“I can’t wait to meet my teammates and the coaches for the first time tomorrow,” said Philippe Coutinho during his unveiling on Monday – and that wasn’t just the case for him. Despite the wet weather in Munich, over 1,500 fans flocked to Tuesday morning’s open session at the record champions’ training ground to see the Brazilian, Michaël Cusiance and the rest of the Bayern boys.
Niko Kovac had a total of 18 players to work with. Corentin Tolisso trained individually in the performance centre, Leon Goretzka sat out with a knock while Christian Früchtl and Ron-Thorben Hoffmann had both been in action for the reserves on Monday. However, the eyes of the spectators were predominantly on Coutinho.
Many of them had already snapped up the new shirt with the number 10 on it and watched as the 27-year-old chatted with Robert Lewandowski during the warm-up. Were they discussing some new attacking moves? If so, they put them into practice straight away during the final game as Coutinho threaded the ball through for Lewandowski to finish off. The other exercises also gave the fans a taste of what to expect for the season ahead as Coutinho demonstrated fast pace, fine technique and close ball control. The 90-minute session left them wanting more.
