The football world has seen a lot of bad losers. For them, others are to blame for a defeat: often the weak referee, sometimes the oh-so-unfair opponent, sometimes it's the bumpy turf, the nasty weather, the lots of money from others, the tight schedule, the injury misery, bad luck ... And yes, sometimes it all comes together. Who won't find a reason for that?
Tobias Rabe
Editor in charge of Sport Online.
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FC Bayern is rarely a bad loser. The reason is quite simple: because he loses so rarely. The search for reasons for defeat often depends on the opponent. For the sake of simplicity, a collective term has been established in German football that can be used to summarize the reasons for this supposedly undeserved luck of the most successful German club: the Bayern-Dusel.
At the moment, however, FC Bayern is also a bad loser. Is there also a Mönchengladbach-Dusel? A Leverkusen dusel? A Freiburg-Dusel? A Manchester Dusel? Or a Mainz-Dusel? These five teams have already managed to win against Munich in 2023. With Dusel? Probably not, even if Thomas Tuchel denied the level of "turf and referee" after the Champions League exit against Manchester City and thus briefly looked for reasons for offside.
Bundesliga awards "most honest title"
FC Bayern are indeed a bad loser at the moment – a loser because they lost 1-3 in Mainz on Saturday and bad because their sporting level has not been so low for a long time. This can be seen in the records in the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.
2020/2021 season: Out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals against Paris Saint-Germain and out of the DFB-Pokal in the second round at Holstein Kiel.
Season 2021/2022: Out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals against FC Villarreal and out of the DFB-Pokal in the second round at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
2022/2023 season: Out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals against Manchester City and out of the DFB-Pokal in the quarter-finals against SC Freiburg.
Even better, however, is the lower level of FC Bayern in the Bundesliga. It is the competition in which, according to former Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, there is the "most honest title" to be won, because after 34 matchdays it is not only the referee, the pitch, the weather or the Bayern duel that is decisive.
Now that only 29 matchdays of this season are over and it is still unclear whether the Munich team will win this "most honest title" for the eleventh time in a row, it can already be said that the perennial champions are in a worse position than ever. And it's not about the weakness of the Munich team around Herbert Hainer, Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić. In figures, this can be easily seen in the points that the Munich team won up to five league games before the end of the season.
Season 2012/2013: 78 points
2013/2014: 78 2014/2015: 73 2015/2016: 75 2016/2017: 69 2017/2018: 84 2018/2019: 67
2019/2020: 67 2020/2021: 68 2021/2022: 69 2022/
2023: 59
With 60 points, Borussia Dortmund are even one point ahead of Bayern after their 4-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. A year ago, BVB had exactly the same number, but was far behind the Munich team. At that time, they had not won seven of 29 games, this season there are already twelve. The new tension in the Bundesliga in the fight for the title is therefore less due to a new strength of the Borussians than to the new weakness of the Bavarians.
A look at the other major football leagues in Europe confirms the low level. In Italy, Napoli had already collected 29 points after 74 matchdays. Also in Spain with FC Barcelona (73), in England with FC Arsenal (72) and in France with Paris Saint-Germain (66) there are clubs that topped the table with a yield with which Bayern, if they had this number of points now, would hardly have to worry about not winning the German championship this time.
It is already clear that if Bayern secure the title in 2023, they will have their weakest record since they started their unique championship run in 2013. And it is not certain that they will end up with the minimum maximum value of 74 points, which is now only possible. They need five wins in five games against Hertha BSC, Werder Bremen, Schalke 04, RB Leipzig and 1. Dortmund play at VfL Bochum, VfL Wolfsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Augsburg and Mainz 05.
Season 2012/2013: 91 points
2013/2014: 90 2014/2015: 79 2015/2016: 88 2016/2017: 82 2017/2018: 84 2018/2019: 78 2019/2020: 82 2020/2021: 78 2021/2022: 77 2022/
2023: maximum 74
Years ago, the then Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß wanted to put binoculars in the hands of the competition so that they could see the Munich team at the top of the table. Now you don't even need glasses. Instead, a glance over the shoulder is enough. The Bavarians alone are to blame for this.