Thomas Tuchel: "I want an ambitious team"

THE STATE OF HIS PLAYERS

"We have a lot of missing players tomorrow. Draxler, Verratti and Marquinhos came back injured from national duty. Kurzawa and Di Maria are suspended. Ander Herrera has tested positive for the virus and he hasn't trained with us. Danilo should be with us today but he was in contact with Cristiano Ronaldo and he has to stay away from the rest of the squad. Dagba has had another test and we'll see whether he's negative. Bernat is injured of course, Kehrer as well and Icardi hurt his knee last week and is out for tomorrow's match."

ASSESSING THE INTERNATIONAL WINDOW

"It's positive to see what some have done with their national sides. Kylian scored and Neymar is beating records but we are still worried about injuries. We have been in contact with them a lot and we keep up to date with how they are feeling, but there are also journeys involved and that makes recovery difficult. Tomorrow we are away from home and that doesn't help."

NÎMES BEFORE MANCHESTER UNITED

"Our challenge is great. I need to find solutions in order to have an ambitious team at Nîmes tomorrow, a team that will allow us to attack and to score goals. We have never taken a match lightly before the Champions League and we won't start tomorrow. We must pay attention to the health of the players, and some like Mbappé or the South Americans have played a lot and travelled. We're not going to be thinking about the Manchester United game, but the situation means that we must plan ahead a bit."

THE AMBITIONS

"We always expect the same thing from ourselves: to win. We have always had a lot of ambition but this a special situation because of COVID. At every international window there is a risk of losing players and there'll be another one in a month. If we had our whole squad at 100% then we'd have a very strong team but naturally, like everybody, if we have a lot of absentees then the situation could become more complicated. And that is the case in the next few days."

THE RECRUITS

"I prefer that we let the players show their quality on the field and I don't want to talk too much in advance of that. It will take time before they feel perfectly at ease in their new environment. Kean and Danilo arrive today, Rafinha was able to train with us over the last 10 days and he's a very technical player, very humble and very easy to get on with. I know he'll be able to adapt quickly and of course he'll be able to play tomorrow. Kean could also play his first match for us, we will talk with him when he arrives and he'll have a training session, and it's possible he'll play."