Nagelsmann pleased with Sørloth, says team still needs to develop "killer instinct"
Much to the delight of trainer Julian Nagelsmann, prize acquisition Alexander Sørloth is finally off the mark with his first goal in RB colors.
The 33-year-old trainer praised his new lead striker for the dramatic game winner, and spoke on other topics with German broadcaster DAZN in a post-match interview.
High drama unfolded on Wednesday night in Istanbul as Germany's Red Bulls nearly blew a 3-1 lead against Turkish upstarts Basaksehir. In a frantic final minutes, it appeared that the scorer jinx would continue to hex substitute Alexander Sørloth.
The 33-year-old trainer praised his new lead striker for the dramatic game winner, and spoke on other topics with German broadcaster DAZN in a post-match interview.
Sørloth saw a 90th minute effort strike the crossbar. Two minutes later, however, the 24-year-old Norwegian international would find the back of the net. A fine distance effort skillfully fired saw Leipzig capture all three points at the end of a weird and wild affair.
A visibly relieved Julian Nagelsmann told the DAZN microphones after the match that he had briefly congratulated Sørloth on his first RB goal.
"The playing time didn't really work out for him and he didn't integrate well into the squad," Nagelsmann confirmed, "But it's just as I've said last week. For a striker, a lot of stuff just doesn't mean shit. He simply has to score a goal, and he did."
Nagelsmann found himself repeating other familiar talking points when it came to the matter of his team's overall performance. Just as he said after the reverse fixture against the Turkish club, the young coach spoke of the need for his team to do a better job finishing games off.
"We just have to develop a killer instinct," he told the reporter, "I just said the same thing in the dressing room. Because if you really want to be a top team, you have to take advantage of these opportunities and simply decide the game earlier."
Nagelsmann noted that building insurmountable leads earlier would help his team a great deal in terms of energy conservation.
"Now we've had another 93 minutes in which we've had to run like mad," he rued, "and that's something we'll have to deal with in such a long season."
Obviously, Nagelsmann qualified that statement by insisting his team "will still have the strength" to take on league leaders Bayern this weekend.