"Toppmöller Trio" to continue coaching in Nagelsmann's absence
With Bayern München trainer Julian Nagelsmann unable to rejoin the team in time for the weekend fixture, Germany's high-flying record champions will continue to be coached by the trio of Dino Toppmöller, Benjamin Glück, and Xaver Zembrod.
Glück haas been with Nagelsmann since he began his Bundesliga head coaching career at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in 2016. Toppmüller, who serves as the central figure directing traffic from the sidelines, was briefly a teammate of Nagelsmann during the coach's ill-fated and short-lived playing career at FC Augsburg.
The son of former Frankfurt, Leverkusen, and Hamburger SV (among others) Klaus Toppmöller confirmed that he had been in contact with Nagelsmann from his the FCB trainer's hotel room at halftime during Wednesday's Champions' League victory in Lisbon. It was apparently Nagelsmann's idea to sub on attacker Serge Gnabry in place of defender Benjamin Pavard if Bayern couldn't break the deadlock.
"It was Julian's idea as to how we should reorganize the team," Toppmüller said of the 66th minute substitution, "It was a brave call to bring Serge on, but a brilliant one in the end."
"It wasn't my intention to play the big shot," Toppmöller also said afterwards, "I'm glad that we won the game and represented Julian well as a coaching staff."
The 40-year-old's profile shall find itself raised nevertheless. After making a huge statement via a 5-1 thumping of Leverkusen in round eight, the FCB prepare to welcome former youth coach Sebastian Hoeneß and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim to the Allianz on Saturday. The Kraichgauer are full of confidence themselves after their own 5-0 demolition of 1. FC Köln and did upset Bayern 4-1 in the "Hin-runde" last year.
Hoeneß being the nephew of Bayern legend and honorary president Uli Hoeneß actually means that the younger generation of tow huge German footballing families square off against one another.
