Niko Kovac explains his controversial statements about Thomas Müller during his time as Bayern coach – and admits his own mistakes.
During Niko Kovac’s time as coach of FC Bayern, Thomas Müller had a difficult time. Under the Croatian, Munich’s current record player hardly got a chance.
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“If there is a need, he will definitely get his minutes,” Kovac said at the time.
The 53-year-old has now emphasized again that he was misunderstood: “I wanted to say: If it doesn’t work out, it will (Müller; Anm. d. Red.) come safely. “But I didn’t mean that he was an emergency,” Kovac said on Sunday Sky90.
Kovac admits Müller’s mistakes
Back then, Bayern had a team “that had to be rebuilt. Promoting generational change was also the requirement. I said the sentence back then, I thought I knew German well, but I just made a mistake,” Kovac remembers of his time as a coach in Munich.
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The ex-Wolfsburg coach also explained that he had misjudged Müller’s situation at the time. “From today’s perspective, he could have played more back then. […] From my current perspective and in the future, I wouldn’t do it like that again. My mistake,” Kovac clarified.
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Kovac: “It was clear what I had to do”
Müller is “like Schweinsteiger or Oliver Kahn, an identification figure. He is FC Bayern and it would only be right if they integrated him into the club after his career,” Kovac also spoke out in favor of Müller’s future with the German record champions.
The previous situation in Müller’s position was not that easy, after all, the original Bavarian had well-known competition.
“Back then, James Rodríguez came from Real Madrid with a salary that would make you fall over. Up front you had Robert Lewandowski, Franck Ribéry and Serge Gnabry – and Thomas was the ten. It was already clear what I had to do,” said Kovac, who coached Bayern from summer 2018 to November 2019.
