It was a manageable group that Niko Kovac gathered on the training ground on Thursday morning. Just 12 hours after the Reds had landed back in Munich following the 4-1 win in the friendly at Hamburg, 10 outfield players and the trio of goalkeepers stepped onto on the pitch at Säbener Straße and trained at full throttle.
While the players that had played for longer periods in Hamburg completed a regenerative session in the performance centre, the rest of the team sweated it out on the pitch. Kovac was also able to welcome back some first team members, who had not been able to go on the trip to northern Germany on Wednesday due to precautionary measures. Whether during a seven-on-three exercise or shooting practice towards the end of the training session, the 46-year-old head coach kept up the intensity because from now on it's a case of concentrating fully on the DFB Cup campaign, which begins at fourth-tier side SV Drochtersen/Assel in just two days on Saturday afternoon.
Tolisso works hard to get to 100 percent as quickly as possible
Corentin Tolisso was also back on the pitch. The Frenchman had missed the friendly at the Bundesliga 2 club after the exertions of the World Cup in Russia, and the newly crowned world champion is still a little behind in training. During his free time, however, the midfielder kept fit with running sessions and also paid attention to his diet. "The coach knew that I worked a lot on holiday, wasn't lazy, could get right back into it," Tolisso explained after training, adding: "I knew I couldn't come back out of shape, because I'm at Bayern, and at Bayern they do things in a professional manner.
The 24-year-old Frenchman had already asked his compatriots Kingsley Coman and Franck Ribery during his holiday what to expect in the coming weeks and months. "They told me it’s about getting down to business, that training is very intense. But it has to be," said Tolisso, who is working on eliminating his last fitness deficits. "I need a little more time, but I'll be back to 100 percent as soon as possible."
Topics of this article