The Allianz Arena chief is baffled by suggestions Pep Guardiola and his players have underachieved so far this season, after they were defeated 2-0 by Bayer Leverkusen
Bayern Munich sporting director Matthias Sammer has insisted Pep Guardiola is under no internal pressure following Saturday’s defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.
Hakan Calhanoglu and Julian Brandt scored second-half goals to consign the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions to a tame 2-0 loss at the BayArena, although there were mitigating factors given the visitors’ line-up was full of unfamiliar faces as Bayern prioritised Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final against Barcelona.
There has been some debate in recent weeks about how effective Guardiola has been at the Allianz Arena in 2014-15, but Sammer has thrown his support behind the Catalan coach and his players.
“Pep Guardiola has brought us five trophies in two years,” the Bayern chief told reporters. “We’ve had to deal with a full World Cup campaign affecting our players and we’ve had a host of injured players.
“We won’t allow people to bad-mouth our season – it has been nothing other than a success so far. The coaches and players are much more deserving of compliments than criticism.”
Sammer was reluctant to concede any ground between Bayern and Barcelona – who were rampant in their 8-0 thrashing of Cordoba on Saturday to continue their hot streak – but conceded they are underdogs due to their form and injury crisis.
“Now we will prepare ourselves with all our might to take on Barca,” he added. “We are Bayern and we will come up with a plan of some sort.
“Barcelona are in great shape and are probably slight favourites; I guess we must accept that.”
Bayern were eliminated from the DFB-Pokal semi-final stage by Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday but, with the Bundesliga already in the bag, Guardiola’s side are still in the hunt for the double.