In his first days in Munich, Thomas Tuchel has earned praise from the most powerful man of his new club. He couldn't do it with games, not with training, not with dialogues. He managed to do this with press conferences.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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"His two press conferences were summa laude," Uli Hoeneß told the "Kicker" – and then went on to praise: "A print-ready way of expressing himself. This is Bayern Munich. He internalized this club in two days."

However, the coach was not only praised in the days and weeks that followed. He and his team were eliminated from the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League. And if Borussia Dortmund wins their last game in the Bundesliga against Mainz this Saturday (15.30 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), Tuchel will certainly end this season without an official title.

The day before the duel in Cologne, Tuchel then had to compete in a discipline in which you can't win a title: the press conference. And his penultimate of the season was perhaps his hardest: because what can you say when you're in a situation you don't want to be in?

In the press room in Säbener Straße, the question-and-answer game begins with the long-distance duel for the championship: Will Tuchel see what happens in Dortmund? "We have to win – then we can see," he says, but: "Anything can happen. There just has to be a little inattention: red card, penalty decision, set-pieces, behind, what do I know. It can always happen." And before the first FC Bayern Munich fans can get their hopes up in the stream, Tuchel says: "But that can also happen with us. We've had enough games where it's happened to us." And because he knows that, he doesn't want to make an announcement to Dortmund.

This is followed by the self-critical part of the press conference, in which Thomas Tuchel says: "This won't be another season we're happy with." And: "We are by no means satisfied with the way we play." And: "As soon as I sign, as soon as I put on a jersey, as soon as I put on a training camisole, as soon as I'm on the sidelines and in training, I'm responsible."

The focus is then on the people in charge who are responsible for him, the coach. A reporter wants to know how Tuchel looks ahead to May 30, the day on which the supervisory board of FC Bayern München AG meets and discusses how to proceed with the board members. "Why 30 May?" asks Tuchel – and you don't know if you should believe his ignorance. "Oh," he says when the reporter explains. The core sentence of his answer: "I have no influence on it – the best thing is if I set myself free."

But even in this situation, it wouldn't be a Thomas Tuchel press conference if he didn't make another joke. When a reporter asked what they would give the Mainz team for a win in Dortmund, Tuchel smiled and replied: "We delivered the gift four weeks ago. There is someone in debt. Massive." He is referring to the 1-3 defeat on Matchday 29.

On Friday afternoon, Thomas Tuchel will be finished with all questions after 20 minutes. On Saturday evening, he will have to speak at a press conference in Cologne for the last time this season. And if everything turns out differently than expected, it could be his easiest.