (a Spanish club).
Another that needs speaking of is Matthijs de Ligt. He's dropped to third choice behind Jae and Dayot Upamecano. He's unhappy as a result and wants a move. I don't understand why he's behind Upamecano. The latter seems to be a mistake waiting to happen. He's a liability.
If I was Tuchel, I wouldn't concede the race just yet. Anything can happen. I suppose the good news for Tuchel is that he won't suffer any consequences of a bad season since he's leaving anyway. I'd be happy to see a team either than Bayern Munich to win the Bundesliga. Seeing the same team win the league every season can be tiresome.