Live football matches: Bayern is without coach after Covac resign. Will they take Ajax manager Erik ten Hag ?
The Munich club broke up with the Croatian Niko Kovacs and possible wants to see Eric ten Hag as a new Bayern Munich manager.
The decision to resign was made shortly after the big defeat of Eintracht with a score of 1:5 - this failure was the most difficult for the Munich team over the past 10 years. At the same time, both the club and Kovac publicly submit this decision as `mutual`.
“The performance of our team in the past few weeks and its
football live results have shown that something needs to be done. We had an honest and open discussion with Nico on Sunday, where we talked about all this, and in the end we came to a joint decision that Kovacs would no longer be the head coach of Bayern. We all regret this situation. I want to thank Niko for his work.` said the Bayern Executive Director and one of the football club’s legends Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
The official website of Bavaria also posted a statement by Kovac himself, who noted that this decision would be correct for the club.
`The results and the way we played recently have led me to such a decision. My brother Robert and I want to thank Bavaria for these wonderful one and a half years. It was a great time. I wish the club and the team all the best` said the Croatian football manager.
Interestingly, at first, according to some German newspapers, little signaled such a development. From Frankfurt, the team and management were returning together. At 8 in the morning, Kovacs arrived at the base and conducted a rehabilitation training, which lasted 70 minutes. The bosses were calm. It was believed that some conclusions could follow as a result of the coming week, in which the “Bavaria” to play with “Olympiacos” in the Champions League and with “Borussia” from Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Moreover, then comes a two-week pause for matches of national teams. However, already on Sunday afternoon, a storm broke out.
Moreover, the results of the “Bavaria” under Kovach cannot be called such a failure. The 48-year-old coach led the Munich team in the summer of 2018. Last season, the team under his leadership made a gold double, winning the championship and the German Cup. Kovacs, by the way, was the first to achieve this achievement with Bayern both as a player and as a coach. True, it did not work out in the Champions League, but there was partly unlucky with a draw - the future Liverpool winner fell already in the 1/8 finals of Bayern (0-0 away, 1: 3 at home).
This season, the Munich team, after 10 rounds, having scored 18 points, takes 4th place in the Bundesliga, but only four points behind the leader, Borussia from Mönchengladbach, and the density in the table is very high. And in the Champions League, Bayern won three victories in three matches of the group stage, including defeating Tottenham on the road - 7: 2.
And in general, Kovach’s football statistics are quite decent - 45 wins in 65 matches at the head of Bayern Munich with only eight defeats as was our prediction for his career indeed.
On the other hand, the last time the team got worse in the Bundesliga was the 2010/11 season under the leadership of Louis van Gaal, when they scored 15 points after 10 rounds. The same number - 18, was in the seasons 2008/09 and 2009/10. Typically, twice out of these three cases - in 2009 and 2011 - Bayern did not become a champion.
The team’s game in defense cannot be encouraging - 16 goals conceded. So many Bayern missed in the first 10 rounds for the last time in the 2008/09 season under Jürgen Klinsmann - also 16.
At the same time, in the summer, Bavaria held a rather powerful transfer campaign, spending almost 143 million euros to strengthen its roster. In particular, the team included world champions Hernandez (80 million) and Pavar (35 million), as well as leased attacking midfielders Filippe Coutinho (8.5 million) and vice world champion Perisic (5 million). A worthy replacement for those who left Munich Hummels, veterans Ribery and Robben, and returned to Real Madrid, James Rodriguez.
In the next two matches - with Olympiacos and Borussia D - Bavaria will be led by Hansi Flick, head of Kovac’s headquarters. But, apparently, this is a temporary figure - then the Munich bosses will have two weeks of pause for the games of the national teams to determine the successor of the Croat.
While the main candidate is considered the head coach of Ajax Eric ten Hag. The 49-year-old Dutchman already has experience in Munich - in 2013-2015 he led the second team of Bavaria, while Pep Guardiola worked in the main one. According to Sky, the leadership of the German club has already contacted ten Hag. True, according to the source, the point is that the coach will head the “Bavaria” not now, but next summer.
Ten Hag himself, whose contract with Ajax expires in 2022, said in an interview with Kicker in October that if he received an offer from Bavaria, he would definitely think. “I do not exclude this, but I'm already fifty, and I'm not a dreamer. The offer will come or not come. I am happy at Ajax, although I know that I will not stay here for ten years as a coach, ”he said.
And the sports director of the Amsterdam team, Mark Overmars, noted that the club will not obstruct the coach if he wants to leave in the summer. So if in Munich they really want to get it they should make something fast.
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