Julian Nagelsmann worried about Bayern Munich‘s confidence after 1-1 draw vs Eintracht Frankfurt

Bayern Munich labored to a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt at the Allianz Arena despite bossing the Eagles in every department of the match. Randal Kolo Muani’s second half strike cancelled out Leroy Sane’s finely taken strike not long before the halftime break.

It was Bayern’s third straight, 1-1 draw since coming back from the winter-pause after the World Cup in Qatar, which is cause for plenty concern. This is the first time Bayern has drawn three straight Bundesliga matches since the late 1970s. Earlier in the season, they bounced back from a four-match winless streak in the Bundesliga, but with Paris Saint-Germain looming large in the Champions League round of 16, Julian Nagelsmann has got to go back to the drawing board and get things right, and fast.

Speaking after the match, Nagelsmann highlighted the fact that his side is clearly short of confidence, knowing that there are many facets of their game that they can improve upon to avoid dropping more points. “When you don’t win, you don’t have the same confidence as if you had won. There are many points that we can improve on and we will discuss them. It’s getting very, very difficult for us when the opponent sits deep,” he told Sky Sports (via @iMiaSanMia).

He also felt that Bayern was forced to play wide for too long in that match, as Frankfurt didn’t allow them any clear spaces in more central positions throughout proceedings. Midway through the first half, the Bundesliga’s live coverage graphic on ESPN+ had showed that over 50% of Bayern’s attacks had come down the right channel, where both Sane and Josip Stanisic were playing. Ironically, it was the side the possessed less pace than the left flank of Kingsley Coman and Alphonso Davies. It was, however, the right flank where Sane’s goal came from in the 34th minute through Joshua Kimmich, Stanisic and Thomas Muller.

“Frankfurt didn’t give us any spaces today. We played almost everything just down the wing, hardly through the middle. That wasn’t a great performance from us today,” Nagelsmann stressed. Interestingly enough, there were several phases during the match where you could see him giving tactical instructions for players to drop back into central spaces to try to get on the ball and draw Frankfurt defenders out of position. He was seen giving these types of instructions to both Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Jamal Musiala at different points of the match.

Bayern still maintains their top spot in the Bundesliga table, but are now only one point ahead of second-placed Union Berlin, who beat Hertha Berlin this weekend.