Munich (dpa) – Julian Nagelsmann struggled with the fat slip of his Corona rump team in the Munich snowfall. “I’m not at all dissatisfied with the performance – with the result,” said the Bayern coach after the 1: 2 (1: 2) against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
The football year 2022 has started badly for the autumn champions. And so was the mood of Nagelsmann and his few professionals around returnees Joshua Kimmich afterwards. At the next defeat against the new feared opponent, however, they were “the better team” this time, unlike the 1-1 at the start of the season and the cracking 0: 5-Watschn in the DFB Cup at the end of October, said Nagelsmann on Friday evening.
Personal emergency
Of course, the personnel emergency played a serious role in the winter ambience of the Allianz Arena, which was also open to spectators. The Bayern bosses had advertised in vain in the DFL for a postponement of the game. “The omens were anything but rosy,” remarked captain Thomas Müller: “And yet there was more to it.”
The 20th goal of the season by Robert Lewandowski (18th minute) was not enough because the completely reformed defense failed when Florian Neuhaus (27th) and Stefan Lainer (31st) scored. “The 1-1 goal is a goal that we have to defend,” Nagelsmann complained, especially about the equalization, which was the turning point of the entire game.
In the front, the luck of the shot was then missing, with Lewandowski’s goal scorer hitting the post and the crossbar. Nagelsmann’s starting eleven was well-known, but the coach explicitly pointed out that “some players did not have to be deployed in their best positions”. In addition, there were no top options from the bench, which all contract amateurs and teenagers sat on. 16-year-old Paul Wanner became Bayern’s youngest Bundesliga player when he was substituted on.
Nagelsmann: “Don’t expect many returnees”
What’s next for the championship leaders? The first pros – Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso, Omar Richards – can start training after their quarantine ends. “We’ll see what players will be available again against Cologne.” I’m not counting on an extremely large number of returnees who are eligible for the first team, “said Nagelsmann when looking at next Saturday.
For Gladbach, the new year could hardly have started better after the catastrophic first half of 2021. “We won against Bayern away, that’s great,” said the strong goalkeeper Yann Sommer. Now it has to be a question of bringing constancy to the services: “Then our points account will also be filled.”
.
ttn-10