How Tuchel’s genius tweak to Bayern starting XI nullified Arsenal attack

FANS have hailed Thomas Tuchel’s tactical tweak that “took Bukayo Saka out of the game” against Arsenal.

The German coach masterminded Bayern Munich’s 1-0 triumph over the Gunners at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.

Joshua Kimmich scored the only goal of the game to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory and set-up a Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid, who beat holders Man City on penalties.

Arsenal barely laid a glove on Bayern throughout the second leg and their talisman Saka was subdued throughout.

His stats made for grim reading afterwards as he failed to register a shot, create a chance, complete any dribbles and also registered zero accurate crosses.

We revealed earlier how Tuchel, who led Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021, was planning to spring a tactical surprise.

With regular full-back Alphonso Davies suspended, one of either Noussair Mazraoui or Raphael Guerreiro was expected to replace him.

However, Bayern's pre-match training saw the pair both feature as Tuchel plotted a way to stop Saka from being Arsenal’s main driving force.

And the 50-year-old coach followed through with that idea by starting the pair as they doubled up on the danger man.

It was Mazraoui that played at left-back with Guerreiro playing higher up, offering him protection from midfield.

And the plan could not have worked out any better - and supporters were quick to praise Tuchel afterwards.

One wrote on X: “People saying Saka ghosted didn’t watch the game. Tuchel took Saka out of the game with his tactics.”

A second post read: “After seeing what Saka did with Alphonso Davies, Tuchel decided to pin him with 2 LBs and Mazraoui absolutely did that job well.”

A third fan said: “Thomas Tuchel masterclass - kept Saka quiet and in turn Arsenal