Julian Nagelsmann lauds Bayern Munich’s Serge Gnabry after hat trick performance at VfB Stuttgart

Serge Gnabry stole the show with his hat trick and assists in Bayern Munich’s 5-0 routing of VfB Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

Robert Lewandowski’s second half brace rounded out the scoring for Julian Nagelsmann’s side. The score line perhaps does Stuttgart a little bit of a disservice for how close the kept things for the majority of the first half and how brightly they started the second, but Bayern just had too much firepower in the end.

The result took Bayern provisionally nine points clear of Borussia Dortmund at the top of the Bundesliga table with just one match week remaining in the hinrunde before the winter-pause period.

Speaking after the match, Nagelsmann unsurprisingly sung Gnabry’s praises, who was easily the man of the match for Bayern with his three goals and two assists to Lewandowski. “He had a very good game. The first goal was incredible. The two assists were really good. He’s an extraordinary player, he probably played fewer minutes than he deserved this season — today he’s done a great job,” he said, as transcribed by @iMiaSanMia on Twitter.

Gnabry is also the subject of a potential new contract at Bayern. It’s expected that he’ll sign a new deal with the club, but delays are also expected due to the current financial situation that’s going to get worse due to no spectators being allowed at the Allianz Arena for the remainder of the year.

Despite knowing Gnabry probably would’ve wanted more minutes by this point in the season, Nagelsmann 100% wants Gnabry to sign a new deal with the club. “I spoke with him and told him that I’d like to continue working with him. I’ve known Serge since forever, I appreciate him as a person and a player. It’s our wish to renew with him. But he’s old enough and has trustworthy people around him,” Nagelsmann explained.

While Nagelsmann has made his intentions clear with Gnabry in wanting to continue working with him, the transfer matters aren’t entirely up to him. Performances like the one against Stuttgart show just how important of a player he is for Bayern, but both Hasan Salihamidzic and Oliver Kahn will be the ones to spearhead the negotiations with Gnabry and his representatives, as Nagelsmann eluded to. “I would like nothing more than that he extended. He has familiar people with whom he talks about it, and we at the club also have other people with Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidzic who take care of having these conversations. I try to help him so that he gets better and better,” Nagelsmann said (Tz).

Photo by Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images