:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/69729164/1234594225.0.jpg)
Like everyone else, RB Leipzig manager Jesse Marsch has heard the rumors about Marcel Sabitzer’s rumored move to Bayern Munich.
And also like everyone else, Marsch gets it.
“He’s become an important figure at the club in recent years. But it’s difficult to keep a player if they don’t want to stay. I can understand that he thinks about it when a club like Bayern is interested, and that’s just one of many clubs,” Marsch told Süddeutsche Zeitung (as captured by Twitter account @iMiaSanMia). “We had good conversations. We both are mature enough and we realize that the situation can either change or remain the same.”
Marsch knows that if Sabitzer’s does make the move to Bayern Munich, it will make the Bavarians even more difficult to dethrone.
“Everyone starts the season and they all ask the question, ‘Who’s going to win the league?’ And every single person says Bayern Munich, because that’s what you’re supposed to say. And Bayern Munich spends the most, they buy all the best players from the other clubs —it’s a good strategy and one that has been effective for them for many years,” Marsch told The Athletic. “And so to defeat Bayern, you have to have a fearless mentality. You have to. And you have to absolutely believe, especially if you’re a club like Leipzig, you have to absolutely believe in your core, in your heart, that you’re capable of beating them.
“This is a major achievement, to find a way to beat Bayern in this run of championships. But we have a good group and we have high expectations. We know it will require, in many ways, a perfect season —and that’s what our goal is. To try to find a way to achieve perfection. And that’s not by making zero mistakes. It’s by having the mentality and using our quality and everything that we do every day to create such a euphoric environment that the players feel like they can only succeed. That’s the goal. We do that, we have a chance.”
Marsch’s squad dropped their Bundesliga opener 1-0 to Mainz 05 on Sunday.