FCB - General Talk

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All Star's coach Marcello Lippi has named a 24-player squad for the celebratory match at Old Trafford...and Brazil's Ronaldo will be lining up against Manchester United.

Goalkeepers: Kahn (Bayern), Casillas (Real Madrid), Coupet (Lyon).

Defenders: Miguel (Valencia), Sagnol (Bayern), Thuram (Barcelona), Puyol (Barcelona), Carragher (Liverpool), Materazzi (Inter), Maldini (Milan), Abidal (Lyon), Zambrotta (Barcellona).

Midfielders: Joaquin (Valencia), Mancini (Roma), Gerrard (Liverpool), Pirlo (Milan), Gattuso (Milan), Juninho (Lyon), Ronaldinho (Barcelona), Malouda (Lyon).

Forwards: Ronaldo (Milan), Ibrahimovic (Inter), Villa (Valencia), Larsson (Helsingborgs).

Manchester United Football Club:Ronaldo to take on Man United - FansFC

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Nice, we have 2 reps in this match.

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SkySports News reporter Dan Roan was in Munich on Champions League duty.
In his column he writes about his journey in Munich.

Read the column here: TheFA.com - Roy's record breaker

[Oliver_Kahn]

Ottmar Hitzfeld chose the best available position to observe Wednesday morning training, enjoying the warm spring sunshine from a wooden bench on the perimeter of the Säbener Strasse training ground. Relaxation was the last thing on the players' minds however, as fitness coach Oliver Schmidtlein (picture) brought sweat to the stars' brows.

Schmidtlein divided the squad into three groups for a session devoted to pace, sprinting and instantaneous reactions. "You've got to be able to explode during a match and cover short distances at exceptional speed," head coach Hitzfeld explained later.

Reminiscent of Germany

The routines involving weights, elastic ropes, medicine balls and low hurdles were nothing new, as Schmidtlein has frequently brought out the same equipment in recent weeks. The Germany internationals at the club are especially familiar with the coach's techniques, as he is also involved at the national level.

"These exercises helped us as a national team, and it'll help us here too," Philipp Lahm observed. "Oliver Schmidtlein's success with Germany is no accident, and we can always use successful people here," Hitzfeld added.

Fresh impetus

The General made Schmidtlein's acquaintance in his first spell at the helm. "He's a dedicated specialist. In my opinion, Germany have simply adopted the methods Oliver Schmidtlein perfected here at Bayern," the coach summarised.

Improved freshness and alertness have been a hallmark of Hitzfeld's brief tenure since February, although those praiseworthy qualities could not be applied to every single first-teamer on Wednesday.

Concern over Kahn

Oliver Kahn is struggling with a back injury sustained on Sunday and was restricted to a 20 minute jog. Hitzfeld described the captain as "extremely doubtful" for a return to team training on Thursday. "I hope he can resume on Friday. If not, he'll be out of action on Saturday."

Owen Hargreaves again sat out training on Wednesday with a persistent cold, although the head coach described the England man as "very likely" to rejoin the squad on Thursday. Finally, Mark van Bommel took part in the afternoon session after reporting to the doctor in the morning.

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The routines involving weights, elastic ropes, medicine balls and low hurdles were nothing new, as Schmidtlein has frequently brought out the same equipment in recent weeks. The Germany internationals at the club are especially familiar with the coach's techniques, as he is also involved at the national level.

Good to hear that...

Oliver Kahn is struggling with a back injury sustained on Sunday and was restricted to a 20 minute jog. Hitzfeld described the captain as "extremely doubtful" for a return to team training on Thursday. "I hope he can resume on Friday. If not, he'll be out of action on Saturday."

Looks like Rensing will be protecting our goal.

[Oliver_Kahn]

Let's see what he can do, tbh I'm not sure about his quality. What do you think ?

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I really liked him and rated his performance very good in all matches, except one, the cup clash vs Aachen that we lost and he was goalkeeping. He conceded 4 goals, and 2 of them were absolutely him to blame. But that's it, one bad performance.

Remember he played full minutes against AC Milan and only conceded a goal, and that from penalty only.
Aswell, he played in the Salzburg cup where Bayern faced Urawa Red Diamonds and Salzburg. Rensing got clean-sheets on both matches. The match vs Salzburg ended 0-0, and Bayern won after penalty shoot-out. Rensing saved two in the shoot-outs.

Frankfurt isn't a team who can risk him a lot. I think Rensing will have a fantastic performance and will get a clean-sheet, of course, if Kahn won't be availabale.

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A betting man would have put his shirt on Mark van Bommel scoring as he powered his way into the Frankfurt box in the 77th minute of Saturday's clash at the Commerzbank Arena, but the aforementioned wager would have ended in dismay as the Dutch ace battered his shot into the side-netting.

The home side recovered possession and began their next attack just as the stadium video screens announced that leaders Schalke had taken a 1-0 lead at home to VfB Stuttgart. The 51,500 in Frankfurt hardly had time to digest this news, before the stadium erupted to hail Christoph Preuss' goal of the season contender, a strike which ultimately proved enough to seal the points for relegation-threatened Eintracht.

