Don't waste first half to get started, Flick tells Bayern players

Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick has urged his players to focus from the start at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday.

Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick has urged his players to focus from the start at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday.

Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flick has urged his players to focus from the start at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday to avoid falling behind for a ninth straight Bundesliga game.

Last season's treble winners are two points clear of second-placed RB Leipzig having lost none of those eight games, where they had to recover from at least a goal down, but Flick is not happy that they were forced to fight back in each of them.

"We have to have a different attitude, dynamism and intensity," he told a news conference on Thursday. "We need that different attitude from the start and not from the 48th or 49th minute."

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Last week Bayern scored five goals in the second half against Mainz 05 after trailing 2-0 at halftime.

"We need to be more present in the one-on-ones, run that extra metre and not allow our opponents to run and hope that (goalkeeper) Manuel (Neuer) will do his thing," Flick said.

"It is not that we don't warm up our players sufficiently. So they should not need an entire half to get into the game."

"That cannot happen, especially not against a team like Gladbach," he said.

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Seventh-placed Moenchengladbach, who, like Bayern, have reached the Champions League knockout stage, have the best record of any Bundesliga team against the Bavarians since 2014, with five wins and two draws in the last 12 league meetings.

"We have room for improvement. The team knows it and every single player knows it," Flick said, ruling out, as expected, any major signings in the current transfer window.

"We don't like trailing. We need to act better. It would be good for us to keep a clean sheet this time."