Hansi Flick praises Jamal Musiala after strong outing vs. FC Düren

Jamal Musiala was one of a handful of youngsters that were given starts for Bayern Munich in the squad’s 3-0 win over FC Düren in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. Musiala started, played the full 90 minutes, and was one of Bayern’s strongest performers on the night.

Musiala was well deserving of the praise he received from Hansi Flick earlier today during the press conference previewing the Bundesliga matchup against DSC Arminia Bielefeld (via BuliNews).

This was Musiala’s fifth appearance with the first team this season. He came on as a sub in all three of Bayern’s Bundesliga matches thus far as well as the 3-2 DFL_Supercup win over Borussia Dortmund earlier this month. The performance against FCDüren, though, was arguably his strongest by a large stretch and it was also his first start.

Flick didn’t want to get to ahead of himself with praise for the youngster, but recognized the great talent that he is.

“I’m not one to praise a player too much,” Flick said. “You have to be very careful with that. Everyone can see that he has enormous quality on the ball. He’s very confident and cheeky. But he needs to improve his physical robustness and still has a long way to go. He’s currently ahead of our other youth players. That’s why he played the full game yesterday. He has to keep going. It’s a lifelong learning process. I trust him to take the next step with the support of the top players.”

Training with the senior team, Flick continued, is what’s going to help the younger players like Musiala continue to develop and grow.

“The important thing is that the young guys train with us,” Flick stated. “If you train with the best players at Bayern every day, you get better and develop very well. It’s up to us to decide where and when he will play depending on the situation. [Jamal’s] a good option for the wings, especially while Leroy Sané is injured. At the moment, I see him as a first-team player. His development is the most important thing.”

Musiala also set Twitter on fire with this great solo run he had midway through the second half against FC Düren. Enjoy this as many times as you’d like: no judgements here regardless of how many times you watch it. It almost resulted in a goal and there is no denying how amazing of a run it was: