Former Bayern Munich boss and current German national team manager Julian Nagelsmann kicked off his team’s training camp with a press conference and gave an update on the squad’s injuries.
“(David) Raum, Leroy (Sané), Pavlo (Aleksandar Pavlović), and Jamal (Musiala) won’t train at 100% this week. We’ll try to integrate them partially Wednesday or Thursday. We have to be careful not to go from 0 to 100. They’ll take it easy now and hopefully be involved in full training on Friday,” Nagelsmann said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “The Leverkusen players and Ilkay Gündogan will join us on Wednesday and start training on Thursday. Marc-André ter Stegen will join on Monday. The Champions League finalists will join on Tuesday next week. We have spoken to all four of them. It’s important that all of them are injury-free. From Tuesday onwards we will have a full squad.
“(Manuel Neuer has) nothing dramatic (as an illness). Just a mild gastrointestinal infection. He won’t be here before Wednesday, I expect him to join on Thursday. If he’s healthy, he will be #1 (at the EUROs).”
To help compensate, Nagelsmann has called up Rocco Reitz and Brajan Gruda to give some young players some extra work and an opportunity to experience the first team atmosphere.
“Gruda is extremely creative in the final third, a very fine footballer. I’m very excited to see him in training. I hope he has the necessary self-confidence with us. Reitz has had a very good season, is very hard-working. He tries to initiate a lot of attacks. They’re here just for training for now, but there’s also a chance [to be in the squad], something can always happen. It’s a sign for them that they were called up for training,” Nagelsmann said. “In the end, the tournament outshines everything, everyone has the same goal, no matter how their season went. I demand everyone to give everything in training, but at the beginning it will be a bit more relaxed. There’s no need for many discussions. Everyone will be fully focused. The EUROs is the start of the new season, everyone is really looking forward to it. Everyone is excited. When you lose a Champions League final, it hurts, but you can quickly refocus to have a great tournament.”
With so many question marks regarding the health of his team, Nagelsmann also addressed bringing up other players if someone cannot compete. Specifically, Nagelsmann was asked about Leon Goretzka.
“Nothing is completely ruled out for any player. Of course we would like to have the squad that we nominated in the tournament. I don’t want to give anyone false hopes. We hope nobody gets injured. But nothing is ruled out,” Nagelsmann said.
Finally, the manager gave some insight as to what the biggest event for this week will be.
“On Thursday, the team will have an event with the Special Operations Command, where the aim is to find a team that has to function absolutely perfectly, that has to have solutions in all situations, that support each other. That is at the forefront when it comes to communication. No mistakes can be made,” said Nagelsmann. “It’s a bit different in football. Nevertheless, I think there are a lot of elements that these men and women can teach us. What it means to communicate perfectly, to protect each other, to be there for each other in tricky situations, when things aren’t going so well. To always keep a cool head. To find solutions. I think it will be very, very interesting. I won’t be there myself. It’s for the players. I’m excited to hear what the team says afterwards.”
The time they are a changin’ at Bayern Munich. Vincent Kompany looks like he is taking over in Bavaria, while the club’s former favorite son — Hansi Flick — is heading to FC Barcelona. Which one will make out better with their new club? We’ll find out, but in the meantime, there could also be some Bayern players who are on Flick’s transfer radar, too. basically, we’ve got a lot to talk about with all of that, plus some appreciation for Bayer Leverkusen’s incredible season. You can check all of that out on the Bavarians Podcast Works Show, which is available on Spotify or below: