The defeat against FC Barcelona is gnawing at the nerves of those responsible at FC Bayern. Max Eberl even hit a journalist afterwards.
The massive defeat at FC Barcelona made Bayern’s sports director Max Eberl very angry on Wednesday evening in the mixed zone of the arena. After the 4-1 defeat against the Catalans, the 51-year-old answered questions from the journalists present. His collar exploded.
What had happened? Sky reporter Florian Plettenberg asked Eberl about Munich’s central defender duo. Min-jae Kim and Dayot Upamecano both had a terrible day in Barcelona. Both players received a t-online grade of 5 for their performance (read more about this here).
Eberl was then asked whether Kim and Upamecano had been an insecurity factor in FC Bayern’s game. The Bayern boss immediately said: “No.” Then Plettenberg asked: “But how can we explain that the two of them very often don’t get into decisive duels, which was the case today with at least two goals conceded?” Eberl responded angrily: “Which one?” The Sky reporter then initially cited the fourth and first goal conceded as examples, emphasizing that Raphaël Guerreiro didn’t look good when the third goal was conceded.
Eberl railed against it: “In the first one, as far as I know, Josh (Joshua Kimmich, editor’s note) made the mistake in the center.” Plettenberg replied: “Upamecano is moving out.” Too much for Eberl, who then snapped at the reporter: “Get a trainer’s license, then you can do better.”
When Plettenberg asked again about the defense, Eberl really jumped up. “No, that has nothing to do with the defense. It’s so cheap to blame it on the defense when we concede goals,” he said angrily. “And when Harry Kane scores a goal, it’s just Harry Kane. That’s exactly what you want. You want to divide. And we won’t allow that.” There will be no nagging at individuals now, says Eberl.
Eberl also seemed irritated with the other questions. A journalist asked the official about it and said he was currently “very edgy”. Eberl then reassured: “I’m always edgy. I accept and respect every question and every criticism and I don’t mean that in a bad way.” It is completely normal for journalists to question things. “But we defend what we do if we are convinced of it.”