Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel has had his fair share of injuries to deal with, but things appeared to be under control as of late in Bavaria.
A little bad luck in training just changed all of that.
Dayot Upamecano sustained an ankle injury during training and will miss the Eintracht Frankfurt game. Otherwise, though, it appears that both Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sané could be ready to face Real Madrid next week.
“Dayot Upamecano has unfortunately twisted his ankle in training. It’s very painful and he’s a doubt for tomorrow. We have to wait. Serge will be available on Tuesday. I think he’ll play and score. We’ll see if it’s enough to start or come off the bench. With Leroy, we’re looking from day to day. It’s a race against time for Tuesday. He’s training individually. I can’t make a prediction right now,” Tuchel said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “(Musiala) will start tomorrow without any pain, big compliments to the physios. He feels free and has trained well. He’s a key player for us no matter the opponent.”
Another couple of players who will also be available for Bayern Munich are striker Harry Kane and defender Eric Dier — and Tuchel is thankful for that.
“(Kane’s) goalscoring record is incredible. His goals help us a lot. He has the complete package: he doesn’t just score goals, he also assists and he’s a leader. He’s the captain of the English national team, and we’re very happy that he’s here,” Tuchel said of Kane before shifting his attention to Dier. “I’m extremely pleased with (Dier). He’s absolutely exceeded expectations. He’s an extremely important piece of the jigsaw. He’s organized, vocal, which we’ve not had as much. He helps the man next to him, he’s a top character and a very good player. He’s getting the rewards for his work at the moment.”
As for what Bayern Munich can do in this match to prepare for Real Madrid, Tuchel essentially said not much.
“We can’t practice anything for Real against Frankfurt, it’s a completely different situation. Against Frankfurt and against Stuttgart, the match against Madrid will be a background noise. That’s part of it, but we’ll still be on it against Frankfurt and Stuttgart. We have to accept that. We want to produce a top performance tomorrow because we need the points and want to maintain the momentum. So, we’re taking it step by step and preparing the team for tomorrow in the best possible way,” Tuchel said. “We have a test to pass tomorrow. Either we can get excited about everything now or accept the situation. We’ll prepare the team in no different way for tomorrow. It’s been a very good week of training and the energy is very good. You can tell the games against Arsenal gave us confidence. We made a lot of changes against Union and yet still won comfortably, which gave us vindication. We’re ready to step up tomorrow.”
When asked about the previous match between the two teams where Die Adler put a 5-1 beatdown on the Bavarians, Tuchel said that result “hurt a lot.”
“It was a defeat that hurt a lot. That’s still very present now. There are pictures that you don’t like to look at. We don’t know exactly what they’ll be doing tomorrow because they play in different formations. They have a lot of pace and are technically good, they are good at transition in both directions. We have to avoid simple ball losses. This will be good practice for Tuesday,” Tuchel said.
Finally, Tuchel was asked about the now famous online petition initiated by fans to re-think things and bring him back to the club next season.
“For me this is a pleasant topic that people want to keep me here. But it has no priority for me. The next 11 days can’t be about anything other than football, about the Bundesliga and the Champions League. There is no capacity for anything else. There is the petition, ticket requests, the coaching discussion – I don’t want to take it as an excuse or distraction. We are in full focus — every day counts,” Tuchel remarked.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s upcoming Bundesliga match vs. Eintracht Frankfurt? Well, we have you covered with the Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show, which is available on Spotify or below: