On the edge of the international match
“Little love, little heart”: Joshua Kimmich criticizes the football business after Nagelsmann-Aus
National team captain Joshua Kimmich after the game against Peru
© Arne Dedert / DPA
The dismissal of Julian Nagelsmann at FC Bayern Munich is anything but untouched by the DFB selection. Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka commented on the change of coach after the international match against Peru.
National team captain Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka commented very thoughtfully and critically on the huge coaching vortex at their club FC Bayern. “Of course it’s strange,” said Kimmich after the 2-0 win against Peru on Saturday evening about Julian Nagelsmann’s replacement by Thomas Tuchel in Munich. “At the end of the day, that’s the business, little love, little heart. We have to learn to deal with it and live with the decision,” said the DFB captain.
This coldness of feeling is not new to him. “Many of us had to experience that firsthand. Accordingly, you have to keep trying to deal with it,” said the 28-year-old when he was asked about his first statements again in the mixed zone in Mainz. Goretzka spoke of a “shock” that it was “extreme in this business how quickly something like this can happen”. His assessment of the Nagelsmann-Aus is not a criticism of the club management, but a general description of the football business, Kimmich noted: “It’s independent of the bosses.”
Joshua Kimmich also questions the performance of the players at Bayern Munich
The German soccer record champion announced the separation from Nagelsmann and the commitment of Tuchel on Friday. On Saturday, a few hours before the international match in Mainz kicked off, Tuchel was presented in Munich.
“I don’t know him like that yet,” said Kimmich, who is the undisputed leading player at Bayern, about his new coach. A change of coach is “always disappointing because it means that we players failed, we players didn’t consistently get the performance on the pitch. We didn’t manage to achieve good results. A change of coach doesn’t happen otherwise.”
Goretzka reported: “I would be lying if the last few days hadn’t affected us too. It’s always extreme in this business how quickly something like this can happen. I think the last few days haven’t left us unscathed either. We have maintained a very close relationship with Julian.”
He probably “saw the trainer more often than my family, when someone like that suddenly disappears out of nowhere, it’s a shock for everyone, I think.” Nevertheless, those responsible for the club must be trusted “that they are doing the best for our club”.
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Goretzka did not confirm the statements made by Bayern sports director Hasan Salihamidzic a few hours earlier at the Tuchel presentation, according to which “the constellation between coach and team” was no longer right. “I would be stupid if I were to contradict my boss now. Personally, I certainly didn’t have any rifts with Julian, but I don’t know how it was with other players,” said the midfielder.
