Erik ten Hag has come in for his fair share of criticism recently for those perceived weaknesses when it comes to his ‘in-game management’.
Particularly as Manchester United threw away seven points in the space of a week from winning positions against Brentford, Chelsea and Liverpool.
On Wednesday night, however, it was the man who reportedly wants to take his place in the Old Trafford dugout who saw his substitutions come under fire.
Even if Real Madrid had not turned around yet another Champions League game – Joselu scoring twice in the space of three minutes either side of the 90 mark – Bayern Munich were facing up to the prospect of extra-time, and maybe even penalties, without their talismanic top scorer.
Thomas Tuchel, with Bayern 1-0 up and edging towards the finishing line, replaced Harry Kane with Eric Maxim Choup-Moting, seemingly to provide an influx of energy and physicality up top. Perhaps a little more aerial presence at set-pieces too.
But with Choupo-Moting’s fellow substitute – and fellow one-time Stoke City forward – Joselu turning on the heroics mere moments after Kane’s removal, Tuchel’s Bayern were suddenly tasked with finding a winner, and then an equaliser, without the man who has 44 goals in 45 games in all competitions this season.
Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern Munich stunned by Real Madrid
“I thought Tuchel’s substitutions were strange,” Manchester United legend Paul Scholes tells TNT Sports of a man who, if he gets his wish, may be patrolling the Red Devils dugout in 2024/25. “(Taking off) Kane was strange.
“Even if they get one goal, there’s still extra-time, penalties to come as well. You know how strong he is.”
“That is one of the biggest subs I have ever seen in a game of football,” adds a bemused Owen Hargreaves, the former Bayern midfielder who won the Champions League alongside Scholes in 2008.
“To take off a guy who’s scored 44 goals… Maybe he wanted height for corners, I don’t know. (But) you cannot take him off! I said straight away, (Real Madrid) are going to score, and then what?
“I don’t know why they made that call.”
Will Tuchel get Manchester United job?
In Tuchel’s defence, German reporter Raphael Honigstein reports that it was a decision made out of necessity rather than desire. Kane, he says, had picked up a back injury in the dying stages at the Santiago Bernabeu.
And lest we forget, Kane or no Kane, Tuchel would have a third Champions League final in the space of four years to look forward to had the vastly experienced Manuel Neuer – so brilliant until that moment – not spilled a speculative Vinicius Junior shot straight into the path of Joselu.
Tuchel remains probably the outstanding candidate to take the Man United job under Ineos. His CV is nothing short of exceptional, even if Bayern have fallen well short of an unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen outfit domestically.
According to the iNews, Tuchel is now the frontrunner, despite reports linking Roberto de Zerbi, Thiago Motta, Graham Potter and more with Ten Hag’s job.
‘He’s a big club manager’
“I like him. I like Thomas Tuchel,” the iconic former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel tells BeIN Sports. “I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him a couple of times. His football knowledge is fantastic. I think he has been a little bit unlucky with being at two big football clubs at the wrong time of their history, at times when things were not working at every level.
“It’s not that he didn’t do well with Chelsea for instance. I mean, he won the Champions League, didn’t he? I just like him. There’s something about him. He projects sort of authority. You never compare people, but he has got the same kind of thing that (Jurgen) Klopp has, you know.
“If Manchester United were in the market for a manager, he should be somebody mentioned in that respect. He has that kind of pedigree. He has got, as I said, the authority, he has proven he can win, which I think is really important.
“He’ss a big-club manager, isn’t he?
“I am not saying he should be the manager. I am just saying that the category of manager Manchester United should have if they are in the market for a manager.”
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