Thomas Tuchel told his Bayern Munich players that they are "not as good as I thought" in a brutal dressing room rant following their drab 1-0 defeat at Lazio on Wednesday.
Ciro Immobile's first-half strike condemned Bayern to their second crucial defeat in five days after last Saturday's 3-0 drubbing against Bayer Leverkusen in a top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash. Those results have increased the pressure on Tuchel, who is approaching one year at the helm in Bavaria.
And former Chelsea boss Tuchel let loose at his Bayern players in the changing room after the defeat at the Stadio Olimpico as he criticised the quality of his squad. According to Sky Germany, Tuchel said: "You're not as good as I thought, then I just have to adapt to your level."
Tuchel was asked about his future in his post-match press conference. Bayern are out of the DFB-Pokal, sit five points behind Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and are facing the prospect of exiting the Champions League. They also lost against RB Leizpig in the Super Cup final in August.
"No, I'm not worried about my future," Tuchel said. "We did everything to lose this match. It was in our hands. At a certain point we stopped believing, I've no idea why. There were many individual mistakes."
Tuchel added: "We're frustrated and angry about the defeat. I think we lost the game, I'm not sure Lazio won it. 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.
"There are things we can build on. In the first half, we created some good chances, some big chances and one huge one with Jamal [Musiala], but in the end we didn't have a single shot on target.
"It's clear you can't win a game like that. But we've got a second leg and, obviously in conjunction with the last result, it doesn't look great, but we'll keep working hard."
Harry Kane, who failed to muster a shot on target against Lazio on Wednesday, issued a demand to his Bayern players as they look for a quick response. "It's been a really tough week," Kane told TNT Sports.
"In the first half we started well and had clear chances, one for myself. In these games they're big moments. The second half was disappointing. We came out with less energy and less confidence. We got punished. Once you go down to 10 men it's always difficult.
"We have to find it among ourselves. We're still in the race for the Bundesliga and in this tie. We have to keep fighting. We're in a difficult spell. We have to fight.
"We have to turn it round. We have big games and big things to fight for. We're not out of it, we will never give up. We just need to turn it around. One game or spark can turn it round."
Bayern are next in action when they travel to VFL Bochum on Sunday. This followed by a critical home game against RB Leipzig, before an away trip to SC Freiburg.