Why Thomas Tuchel did not bring on Harry Kane in Bayern Munich’s cup defeat

The English superstar could only look on as Bayern failed to find a winner — and ultimately fell to defeat.

Harry Kane was a glaring omission from Bayern Munich’s lineup in their shock 2-1 upset loss at Saarbrücken in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday. The star striker was understandably given a midweek rest from the starting lineup by Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel, but with the Bavarians in need of victory, Kane was still left as an unused substitute on the bench.

After the match, Tuchel explained (as captured by @iMiaSanMia) that the 30-year-old England international “felt his hamstring” earlier in the day and wanted to keep his options open until extra time began.

“There was only one substitution left. I wanted to wait until extra time and wanted to check whether everyone could play until the end,” Tuchel said.

A sensible explanation — and Kane was seen jogging down the tunnel at some point late in the second half before returning to the sidelines, perhaps indeed to get his fitness and availability evaluated more carefully.

But extra time did not come, leaving Kane’s highlights for the day some sideline jogging and once tossing an errant ball back to Joshua Kimmich to put back into play.

In his place, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting started as striker and filled Kane’s role admirably — including some threading passes down to Leroy Sané behind Saarbrücken’s defensive lines. Unfortunately, it was all not enough to get the Bavarians the second goal they needed to stay in the cup fight.