Sunday 24 / November / 2024
BERLIN: Only a small circle of people gathered on the training pitch, while a large crowd of fans and media had assembled outside to witness the first day of exercise of Bayern Munich's new coach Thomas Tuchel.
With most of the squad away on international duty, only two sessions with the entire squad are possible until Saturday's delicate Bundesliga duel against Borussia Dortmund.
The 49-year-old seemed to take the circumstances calmly as only Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting reported for action, aside from six youth talents and a few back-benchers from the professional squad.
It is more than a bold guess that the start of the successor of sacked Julian Nagelsmann could have been easier.
But the former Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea coach took things as they are and started with a short session and a lot of entertaining comments as he seemed in a jolly mood.
He gently kicked the back of Sane, followed by several encouraging shouts in the direction of the struggling forward.
The new coach signed a contract until 2025 last Friday, promising to be a true "player's coach," keeping in mind "to make all players better."
The 2021 UEFA Champions League winner repeated his guideline to trigger joyful anticipation and create trust as the relationship between him and his new squad needs to grow and develop.
Before entering the training pitch, the new arrival took up development work by phone as he called the first and assumedly most important cornerstones of his squad.
Tuchel will use the following days to intensively talk things over with players as time is short ahead of the league duel against Dortmund and Champions League encounters against Manchester City.
"We all knew of how the situation will be and we make the best of it," he said.
Despite the unrest caused by the dismissal of Nagelsmann among fans and parts of the squad, Tuchel triggers an atmosphere of optimism that things might turn out to be better shortly.
Tuchel said he is focusing on the future as "things developed as they did without me thinking about being the coach of Bayern."
"I feel happy to be here and coach one of Europe's best sides," said Tuchel.
The 2017 German Cup winner will carry out his first training session with the entire squad this Friday.
