Thomas Tuchel navigating Champions League weeks through Bayern Munich’s injury crisis

Bayern Munich has started 2023/24 well, but an early run of injuries and the arrival of Champions League competition and English weeks is already proving to be an early strain.

The twists and turns of the summer transfer window resulted in the Bavarians maybe a player or two light in squad depth, and head coach Thomas Tuchel has been left to handle the headache.

“It was a long journey, we can still feel it,” Tuchel said after Bayern’s trip to Copenhagen on October 3 (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “We’ve had a lot of away games lately. Everyone was in training today apart from (Matthijs de Ligt) and Serge Gnabry. Raphaël Guerreiro was also involved again. It was fun working with a big group. It was important today to have a good training session in top conditions, to get into the rhythm.”

The injury crisis has not exactly eased since then, however. Guerreiro and Gnabry are still not available, while Leon Goretzka suffered a hand fracture against Mainz. In recent games Bayern have rolled with a bench including youngsters Frans Krätzig and Aleksander Pavlović — and just barely or not even five senior outfield players to choose from as sub options.

Perhaps it is little wonder the performances have been uneven. But Bayern has survived the period with wins, and may have just a little bit of a breather coming up in the schedule as players get — and, fingers crossed — stay healthy.