Joshua Zirkzee talks about criticism he received at Bayern Munich

Joshua Zirkzee had a great career start for Bayern Munich, but after some time, his form dipped and he was sent to Parma on loan. This season he is on loan at Anderlecht and is doing great.

In an interview with Sport1, Zirkzee opened up about the criticism he received at Bayern. “I had a difficult phase. It’s hard to show yourself when you’re not a real part of the team. That I gave less than 100 percent in training? No. That I went home sadder than usual? Absolutely.”

Zirkzee also hoped for more games, but he says Hansi Flick never indicated that he would grant him more minutes on the pitch. He dealt with a lot of criticism during that period, mostly over his motivation and body language during practice sessions. “I am who I am. Either people accept it or they don’t. And if they don’t, I don’t care.”

Zirkzee talks over received hateful messages after a huge miss

Zirkzee prepared with Bayern’s squad for the upcoming season and played a couple of test matches. In one of those matches against Ajax, he missed an incredible chance and received a lot of pressure in the coming days.

Julian Nagelsmann publicly criticized the player for his lack of seriousness. Now, when Joshua looks back at it thinks things got out of control. “At that moment, I should have been more professional. It shouldn’t have happened to me, but it did: so what?”

He also says he had to turn off the comment function on Instagram because he received a lot of hateful messages. “It was a bit too much for me and I needed a break. I got hateful, racist, stupid messages.”