Müller: “We’re disappointed by our performance”

FC Bayern München suffered their first defeat under new coach, Carlo Ancelotti on Wednesday evening - the loss came in the Bavarians’ second Champions League group stage match against Atletico Madrid. The Spanish side beat Ancelotti’s men 1-0 and after the game, world champion Thomas Müller spoke to DFB.de about the reasons why his team lost the encounter, what they’ve learnt from this match and future challenges.

Question: Mr Müller, can you explain why you lost this match?

Thomas Müller: We didn’t take advantage of our chances in the first half didn’t move the ball around as well as we would have liked. Atletico made it difficult for us to create clear-cut opportunities. The possession we had, we only actually had on the half way line and we passed the ball sideways too much.

Question: Why do you think this happened?

Müller: Of course we knew we had to shift the ball around a lot, nonetheless, Atletico were always able to put our attacks from out wide under pressure. Also, we obviously made a mistake on the goal we conceded.

Question: What do you mean by that?

Müller: We lost the ball in our build-up play which left the middle of the park somewhat exposed, Jérôme (Boateng) slipped and Carrasco hit the ball off the post and in. That also shows Atletico’s quality, but we certainly showed some weaknesses. We’ll now analyse what this came down to and correct it.

Question: What’s your summary of the game

Müller: It was a tough test. Of course, playing away to Atletico is no walk in the park for any team in the world, but we had hoped for and expected more. We’re a little disappointed by our performance.

Question: Was it down to your form on the day?

Müller: “Form on the day”, what does that mean? Atletico scored with a shot from outside the box after a counter when we obviously made a mistake. We had two or three good chances and didn’t take advantage of them – that’s often what these kinds of games come down to. We’ll now look at why we couldn’t execute our game.

Question: What can you take from the game.

Müller: Unfortunately not the three points, only disappointment, but also a sign that we have to keep working and maybe have to change one or two things in order to adapt ourselves to the challenges we face.

Question: How important was Antoine Griezmann’s missed penalty?

Müller: Of course it could still become important, but we’re not thinking about that now. We have to win the next few games and, as quickly as possible, we want to correct the fact we didn’t take any points from this game. We have to win the next two games against Eindhoven at all costs.

Question: What changes have to be made from now until then?

Müller: It felt as if we didn’t have enough players in the centre of the pitch, but I don’t know if Atletico forced this upon us or if it was down to us.