Good day for Schalke

Not much more than a minute separated Van Bommel's miss, Schalke's goal and Preuss' glorious effort, but in all likelihood, the champions' hopes of defending their Bundesliga title evaporated in that fateful 60 seconds. "That's certainly how I see it. It's over," head coach Ottmar Hitzfeld acknowledged afterwards, regretting the afternoon's "setback" and "bitter defeat" in the banking metropolis.

"It's been a crucial matchday which has gone Schalke's way. We've dropped five points in the last two weeks, and we'd be well advised to concentrate on more modest ambitions," chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge observed. "Schalke are nine points clear now," Hitzfeld pointed out, "so as I've said all along, our priority is qualifying for the Champions League. We have to make sure of that before speaking about anything else."

Recurring nightmare

In truth, Bayern looked anything but champions in waiting on Saturday. Just six days after arguably their best display of the season in a 1-1 draw with Bremen, Hitzfeld's men looked uninspired and even perplexed against Frankfurt. "We dominated possession, but we never found a way to unpick their packed defence. We failed to play penetrating balls to our strikers," Hitzfeld lamented.

The statistics - 19 shots to Frankfurt's nine, 55 percent tackles won and 60 percent possession - accurately reflected Bayern's dominance, but Eintracht held firm. "Our first concern was to keep a clean sheet," home boss Friedhelm Funkel remarked, and the defensive tactics adopted by Frankfurt and a host of Bayern's previous opponents this term yet again proved the champions' undoing. Saturday's defeat belongs in a file with defeats by a single goal in Wolfsburg, Bielefeld and Aachen, where the Reds saw the lion's share of the ball but created very few chances, before missing the opportunities which did come their way.

Definitely a penalty

"We've come nowhere near our potential today. You have to score the opener against a defensive team, because it always goes more smoothly after that," Philipp Lahm sighed. Indeed, the match might have followed a very different course had Bayern been awarded a penalty for Sotiros Kyrgiakos' blatant foul on Van Bommel after 14 minutes.

"Obviously, you sometimes don't get a penalty in that situation. But it's unbelievable I was booked. The Frankfurt player and his coach admitted it was a penalty," Van Bommel ruefully reflected. However, neither the midfielder nor his boss sought to blame referee Michael Weiner. "We didn't play well enough to win," the General concluded.

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The "new" Ottmar Hitzfeld's time spent as a colour commentator on TV has clearly influenced the edge and precision of the Bayern coach's razor-sharp post-match analyses nowadays, a quality that was again apparent after Saturday's defeat in Frankfurt.

"I'm not particularly pointing the finger at the players we have. We're missing a skilled individual capable of playing the decisive pass," the Reds boss told reporters gathered at the Commerzbank at the weekend.

Defensive teams posing problems

Following the sobering 3-0 defeat in Nuremberg which marked Hitzfeld's return to the Bayern bench, the coach at once diagnosed the lack of a playmaker as a serious issue, a glaring absence again highlighted against Frankfurt's exclusively defensive tactics.

"We were prepared to run and chase, we had the desire. But we couldn't play the killer ball to a our strikers," Hitzfeld continued. "We didn't deliver killer crosses, we failed to make penetrating passes behind the defence, and naturally we're currently missing a creative spark. We're aware of the problem, but beating defensive teams remains very difficult."

Blunt weapon

The champions have scored 39 goals in 26 league matches so far, lagging leaders Schalke and VfB Stuttgart on 42 goals apiece, and a country mile behind top scorers Werder Bremen on 61 goals. Even promoted Alemannia Aachen have scored more often than Bayern with a total of 41 goals. Indeed, it is against defensive teams such as Alemannia, Frankfurt, Bielefeld, Wolfsburg and bottom club Monchengladbach that the Munich attack has truly struggled.

"The teams using three centre-halves or a back five leave you almost no space. It comes down to a few centimetres, but we've not been finding these gaps. We were blunt in attack today," the Bayern boss lamented.

Rummenigge seeking to build new team

The problem has been compounded by Sebastian Deisler's shock decision to retire, with the 36-year-old Mehmet Scholl set to hang up his boots in the summer. Ali Karimi will not be offered a new contract, while Julio Dos Santos failed to make the breakthrough and is currently out on loan with Wolfsburg.

The club is ready to react with a busy summer in the transfer market. "We know the source of our problems. It's in attack, the creative area. Clearly we have to catch up," Hitzfeld observed. "Everyone can see we need more creativity up front, otherwise we won't hit our targets."

Boss urges stars to take more risks

Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has indicated further signings for next term to join confirmed newcomers Jan Schlaudraff, Hamit Altintop and José Ernesto Sosa. "It definitely won't only be these three. We'll bring in one or two more players as we seek to attract high-quality talent to Bayern." The club is more than prepared to invest the sums it will undoubtedly take. "Our aim is to build a team capable of achieving greatness, not just domestically, but also in Europe," Rummenigge declared.

