Bayern Munich maybe shouldn’t have hit the panic button

Nagelsmann lost three in 37, Tuchel has lost three in seven

Sometimes the right call is to just stay the course.

Bayern Munich is learning that the hard way. A 3-1 loss to Mainz extended a listless run of form that has followed a shock mid-season coaching change that saw Julian Nagelsmann rushed out the door.

The club installed Thomas Tuchel as their new manager, and while his time in charge started off with an authoritative win in Der Klassiker, it’s gone awry since then.

Under Tuchel, Bayern has been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal after a home loss to Freiburg, and was brushed aside by Manchester City in the Champions League quarterfinals. In the Bundesliga, the Mainz defeat came hours before Borussia Dortmund thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0, results that saw Bayern drop into second place with five games to play.

Meanwhile, off the field, things don’t seem much better. Sadio Mané was suspended by the team for a game after reportedly punching Leroy Sané following their 3-0 first leg Champions League defeat at Man City.

In seven matches in charge, Tuchel has lost three times. Nagelsmann, by comparison, coached Bayern in 37 games, and lost the same number of times.

On Saturday, the early going featured a distinctly mixed bag. On the plus side, Mané — not long after having a goal called back for offside — nodded João Cancelo’s cross home in the 29th minute, giving Bayern a lead in what had been a fairly even game up until that point.

However, there was a potentially serious negative: just nine minutes into the match, Alphonso Davies had to be substituted after pulling up with an apparent hamstring strain. That’s an injury that, depending on recovery time, could keep the Canada national team star out for the rest of the campaign.

Still, Bayern saw their way to halftime, and past the hour mark, holding a 1-0 lead. Chances were at a premium; this was hardly Bayern swaggering to a victory, but they were at least holding up at the back.

That is, until a 65th minute free kick featuring a series of errors that ended with Ludovic Ajorque heading home from barely two yards out.

Mainz’s initial ball in was met by Matthijs de Ligt, but his clearing header was angled down rather than looping up and out of danger, and struck the unsuspecting Josip Stanišić.

Andreas Hanche-Olsen would have been offside if not for the fact that the last two touches on the ball came from Bayern players, and the defender chipped the ball back into the goalmouth under pressure from Cancelo.

De Ligt won that header as well, but with Stanišić crashing into him, it was another header that didn’t get the ball out of the box. Meanwhile, a crucial mistake on the endline — Cancelo didn’t block Hanche-Olsen’s cross, but then stepped back onto the field — kept Ajorque onside.

As that was happening, Lee Jae-sung bounced a half-volley on goal that Yann Sommer should have easily held. Instead, Sommer merely slapped at the ball, bouncing it right at Ajorque, who ended the series of calamities by scoring.

Three minutes later, things only got worse.

A simple flick-on from Ajorque following a long ball forward saw Karim Onisiwo pressure Stanišić. The Croatia defender stumbled, then clearly handled the ball, but before a penalty could be given, Onisiwo spun around and squared the ball to Leandro Barreiro for a simple finish.

Bayern’s 10-minute collapse was then completed as Aarón Caricol’s angled shot zipped past Sommer and into the bottom corner.

The Munich giant’s pursuit of an 11th straight Bundesliga crown is on shaky footing indeed, but there may be some relief coming in the form of a favorable schedule.

Bayern’s final five matches of the season are not exactly daunting: home games against the bottom two teams in the Bundesliga (Hertha Berlin and Schalke), as well as a third match at the Allianz Arena against RB Leipzig. Their two remaining away games are against middling Köln and Werder Bremen, who both sit mid-table with no real hope of a place in Europe, nor the motivating fear of a relegation threat.

However, based on their recent form, a supposedly easy slate of games might not be enough.

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