Thomas Tuchel knows Bayern Munich’s squad is thinner, rues missing out on João Palhinha

Tuchel knows that there were clearly missed opportunities in the summer transfer window.

Bayern Munich kept up their perfect start to the Bundesliga season, finally managing to grind out a win against Borussia Monchengladbach, who’s always been their bogey team in the league. Goals from Leroy Sane and Mathys Tel cancelled out Ko Itakura’s first half header and Bayern significantly improved upon a lackluster first half in the second half, partially due to Tuchel replacing a booked Noussair Mazraoui with Konrad Laimer.

Ahead of the win at Borussia Park in Monchengladach, Tuchel spoke about the overall squad, knowing that there were some missed opportunities in the summer transfer window despite getting Harry Kane from Tottenham. He had made a point of wanting to get a No. 6, defensive midfielder going into the summer transfer window, but that was put on the backburner when Declan Rice, his number one target, chose to join Arsenal from West Ham United. The later it got in the transfer window, the more Bayern’s board disagreed with Tuchel in his assessment of still wanting to get a defensive midfielder.

On deadline day in the summer window, Bayern had moves for both João Palhinha from Fulham and Armel Bella-Kotchap from Southampton collapse at the eleventh hour. Palhinha had gone as far as travelling to Munich, doing his medicals, and even taking pictures with a Bayern kit before the deal with Fulham fell through.

Tuchel knows there’s now still holes in Bayern’s squad. They lost Lucas Hernandez, Benjamin Pavard and Josip Stanišić, but didn’t sign another defender once the latter two left. They also let Ryan Gravenberch leave for Liverpool without getting a direct replacement. “The squad is thinner than before. We’ll see what we can make out of it and do our best. It’s a good squad, but it’s a bit short in some positions,” Tuchel explained to Sky Sport (via @iMiaSanMia).

On the Palhinha failed transfer, Tuchel admitted he’s not sure, exactly, what kept the deal from going through as it had looked like it was going to do before the window closed. “I was sad because I knew how much João Palhinha wanted to join us and what the player would have given us. I don’t know what exactly went wrong,” he said.

When asked later about getting Palhinha in Janaury, Tuchel stopped short of guaranteeing anything.

“There’s no update on that. No point thinking about that now either. He plays for Fulham, and we play here without him. I don’t know, things can sometimes change. Nobody can predict that,” Tuchel told Sport1’s Kerry Hau (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).