When corona patient Julian Nagelsmann is currently joining the FC Bayern press conferences from his kitchen, one of the participants immediately speaks to him about his health. The day before the Bundesliga away game against Union Berlin on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), Nagelsmann replied: “I’m fine – apart from Wednesday.”
It was not even 48 hours on Friday afternoon that Nagelsmann had to watch from his kitchen as his football club lost as much as it has for almost 43 years. The coach has been there for a few days with a laptop, iPad and mobile phone, but even with his radio and remote instructions he could not prevent his team from going under in Mönchengladbach with 0-5 goals in the second round of the DFB Cup. And one thing Nagelsmann said several times in the almost 30 minutes in which he discussed the impact of his absence with the reporters: “I don’t think we would have won the game because of that.”
On Wednesday evening, Nagelsmann, 34 years old, experienced one of “the saddest moments” of his career in his home office – and his first major setback as a coach in Munich, where he led his team to a very high level in just a few weeks. Nagelsmann admitted that he screamed a lot in the kitchen, but the players from Mönchengladbach just didn’t stop scoring goals.
Now, with a little distance and in a calm voice, Nagelsmann said into his camera on Friday: “We have shown that we are humans and not machines, that mistakes happen to us.” And: “We have shown that we are somewhat vulnerable were. “And then:” The way in which you drop out was historic. “
“We were all surprised”
How do you deal with such a defeat as a new coach in Munich? Nagelsmann said he had written and telephoned a lot. With Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić, the chairman of the board and the sports director. With his leading players, with whom he discussed “in detail” in an online round on Thursday. He did not want to reveal which players were involved in this (“trade secret”), which content, but at least hinted at it.
It had been discussed how to get into those moments when you threaten to be overrun with “dynamism in the opposing half” – even with “Bayern atypical actions”, as he mysteriously put it. “We were all surprised how things turned out,” said Nagelsmann. And there is one thing they don’t like at all in Munich: to be surprised.
Now Nagelsmann is trying to get these things under control again. He will conduct and allow conversations to be conducted. And he will change something in the line-up for the away game in Berlin. Niklas Süle, who was only substituted in in Mönchengladbach, should play from the start. Either for Lucas Hernández or for Dayot Upamecano. Maybe midfielder Leon Goretzka, who was kicked below the ankle, will also have to be replaced. Nagelsmann himself cannot travel to Berlin either. One day he will still be missing because of the corona isolation – and somehow help from his kitchen that one thing will not happen: the next surprise.
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