Tuchel on:
- Boateng
- personnel
- Boateng again
- Nagelsmann
- strains of CL midweek
- Coman’s form
- Sundays match
- Thomas Müller
- Ulle and Neuer return
- NTs US trip
Thomas Tuchel denies that Bayern have already decided against signing Jérôme Boateng: “He trained well. We will clarify this with everyone involved today and then announce it. No decision has been made, contrary to reports. We are going to clarify it internally this afternoon with everyone involved”
Tuchel on the personnel: “Unfortunately, things aren’t going as quickly as we had hoped for Matthijs de Ligt. It’s still very painful. Dayot Upamecano and Minjae Kim are currently fit”
Tuchel on whether the club is rethinking their decision on Boateng due to backlash from fans: “We as a football club and I, as the person responsible for the sporting side of things, would like football decisions to be just football decisions without prejudice and other things. That will not change, we will make a decision this afternoon”
Tuchel on Nagelsmann’s start of coaching career under him in Augsburg: “He was actually supposed to be a reserves player back then but unfortunately got injured and didn’t come back from it. Because the coaching teams at Augsburg weren’t very big, we invited Julian to analyse the opposition. The reports were very good and detailed and showed that he did it with passion. At the end of the season, he decided to join 1860 Munich as a youth coach and went his way”
Tuchel on the strains of Champions League weeks: “It was a long journey, we can still feel it. We’ve had a lot of away games lately. Everyone was in training today apart from Matthijs and Serge Gnabry. Raphaël Guerreiro was also involved again. It was fun working with a big group. It was important today to have a good training session in top conditions, to get into the rhythm”
Tuchel on Coman’s form: “He trains well, has the right attitude and approach. He’s a bit behind in terms of numbers, he knows that for sure and it’s annoying him a bit. But we’ve known Kingsley’s value for many years. He’s extremely hard-working, difficult to defend, likes to track back and defend too. For me it’s a matter of time before he gets his goals and assists”
Tuchel on Sunday’s game: “We’re aware of the difficulty of the task. Freiburg switch their formation very frequently, so I don’t even know if you can prepare for all eventualities. It may be that the requirements change more frequently. I’m sure Freiburg will do everything to make life as difficult as possible for us. We need to be prepared for that. We’re determined to win but we know it will be tough.”
Tuchel on Thomas Müller: “We saw his positive energy in Copenhagen. He is definitely a candidate to start against Freiburg. He missed all pre-season and is currently doing additional work to catch up. At this stage of his career, it’s normal that he doesn’t start 50 games. We are so happy that Thomas is here”
Tuchel on Ulreich and Manuel Neuer’s return: “I’m pleased that Ulle is holding up so well, that Manuel Neuer is feeling so good and that the goalkeeping team, with Daniel Peretz too, are such a unit and are pushing each other. Ulle also has the full support of Manu. That’s the situation as it is right now. I can’t give a prediction.”
Tuchel on the national team’s trip to the US: “I’m not sure it makes sense to me why Germany are playing Mexico in the USA before a European Championship. We’ve had a lot of away trips recently. The boys will come back from the national team on Thursday, get on a plane to Mainz on Friday, get on a plane to Istanbul on Monday, then we have a home match and then two more away games in Saarbrücken and Dortmund. It’s at the limit of endurance. The fixture schedule is what it is - we’ll try to make the best of it.”