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Winter ball in Munich
Photo: Andreas Schaad / AP
After twelve minutes, seven thickly wrapped up men stormed the square and scooped the lines with wide shovels.
At the same time, the first change of the game took place, the balls were swapped, for the rest of the first half an orange ball rolled over the white lawn.
At half-time, a rumbling Unimog with an oversized tennis pull-off mat cleared the field of snow behind it.
Full commitment everywhere at Bayern Munich, and the coach wanted to see that with his team: After the final whistle, Hansi Flick praised the mentality of his team as "sensational".
After a 3: 3.
At home.
Against Bielefeld.
Much had spoken in favor of the fact that the game of the new club world champion against the newcomer from East Westphalia would be an unagitated compulsory event.
Instead, it turned out to be an exciting, curious, funny spectacle.
Bavaria versus Bielefeld, best carnival entertainment for Rose Monday prime time.
Who would have thought?
A flourish on that.
Serious mistakes on the defensive
Only the cheerfulness at FC Bayern was manageable afterwards.
Less because of the gap between them and their pursuer Leipzig, which had shrunk from seven to five points, they could get over that quite well.
The staff failures weigh much more heavily - and above all the massive deficits in the defense, which one believed to be behind after the previous games.
Because the three goals conceded on Monday were by no means due to the poor condition of the field.
All Bielefeld hits resulted from gross blunders on the defensive.
Especially between the two central defenders Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernandez there were enormous gaps, the assignment was missing: Whether at 0: 1, when Bielefeld's winter access Michel Vlap was unrestricted to the shot.
Or a little later, when Amos Pieper headed the second goal for the guests after a corner.
Most blatantly, when Christian Gebauer effortlessly increased to 3-1 just one minute after Robert Lewandowski's connecting goal.
That evening it became clear how much David Alaba is missing in the central defense when he plays in midfield, as he did in the last club World Cup final - and especially when he leaves the club at the end of the season.
And it also became clear how much the hopes have to rest on Dayot Upamecano, who is coming to Munich from Leipzig for the coming season.
What Bayern don't currently have in this constellation and what they need so badly next season is a head of defense.
"Things we have to turn off"
On Monday it seemed as if individual defenders were standing around on the Munich defense.
But not in the network as a defensive collective.
There is no one in this back four who directs and positions the secondary players clearly as Alaba usually does.
With announcements, with clear communication, with presence and body language.
Neither Süle nor Hernandez, and certainly not on the right the very weak Bouna Sarr, who played for a very weak Benjamin Pavard.
And although Alphonso Davies rewarded his good performance with the goal to make it 3: 3 on the left side of defense: In the end, all four players ran alongside each other in disorder.
Quiet, silent and often disoriented.
Flick liked to praise the aforementioned "sensational mentality" of his team, having scored a point after being two-goal deficit: just as much did he talk about the mistakes in defense.
"Things that we have to turn off," he said, "they were simple goals" or: "We made it difficult for ourselves."
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Bayern coach Hans-Dieter Flick
Photo: LUKAS BARTH-TUTTAS / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
It will be difficult for Bayern in the next few weeks.
On Saturday it goes to Frankfurt, to the best Bundesliga team in 2021, three days later to Lazio Rome in the Champions League.
It is unclear when Jérôme Boateng (special leave) and Thomas Müller (Covid) will join the team again.
Serge Gnabry with a torn muscle fiber and Douglas Costa with a hairline crack in his foot will probably be out longer, it is possible that Leon Goretzka will be fit again for Saturday.
Difficult time for Flick.
Four minutes and 15 seconds
Which he made even more difficult for himself with his statements on Sunday about Corona, politicians and experts.
On Monday evening, Flick spoke again when a reporter asked whether he had expected such violent reactions.
Flick's reply lasted four minutes and 15 seconds.
"I did not expect it to make such waves," said Flick.
"The last day was extreme, I also got a lot of bad news, but I have to live with that, I can cope with that because I stand by my opinion on the whole."
It was noticeable to Flick that he felt he was misunderstood, that he wanted to set things right and differentiate them, that, as he said, he wanted to "bring his emotionality closer to the public."
That he answered "not only as a coach at Bayern Munich", but also as someone who ran a sports shop as a retailer for 23 years.
Flick ("I am also a family man and have two grandchildren") also commented on the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach, whom he scolded.
“It might be a good idea to speak to Mr. Lauterbach personally, in private and not on a talk show.
Or on the phone.
I am not usually one who would like to put someone he does not know in such a light. ”Which is why, in retrospect, he would“ phrase one or the other differently ”.
So a little bit of self-criticism.
It wasn't just Flick's job that evening.
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