Report: Niko Kovac repeating his Bayern Munich mistakes at Monaco (Updated)

Niko Kovac’s time at Bayern Munich was not a happy one. The Croatian did win the double in his first season, but a loss to Liverpool in the Champions League soured that achievement. The subsequent poor start in the following season earned him the ire of the dressing room, which eventually led to the Croatian’s sacking.

Kovac made numerous mistakes with his player management at Bayern, alienating senior stars like Thomas Muller and trying to change the system to his liking. Now, it seems like that same thing is happening to him at his new club, AS Monaco.

Per a report by L’Equipe (paywalled, but the gist of it is on Sport Bild), Niko Kovac has been criticized by several players for his “almost military leadership” and “confused tactical instructions”. Meanwhile, club management is dissatisfied and believes that he has lost the dressing room. Monaco’s billionaire owner Dimitri Rybolovlev is also apparently unhappy with their position in the league table — the team finds itself in 6th place after the halfway mark.

According to the report, Kovac’s future at the club is uncertain. This has little to do with Bayern Munich for now, but it could jeopardize Alexander Nubel’s loan. The 25-year-old was sent to Monaco to gain experience at a European-level club, and he has been Kovac’s go to keeper for this campaign. Will that change if the Croatian gets sacked? In any case, the loan still would’ve been a success, because Nubel got a ton of important minutes that he otherwise wouldn’t have gotten this season.

Now, if Kovac does get sacked, could a return to the Bundesliga be on the cards? Given how some of bigger teams have performed this season, you can’t rule it out. That would certainly shake things up in the league, for better or worse.

Update

Not official yet, but it looks like Niko Kovac has been sacked by Monaco.

This is probably not good news for Bayern and Nubel.

Update #2

According to Ronan Murphy, Jesse Marsch might be one of the potential replacements for Kovac.

Check out the latest edition of our Weekend Warm-up podcast for more discussion of this exact topic: