Back-to-back defeats have piled pressure on the former Chelsea boss, who appears at a complete loss to explain what's wrong with his side

The tension is rising at Bayern Munich. After Wednesday's shock loss to Lazio, Thomas Tuchel wanted to "talk about football". But the German journalists at Stadio Olimpico only wanted to discuss his future.

"I've already answered [that question]," a visibly frustrated Tuchel said. "I'm not worried [about my job]. I don't understand why you insist." At this point, Bayern's press officer felt compelled to intervene to protect the manager. "The question has been asked," he said. "Let's move on."

Doing so will be difficult, though. The shock 1-0 defeat in Rome had come just four days after a chastening 3-0 drubbing at Bayer Leverkusen that has left Bayern five points behind the unbeaten Bundesliga leaders. The Bavarians hadn't lost two games in a row since 2019, while it had been nine years since they'd last failed to score in consecutive fixtures.

Having already been routed by RB Leipzig in the DFL-Supercup and endured an embarrassing DFB-Pokal exit at the hands of third-tier FC Saarbrucken, Bayern are now facing up to the very real prospect of failing to win a single trophy across an entire season for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign.

Consequently, the questions over Tuchel's future were as inevitable as they were incessant.

Getty Images'Horrible mistakes'

It's quite clear that Tuchel is hanging by a thread right now. He desperately needed a positive result after Saturday's dismal display at the BayArena, where Bayern had been swept aside by Xabi Alonso's thrilling team with worrying ease, but what he got was a perplexing performance.

As Thomas Muller was at pains to point out, the under-pressure visitors began brightly against Lazio, only to fade the longer the game went on. "We had a good approach," the veteran attacker told . "The coach had a good plan for the game. But it's on us, it's on us players to score goals when we create chances.

"The first half was good but, we have to be honest, we gave it away. We made horrible mistakes, horrible mistakes at this level."

AdvertisementGetty Images'I can't explain it'

Such errors have long been a part of Dayot Upamecano's game, so it came as no surprise to see the French defender needlessly give away the penalty that was converted by Ciro Immobile to decide the first leg in Lazio's favour.

Many Bayern fans have long since given up asking why Tuchel persists with Upamecano – who was sent-off for his reckless lunge on Gustav Isaksen in the area – while leaving Matthijs de Ligt sitting on the bench. The Bayern boss refused to be too harsh on Upamecano, admitting only that it was a "wild" challenge, as he was more concerned with Bayern's bizarre loss of belief after the interval.

"I think we lost the game; I'm not sure Lazio won it,” he told reporters in his post-match press conference. “I'm not sure why we lost our conviction in the second half but we did, and then we fell behind. I can't explain it because we told the team to maintain their intensity and be even braver going forward, but we seemed to lose face at the start of the half."

Getty'Obviously doesn't look great'

Tuchel was understandably keen to look on the bright side, pointing out that both Harry Kane and Jamal Musiala had squandered excellent chances in the opening 45 minutes and that Bayern should have ample opportunities to turn the tie around in the second leg.

However, he did acknowledge that the defeat "in conjunction with the last result, obviously doesn't look great" – which is obviously putting it mildly. Losing to undefeated Leverkusen was one thing, but being beaten by the seventh-placed side in Serie A was quite another.

Worse still, for all their effort and early promise, Bayern didn't actually manage a single shot on target in Rome, while Kane had just 31 touches of the ball (fewer than Manuel Neuer) and completed just 11 passes – a damning indictment of the Bavarians' inability to get their multi-talented forward into the game.

Getty'Tough week'

Kane was just as mystified by the second-half slump as Muller and Tuchel, and once again astounded by just how easily Bayern gave the ball away. He confessed to that "it's been a tough week" – and it will only get tougher if Bayern fail to win at Bochum on Sunday, because at this stage, Tuchel's position is bordering on untenable.

During the dark days of 'FC Hollywood', Bayern changed coaches with alarming regularity, but in recent years, they've prided themselves on adopting a more measured and patient approach to management.

However, less than a year ago, they sacked Julian Nagelsmann after a loss at Leverkusen even though Bayern were just a point behind Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund and had just knocked Paris Saint-Germain out of the Champions League last 16.