Thomas Tuchel says Bayern Munich’s best defense is a strong attack, even for his defensive players

Eyebrows are raised with a quick glance at the current Bundesliga table, but to the avid German league follower, they would understand that Bayern Munich currently residing in the second spot in the table has more to do with Bayern Leverkusen over-performing than it does with Bayern underperforming. Thomas Tuchel’s side have had maybe one or two brief slips=ups, but by no means are having a bad season thus far. Die Werkself are just having an excellent season thus far.

Bayern has already tallied a league best 34 goals in the league so far, after their 8-0 demolition of SV Darmstadt last weekend. They have shown absolutely zero signs of not being able to score goals with Harry Kane leading the lines, but it is the defensive issues that have cost Bayern points with their two draws of the season thus far. They still boast the best defensive record in the league alongside RB Leipzig, having both only conceded a total of seven goals, but Tuchel recently explained that, tactically, he has to take advantage of having such attack-minded defenders like Alphonso Davies, Noussair Mazraoui, Konrad Laime, as well as the center backs that like to play line-splitting passes.

For Bayern, the onus is ordinally on them to have a lion’s share of possession and it creates opportunities for the wing backs to push up the pitch quite high, leaving vulnerable spaces in behind. That it part of what makes Davies’ pace such an insurance policy with the way he is always able to track back so quickly, but that is not always the case. To balance things out, Tuchel knows his side has to play to their attacking strengths, even with their defensive players.

“We’re currently conceding too many chances. You can also see that in the expected goals. But it doesn’t make much sense to constantly pick at it. Instead, we’re trying to push through our strengths over 90 minutes and fielding a lot of attacking players. It’s true that there’s a lack of balance against some opponents. But our goal difference speaks for itself,” the Bayern manager explained in the press conference ahead of the DFB-Pokal second round clash against FC Saarbrücken.

“We’re equipped with players in defense who like to attack. You sometimes notice that in our play, but we want to play to our strengths. In some situations that leads to us not having the perfect balance. We’re working on being sharper there. But it’s only October, we have time. We’ll do everything to make sure we’re the better team on Saturday (vs. Borussia Dortmund),” Tuchel added.