Bayern Munich 2023/24 season review: A campaign to forget | OneFootball

Bayern Munich have been given a taste of their own medicine.

Thomas Tuchel’s side have seen their stranglehold on German football slip away, delivering the Bayern faithful a season they will want to forget about quickly.

Competition breakdown

Bundesliga – Third Place

Bayern’s reign over Germany’s top-flight met its end this season, thanks in large part to Bayer Leverkusen’s stunning invincible campaign which naturally lead them to the title.

But Bayern can only have themselves to blame for letting a potential 12th straight Bundesliga title slip away, losing eight matches across the season, something they haven’t done since the 2006/7 campaign.

The stickiest patch came in late January, when the Bavarian outfit lost three games in a run of six, including a 3-0 thumping at the hands of the eventual champions.

Harry Kane cruised to the golden boot with a stunning tally, but the Englishman was the lone bright spot in a disappointing domestic season.

Champions League – Semi-finals

Aura can only carry you so far in the Champions League, unless you are Real Madrid of course, and Bayern learned that when they reached the semi-final stage.

After dispatching Lazio in the round of 16 and Arsenal in the quarter-final, Thomas Tuchel’s side finally met their match in last-four.

They were only minutes from booking their ticket to the Wembley for the final however, but two Real Madrid goals in the dying minutes saw Bayern collapse in tremendous fashion and end their trophy hopes for the season.

DFB Pokal – Second Round

In perhaps the most crushing blow of the campaign, Bayern saw their DFB Pokal journey come crashing down to earth at the hands of lowly Saarbrücken, though the third tier side did go on to reach the semi-finals in tremendous fashion.

To make matters worse for Thomas Tuchel, he selected a strong squad for that second-round tie at the Ludwigsparkstadion.

Bayern have no failed to win the cup since the 2019/20 campaign.

Player of the season: Harry Kane

Kane was an easy choice for Bayern’s player of the season. The Englishman finished the season with a stunning 44 goals and 12 assists through 45 games in all competitions.

Filling the shoes of the departed Robert Lewandowski was always going to be a tough task, but Kane made light work of that challenge, breaking record after record on the way.

Unfortunately for Kane, however, his search for a major trophy will go on after leaving Tottenham Hotspur for a Bayern side that appeared to be as close to a ‘sure thing’ as you could get.

But heading into next season, if Bayern can fill some of the holes around him, Kane does not look ready to slow the machine down any time soon.

Game of the season: Bayern Munich 4-0 Borussia Dortmund

Bayern Munich have dominated Der Klassiker for years now, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t major jeopardy when the two Bundesliga giants meet.

That jeopardy was washed away with relative ease when the two sides went head-to-head in November however, as a Harry Kane hat-trick helped propel Bayern to a thumping 4-0 win.

Borussia Dortmund managed just one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes, and the Bayern performance showed that, just maybe, they could get something out of the season.

Those optimistic premonitions did not come true for the Bayern faithful, however.

Rising star: Mathys Tel

The 19-year-old Frenchman is beginning to make a name for himself outside the confines of Bavaria after a solid season playing second-fiddle to the aforementioned Harry Kane.

Tel has long been touted as a future star in the Bayern ranks, but some might call the 2023/24 campaign his true breakout season.

10 goals and six assists is not too shabby of a return for a teenager playing in one of the most prestigious teams on the planet — and he’s only going to get better.

What comes next?

Bayern’s immediate future is up in the air. Thomas Tuchel is set to leave the club in the coming weeks, and the managerial search will truly begin.

The likes of Roberto De Zerbi, Xabi Alonso, and others have been touted, but whoever the next boss is at the Allianz Arena, they will have plenty of work to do when it comes to healing the wounds of this campaign.

With Harry Kane seemingly still at his peak and a cast of rising stars like Tel and Jamal Musiala, the Bayern hierarchy will feel that some small changes could send them back to the top in German football.

The next appointment will be crucial. The ‘sack Julian Nagelsmann and hire Thomas Tuchel’ experiment was a total failure, and Bayern will be licking their wounds after the mistake.

But like death and taxes, Bayern will surely regain their grip on the Bundesliga with ruthless efficiency soon enough.