Three back in training as Bayern quickly move on

“I’m not dissatisfied with the performance – but I certainly am with the result,” summarised head coach Julian Nagelsmann on Friday evening in his post-match press conference at the Allianz Arena. His team had just played out an even contest with Borussia Mönchengladbach, where both teams went into it “with an open mindset”, as the 34-year-old noted. But in the end, Bayern slipped to a 2-1 defeat.

That was partly down to the fact that the hosts lacked the bit of luck required in a couple of situations – Robert Lewandowski, scorer of the opening goal on 18 minutes, was later denied twice by the woodwork alone. As well as that, numerous coronavirus cases and injuries meant Nagelsmann did not have his usual options from the bench to call on when Gladbach took the lead before the break through a quickfire double (27’, 31’). “There was still more to be had in the game,” said Thomas Müller, who replaced the absent Manuel Neuer as captain.

Tolisso back in full training

Now it’s a case of putting an unfortunate start to the new year behind them and looking forward. One thing that will help with that is that there was already some good news on the personnel front on the day after the match: Corentin Tolisso took part in the training session for the players who weren’t involved against Gladbach after recovering from his coronavirus infection. What’s more, Omar Richards and Kingsley Coman, who had also been isolating, trained individually on the pitch at Säbener Straße, which had to be cleared of snow.

The returnees will be given enough time to get back to full fitness. “We’ll see which players are available for Köln,” explained Nagelsmann, looking ahead to the next Bundesliga match away to 1. FC Köln in a week’s time. “I’m not currently expecting many returnees who’ll be in contention for the starting XI.”

Youngster Paul Wanner made his senior debut for FC Bayern on Friday evening: