It’s been a long time since Louis van Gaal worked for FC Bayern. The extroverted Dutchman has been history on Säbener Straße for twelve years now. Nevertheless, a sentence he once made is still relevant – to the displeasure of Thomas Müller.
Anniversary at VfB: Thomas Müller scored his 300th scorer point in Stuttgart.
IMAGO/Passion2Press
Van Gaal’s sentence “Müller always plays” has almost become a dictum around FC Bayern, even if it hasn’t always been true in the past. However, this sentence is currently applicable again, especially since coach Julian Nagelsmann makes no secret of the importance of Müller.
The 33-year-old demonstrated this in the 2-1 win in Stuttgart, so he prepared Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s 2-0 lead and thus scored his 300th point. “When you’re older and have been there for a long time, the anniversaries keep coming, but 300 scorer points make me happy,” revealed Müller on “Sky” and at the same time added that not every statistic was important to him.
If he is healthy, he will play.
Julian Nagelsmann on Thomas Müller’s chances to play against PSG
So it doesn’t matter to him whether he “catched up with someone after the missions. Then we can also collect statistics that I wore the same underpants 420 times.” He was probably playing on the fact that he has now overtaken Oliver Kahn (430) in the club’s internal ranking with his 431 Bundesliga games and only has Sepp Maier (473) ahead of him.
However, Müller does not like hearing the sentence “Müller always plays”, which, in his opinion, is given too much weight, which in reality does not exist at all. “It’s about us performing – and I try to perform. If the coach feels I’m doing the team any good, he throws me in. Of course that’s good for me and it feels good.”
After Stuttgart, the Bavarian eyes are already on the Champions League, on Wednesday the round of 16 second leg against Paris St. Germain (9 p.m. LIVE! on kicker) is coming up. Müller will then play, Nagelsmann made no secret of that. “If he’s healthy, he’ll play,” said the 35-year-old and also hinted that “large parts will start today” – Nagelsmann didn’t want to commit too much, because they also wanted to react to Paris.
