BFW Roundtable: Have you lost faith in Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann?

The online outrage and criticism from the media is starting to subside a little bit, but the unceremonious Champions League exit at the hands of Villarreal is certainly still stinging everyone at Bayern Munich.

Manager Julian Nagelsmann has taken an absolute barrage of shots over his tactics and decision-making, which has led many fans to already come to the conclusion that the club should part ways with the native Bavarian.

Given just how hot this topic is, we asked our staffers what they thought about their own faith in Nagelsmann moving forward.

Note: Let’s be clear...attacking the man (or anyone else) on social media with death threats and other nonsense is idiotic, moronic, and any other -ic you want to add. Any fan who participates in that kind of behavior is an utter dolt. You can criticize a person’s capability to do their job or how they’ve done their job without making threats or even attacking them online (I know, novel concept). There is no need for that and you should be ashamed of yourself if you have partaken in such activities.

Now, that we somehow had to say that, let’s get started...

Have you lost faith in Bayern Munich manager Julian Nagelsmann?

CSmith

No. Nagelsmann needs more time. I think we are seeing some of the same issues that we saw Bayern Munich experience under Carlo Ancelotti and Niko Kovac because there is absolutely a disconnect between the front office and the coaching staff.

Nagelsmann wanted to run a system that the roster was not fully equipped to handle. When asking for help during the winter transfer window, Nagelsmann was rebuffed. Meanwhile, some prominent players reportedly voiced their displeasure about the system and their roles (I think we can probably guess who that was — if true).

Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images

All the while the squad planners continued to extend players whose role could be somewhat iffy moving forward from a fit perspective under Nagelsmann. If you hire a coach, you have to believe in his system and give him the proper parts to make it work. If Bayern Munich wanted a boss to come in and run a 4-2-3-1, it should have hired that person instead of Nagelsmann. Now, it’s too late for that and the club should give him an opportunity to succeed. Until the organization gets aligned internally, capturing European glory will be extremely hard.

The man is still a good coach, but being the manager at Bayern Munich is a different world than most place. Nagelsmann needs more time to get his bearings — even if patience is wearing thin among the fanbase.

RLD

No. At the risk of sounding old I find many fans who were brought up in the internet age are in a hurry to rush to judgement. It takes time to see a player’s or a coach’s body of work and development before you can evaluate them them properly. Uli Hoeness has publicly said that his biggest mistake in Bayern management was firing Jupp Heynkes the first time, which was the result of having too itchy a trigger finger. I feel the same way about Nagelsmann.

We are also in a period of change, which is not easy. The team that Nags took over was not built to suit the style of play he believes in, it was built for a Jupp-Flick philosophy. Hansi Flick’s sudden departure did not leave management the time to over haul the roster to suit new formations and ideas. That simply cannot be done in a single window. This, to a degree has handcuffed Nagelsmann from fully implementing his own style at the club. Plus it takes time for players to adapt to change. This team is going to go through major changes in the next few years and the board has decided that Nags is the guy to shape the next Bayern era. I am hopeful they got it right.

For me, the jury is still out on our new coach.

Teddy Son

I don’t think it’s a secret around here that I dislike Nagelsmann, or at least doubt his abilities. That said, sacking him after just one season seems a bit premature. We gave other coaches more time, and as someone who is younger, and who might have more potential, Nagelsmann should also be given at least two seasons to prove what he has in store for us. Yes, his first season has been rather disappointing, with the defeats to Gladbach and Villarreal still fresh in mind. But now is not the time to move on. When was the last time a Bayern coach didn’t even last a single season? I plan to reserve my judgment until later times.

Photo by Stefan Matzke - sampics/Corbis via Getty Images

Plus, turning on the coach right here and right now will do the team no good. Contrary to popular belief, the season is far from over. We still have a Bundesliga title to win, and all we can do is get behind Nagelsmann and the team. It won’t be too late to start asking questions after we’ve won the league. Nagelsmann isn’t stupid, so I’m hoping he learned his lesson from the Champions League catastrophe and sets his team up well for the upcoming games against Bielefeld and Dortmund. As long as he wins us the tenth consecutive Bundesliga, I’ll give him credit where credit is due.