Regardless of future developments, Hitzfeld called on the current squad to invest maximum effort in the rest of the season. "Mark van Bommel created a couple of dangerous situations and was always trying to get forward. But that's not enough. We need more players in the box, Schweinsteiger and Salihamidzic for example. And defensive players like Hargreaves have to join in attacks more often." For preference, the stars in question would start doing just that two weeks from now - at home to leaders Schalke.

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The Bundesliga programme takes a break next weekend to allow for a round of internationals, but as ever, a good proportion of the Munich squad will be hard at work with their respective national teams. One or two Bayern stars will only see friendly action, but most are battling for vital points in the race to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament in Austria and Switzerland. Munich boss Ottmar Hitzfeld is without a total of nine players over the next 10 days.

Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Lukas Podolski have all been called up to the Germany squad for the clash of the Euro 2008 Group D heavyweights when Joachim Löw's team travel to Prague on 24 March for a showdown against the Czech Republic. The pair are neck-and-neck at the top of the standings on 10 points, but although the Germans have their noses in front on goal difference, they will field an injury-depleted line-up in the Czech capital.

Podolski suspended for Denmark clash

Löw will be forced to switch things around for a friendly against Denmark in Duisburg on 28 March as Podolski is suspended for that match, while Lahm and Schweinsteiger may well be rested.

Following a lengthy lay-off with injury, Owen Hargreaves returns to the England squad for a vital qualifying double-header away to Israel (24 March) and Andorra (28 March). The man voted England player of the year 2006 is finally fit again following a broken leg sustained last autumn. England lie third in Group E on seven points behind leaders Croatia (10 points) and Russia (7).

Last chance for Belgium?

France coach Raymond Domenech has named Bayern right-back Willy Sagnol in his squad for a qualifier in Lithuania on 24 March, followed by a friendly against Euro 2008 joint hosts Austria at the Stade de France in Paris four days later. The World Cup runners-up lie level with surprise package Scotland at the top of Group B on 9 points, ahead of World Cup winners Italy on seven points.

The Bayern man facing the most pressure to win must be Daniel van Buyten who leads the Belgian team in Portugal on Saturday. The Diables Rouge have amassed just seven points from five matches and lie a miserable fifth in Group A, level on points with the Portuguese. The Belgians must win to retain any hope of sealing a berth at next year's tournament.

Lucio in Sweden, Roque in the air

Both Lucio and Roque Santa Cruz appear for their respective national teams in friendly matches. Lucio and his Brazil team-mates are in Sweden to face Chile on 24 March in Gothenburg and Ghana three days later in Stockholm. Santa Cruz, called up by Paraguay for the first time since the World Cup, undertakes the long trip to Mexico (25 March) and Columbia (28 March).

Last but not least, Ali Karimi will represent Iran next Saturday when he and his team-mates travel to Qatar.

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A glorious spell of spring weather has been followed by a return to wintry conditions in Munich, as temperatures hovering around freezing and light snowfall welcoming the Bayern squad to the training ground on Tuesday morning after a day and a half off.

Ottmar Hitzfeld and his assistant Michael Henke have scheduled seven training sessions over the next four days as they seek to make the best of a situation in which nine players are absent on international duty. "We'll use the time to work on a few specifics," Henke revealed to fcbayern.de.

Fitness, technique, tactics

Following a brief warm-up in the weights room, Henke supervised an hour's worth of work on the players' stamina. "We're concentrating on the basics. We're looking to optimise our physical shape, which is good in any case," the assistant boss explained. There would be a certain point at which further improvement would require disproportionate effort, so the coaching staff also plan indoor workouts, either on the weights or in the on-site sports hall.

Alongside fitness training, another focus will be individual and multiple-player tactical moves, including such staples of the coaching catalogue as "defence against attack".

Often too slow

"We want to keep working on our tackling," Henke continued, "it's an area where we can still improve." By practising one-on-one or two-on-one situations, individual stars can improve their ability ready for the forthcoming Bundesliga run-in, and especially the Champions League double-header against bogey team AC Milan.

Last but by no means least, Hitzfeld and Henke will cast an eye over their players' technique. "We're very keen to work on our passing game," Henke revealed. Bayern's high-tempo short passing moves worked well against Real Madrid and Bremen, "but we were often far too slow in Frankfurt."

Weekend off as reward

The coaches believe a fast and precise passing style is the key to unlock packed defences such as that expertly practised by Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. The week promises plenty of work for Hitzfeld and Henke, although the players will be rewarded for an intensive spell of training with a weekend off.

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Bayern München's Ottmar Hitzfeld and Michael Henke had only one of ten professional players at their disposal on Wednesday.

Mehmet Scholl and Michael Rensing are out because of wisdom teeth operations and will not be able to train for the next two or three days.

Hasan Saliahmidzic and Claudio Pizarro (both have knee problems) also missed another day. The other professional players are with their national teams at the moment.

[Oliver_Kahn]

It's hard to prepare for Schalke like this