“Don’t write anything inflammatory” |
Unusual PK request from Nagelsmann
You don’t often hear that at press conferences!
Before the Bundesliga-Blast duel the Bayern at Union Berlin (Saturday, 3.30 p.m., Sky and here in the BILD live ticker) the Munich coach, Julian Nagelsmann (35), makes an unusual request to the journalists!
When asked by a reporter from Bayerischer Rundfunk how Bayern want to attack Union, Nagelsmann talks about the way the Berliners play, saying: “If the opponent is deep, then you have to use the ‘crowbar’ method and sometimes get uncomfortable. Sometimes they use a small foul to stop the other teams. But they don’t defend unfairly.”
Immediately afterwards, the request to the assembled journalists follows: “Therefore: Please don’t write anything wrong now, please nothing inflammatory. It’s not meant to be bad.”
However, Nagelsmann smiles at his own statement, explaining in a personal anecdote: “With my U19s at the time, with whom I became German champion (2014 with Hoffenheim, ed.), we did that too.”
And further: “Either ball won or fouled. That was always great for the coach. But those were never bad fouls, they were clever ones. But he prefers attacking, fast-paced football…
For the top game against Union, however, the record champions will have to do without super youngster Mathys Tel (17). He is definitely out because of a capsule tear in his right ankle, which he suffered on Wednesday in the cup match against Viktoria Köln (5-0).
Nagelsmann: “In terms of personnel, Mathy’s Tel is down. He has a small tear in his capsule from the one action in the cup in which he put the ball a little too far and then got a tackle. It bled a bit, the pain can be done with tape, but it makes little sense for such a young player to train with a sore ankle. He won’t be there. But it will probably work again on Tuesday with team training.”
Bouna Sarr (30/patellar tendon) is also out of the top game at Union!
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting on Friday afternoon in Munich on the way to secret final training
Striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (33) is also not 100% sure: “Unfortunately, Choupo has a bit of a problem in the adductor-pubic bone area again. We considered taking him out, but have now decided that he will train normally. He needs a certain pain tolerance.”
And further: “Always in and out again, that’s not conducive. He has a bit of a problem there, feels a bit of pain. Unfortunately he has to go through it now! We could use him, but for that he has to train regularly and be healthy. Unfortunately he is not. For now I’ll be happy if he can come along.”