The German Bundesliga returns on Friday following the winter break, with Bayern Munich hosting Borussia Monchengladbach at the Allianz Arena
On Thursday, winger Alphonso Davies became the ninth Bayern player to test positive for COVID-19 leaving Nagelsmann struggling to put out a team.
While Bayern Munich’s results against Borussia Mönchengladbach so far this season have not exactly yielded the best results, Nagelsmann believes there’s no room for defeat.
A 1-1 draw kicked off the “Julian Nagelsmann Era” which is followed by a demolarising 5-0 defeat toMönchengladbach in the DFB-Pokal back in October.
Now, Nagelsmann is focused on trying to exorcise those demons.
“Honestly, I already have thoughts of revenge. I want to win, no matter which players we have on the pitch tomorrow. They played incredibly well in the Pokal. They have a strong team,” Nagelsmann said in his press conference.
Bayern start the second half of the season holding a nine-point lead in the Bundesliga table.
Having lost first-choice players like Leroy Sane and Dayot Upamecano in quarantine with Covid, Nagelsmann has other players unavailable.
Forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and defender Bouna Sarr are at the African Cup of Nations with Cameroon and Senegal respectively.
Nagelsmann has compensated for his sidelined stars by calling up players from the Under-19s and reserve teams with an eye to playing on Friday.
(Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images)
Nagelsmann has added 16-year-old midfielders Arijon Ibrahimovic and Paul Wanner from Bayern’s Under-19 team, who were away with the Germany U17 squad.
They are both very talented players. The situation has also something positive — the promotion of the talents,” added Nagelsmann.
“We have registered the players and made a request so that we can have more than three players with reserve team contracts on the pitch.”
Kimmich returns
Bayern Munich star Joshua Kimmich finally returned to training yesterday – after a two months Covid absence.
(Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images)
Kimmich, who was unvaccinated, has not appeared for the Bundesliga giants since the November 6 win over Freiburg.
The Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich is fit after struggling to recover from Covid last month and could play his first game in nine weeks.
“Joshua makes a good impression and is in top condition,” said Nagelsmann.
“We are all happy that he is back, but it’s about the players’ health.”
With first-choice goalkeeper Neuer, 35, absent, reserve keeper Sven Ulreich, 33, will deputise between the posts for Bayern.
“He (Ulreich) did very, very well this week and saved a lot of difficult balls,” said Nagelsmann
“No Excuses “- Thomas Muller
The Germany international fully understands that his team is underarmed heading to the Bundesliga match against Borussia Mönchengladbach, but could not care any less — he just wants to capture three points.
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“We’re going into the game to win it. The situation is not optimal but I don’t think it’s so dramatic.
Today we had more players in training, many youngsters from the U-23s. Nevertheless I’m positive going into this game,” Müller told Bayern.com
“We’ll see about the lineup tomorrow. Maybe some players will not play in their favorite position. But we’ll still have quality on the pitch.
The names on the bench will rather be unfamiliar, but that doesn’t mean they can’t score goals.”
“In football, there were many cases where players that people didn’t know before the game became well known after the game,” Müller said