Champions League: Lazio may compound Bayern Munich's woes
Bayern Munich take on SS Lazio in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie on Tuesday with the Italian outfit 1-0 up from leg one in Rome. The German juggernauts have home advantage but little else going for them at present with Bayer Leverkusen 10 points clear in the Bundesliga and no DFB Pokal left to fight for.
As always, you can catch all the Champions League action as well as pre and postgame coverage across CBS, Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, and CBS Sports Golazo Network.
CBS believes that Bayern has been sleepwalking into what could be an imminent crisis for some time now."I do not think that Bayern are institutionally ill, but there are some issues within the club for sure," said the former FC St. Pauli man.
"At the executive board level, with old Bayern heads such as Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Franz Beckenbauer now gone, I think they do not know how to take the club in the right direction outside of being financially and professionally successful in the Bundesliga. What Bayern has normally done is buy the best players from the Bundesliga and find success with the best coaches in the league. The game now is completely different and there are clubs in the world who are far more financially successful.
"Bayern, as an institution, do not know which direction they are going in. They do not know who to put in charge to take them in the right direction. They are institutionally lost -- they do not know who they are anymore. The identity of the club has completely changed and there is no trust within the club, executively. The biggest problem that they have going forward is trying to compete financially with the best clubs in the world. They can compete in Germany because they have the most money but there are probably 15 clubs that can now blow Bayern out of the water financially."
It was just back in 2020 that Bayern won their sixth and most recent Champions League title and remained dominant in Germany after Hansi Flick's departure as head coach. However, Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel have both struggled to keep the Bavarian giants at the top of the domestic tree, let alone the continental one in recent years.
This was something that had been a long time in coming and was visible even when Robert Lewandowski was still prolific in attack at Allianz Arena.
This brings us back to the Champions League and this week's clash with Lazio which could have major ramifications for Tuchel if the Italians advance. With the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal already lost, it means that the UCL is the only potential avenue to silverware for Bayern, who last lost out on the German crown back in 2011 to Klopp's Borussia Dortmund. With Tuchel already moving on at the end of the season, the former PSG and Chelsea tactician could go even sooner if Lazio advances.
"If Bayern do go out of the Champions League and with their title hopes already basically over, I think that we could see Tuchel replaced with an interim boss," added Joy. "Bayern are a vulnerable team right now and Lazio can turn them over, which I never thought that I would say. There is every possibility that a strong decision will be made when you look at Tuchel's body language against SC Freiburg, where they were poor but should have won.
"He knows that he is being made out to be the scapegoat, but he has not been successful at the club that went from being poor under Nagelsmann, but still in every competition to very quickly out of all of them and very lucky title winners on the final day. Suddenly they could be out of all competitions by March, and that is unheard of so expect the unexpected if Bayern go out of the Champions League again -- if not against Lazio then whoever comes next."