But if his next season is as bad as this season, or god forbid worse, bye bye Jules.

Fergus25

I think Nagelsmann should stay at the club. I also think he should be on thin ice in the future and can’t afford another season of mediocrity, poor tactical decisions and not making his best out of a world class squad. Nagelsmann’s Bayern have since Christmas been somewhat lethargic, iffy in chance creation and still lack a set champagne XI and formation. Going into April which such indecisiveness and still experimenting with the setup is a manual for disaster. And so it was.

However, one must not forget the good work Nagelsmann did in the Hindrunde, employing a hybrid back three/back four setup which had much more balance than Nagelsmann’s recent sides. Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane and Robert Lewandowski, Bayern’s three best players this season on a whole, we’re also playing excellently in this period. Simply put, it is crucial that the coach gets his best players and the attack back firing — there must be a effective place for Muller and Lewandowski — coaches who get his duo wrong won’t survive long. To conclude, another season of similar mishaps, and Nagelsmann will likely not be so lucky.

Samrin

In a word, yes. However, this makes the assumption that I had a lot of faith in him in the first place. I thought he fit the bill as a Bavarian and would, at least from that perspective, have an idea of the enormity of the job he was taking on. Otherwise, I was not too confident as he was coming in after managing two untraditional German clubs, Hoffenheim and Leipzig. If he was coming in from perhaps a stint at Gladbach or Dortmund, I would have had more trust.

Photo by Roland Krivec/vi/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Against Villarreal though, he really failed me. The signs were there. There was that defeat to Gladbach and a pretty poor defeat to Bochum. There were many unconvincing displays but I had believed he would be able to outcoach Unai Emery. Emery is an excellent manager and managed to outcoach Nagelsmann, particularly in the first leg.

What bothers me most about Nagelsmann is much of Bayern’s issues are his doing. He took over a team in sync which destroyed opposition relentlessly; he tweaked a few things and everything was fine, and then, in that one match against Greuther Fürth, he fielded a back three. Further experimentation continued and somewhere in the midst of it all, the team lost a bit of its identity. And now, here we are, without a true identity, trying to find what works best for a team that already knew what worked best.

Nagelsmann had the best team in the world in his hands. Now, the best team can’t even beat the seventh best team in Spain. I know I will be asked to blame the players. But as far as I am concerned, Nagelsmann shoulders roughly 70% of the blame here. And if he intends to see out his contract at Bayern, he would be well advised to learn his lessons from this season.

CCyler

No. Honestly, when Hansi Flick announced he would depart, Julian Nagelsmann was my dream candidate. One season, especially one that had multiple long-term injuries and a general gap in the squad cannot be the measure of his ability and fit in this team. We already can see a bright future ahead with the impending arrival of Noussair Mazraoui who will definitely become a key player next season, as well as Marcel Sabitzer returning to form which seems closer and closer as every week passes by and as his performances get better and better. Nagelsmann needs time and needs give. He needs to be able to get in the players he wants, something he was denied in January, and so far the team has suffered for it. Could you imagine how much better this team would have been with Borna Sosa on the left in Alphonso Davies' absence?

However, it must be said that for all of his prodigious talent, he makes more than the odd mistake in how he sets up the team. Insisting on the back three when we did not have the required players on the flanks was a fatal mistake, and as of late he seems to be making all the wrong decisions when it comes to the trio of Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and especially Leroy Sané. This may be a case of Pep Guardiola syndrome, trying to out-think the opposition's coach and ending up overthinking. Sometimes the obvious choice is obvious because it is the right one.

The obvious choice is to not let go of your most expensive managerial acquisition of all time and to have faith in him beyond just one season. Looking at you and your cheap alternatives, Hasan. Don't Bouna Sarr us again.

You read our thoughts, so tell us what you think in the comments below!