Ah, the classic trap game.
Bayern Munich has a massive Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain next Wednesday, but must first face off with VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga this weekend.
For coach Julian Nagelsmann, there is no point in trying to be too cute with lineups or personnel — or at least that is what he is saying right now.
“It doesn’t make much sense to slow down tomorrow because we have an important game on Wednesday. Unfortunately, out situation in the Bundesliga doesn’t allow us to give anything away. We’ll give it our all tomorrow,” Nagelsmann said. Of course it’s an important game, we’re in a good position and want to go through. Now Stuttgart is important because we don’t have a 10 point lead. The next game is always the most important.”
In the Hinrunde, the teams played to a draw. Nagelsmann said that result means nothing right now.
“That’s irrelevant. They now have a new coach with a good approach. They have a lot of pace up front. Bruno Labbadia’s teams work and run a lot. Bruno is giving them hell, so we have to give ourselves hell too,” said Nagelsmann.
If, however, you did want to glance forward at the PSG match, you might want to know if Nagelsmann has any plans to roll out defender Josip Stanišić against PSG. Stanišić has been very good of late — and has a good history (well, as good as anyone possibly can) in performing against Kylian Mbappe.
“Stani did exceptionally well against Union. We have an idea of how we want to do things against PSG. We’ll have to make adjustments in terms of pace at the back. We want to test parts of it against Stuttgart,” Nagelsmann said.
If you want a more in depth look at the match, check out our Preview Podcast on Spotify or below: