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Football

06th Mar 2018

Jupp Heynckes tips former Borussia Dortmund boss to replace him at Bayern Munich

He could be exactly what Bayern need

Reuben Pinder

Dortmund fans must be sick of this now

It’s a depressingly regular occurrence, seeing Borussia Dortmund’s star players leave the club to join Bayern Munich. In recent times we’ve seen Robert Lewandowski cross the divide, before Mario Götze and Mats Hummels followed suit. Götze of course returned to Dortmund with his tail between his legs having failed at Bayern for various reasons, not all in his control.

It’s become an almost annual event for Dortmund fans to see their star players get hoovered up by Germany’s dominant force, and Bayern could be about to bring one of Dortmund’s former coaches to the Allianz Arena.

Jupp Heynckes, currently serving his third spell as manager of Bayern, told German newspaper Sport Bild that he will definitely be retiring at the end of this season, and tipped Thomas Tuchel to replace him.

Tuchel replaced Jürgen Klopp at Dortmund and took the same path in his managerial career, making the step up from Mainz to BVB. Tuchel’s approach was slightly different to Klopp’s; while he applied the same principles of high, intense pressing, he was more experimental with formations and tactics. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not.

Given Bayern’s domestic dominance, he might be afforded the time and space to play around with his tactics at Bayern. The club could use him too. After a relatively comfortable season in which Heynckes arrested the decline that was creeping in under Carlo Ancelotti, it is about time a young, vibrant coach brought the team into a new, post-Robben and Ribery era.