Tuchel, This Is How Liverpool and Barça Are Doing
Jürgen Klopp and Xavi Hernandez also announced that they would leave their respective clubs at the end of the season. How did it affect the performance of their teams?
Thomas Tuchel will leave Bayern Munich at the end of the season. The same formula that Jürgen Klopp and Xavi Hernández have chosen to end their ties with Liverpool and Barcelona respectively.
But, how have Reds and Azulgranas fared after it became public knowledge that their current coaches will not continue next season? Did their performance improve? Did it worsen?
Let's first look at Liverpool: Klopp announced on January 26th that he would put an end to his tenure at the Merseyside club at the end of the current season. Since then, his team has played a total of five games, with a record of 4 wins and only one defeat.
It's not that Liverpool was going through a crisis of results and that they improved after the announcement. In fact, they even worsened slightly. For example, in the nine matches prior to his revelation, the Reds did not suffer any defeats.
The case of Barcelona is different. The Blaugranas were indeed on a negative streak of results. Two consecutive defeats, especially the one suffered at home against Villarreal (3-5), precipitated Xavi's announcement.
The Dutch midfielder took advantage of the press conference before the match against Napoli to settle scores with the press over everything that has been published about his future.
That was on January 27th. Since then, Barcelona has not tasted defeat. Three wins and one draw in four games, pending the first leg of the round of 16 against Napoli this Wednesday.
The situation at Bayern is even more dramatic now that it has been announced that Tuchel will not continue next season. Three consecutive defeats have the German club in the midst of a historic crisis.
It remains to be seen whether now that the players know the coach will not continue, they will step up or if, on the contrary, they let themselves go, aggravating the bad moment they are going through.