Heynckes on Rodriguez: He will bring a lot to the Bavarian side

CAIRO – 17 October 2017: Bayern Munich coach, Jupp Heynckes, said on Tuesday at the pre-match press conference that he believes the Colombian James Rodriguez is a player who will bring a lot to the Bavarian side with his scoring hunger and his good ball handling skills.

"I know James Rodríguez from his time in Monaco and Real Madrid; he played very well in the World Cup. In Colombia he is a famous player; he has a very good sense of goal and is a good ball handler. He will bring a lot to the club," Heynckes said.

Heynckes, however, did not want to anticipate whether Rodriguez will play on Wednesday or if he will start the game on the bench.

"Logically I will not say now which line-up is going to start tomorrow," he said.
However, in recent days Heynckes had said that at the moment he did not intend to resort to the rotations. So, it is expected that the base of the team is the same that began the duel against Freiburg last Saturday, in which Bayern won with a score of 5-0.
In that match James Rodriguez, who had trained only on Friday due to his commitments with his national team, was on the bench.

Prior to Celtic's game, the only change that is expected is forced by an injury to Javi Martinez, Bayern`s midfielder, in his shoulder.

"I'm not in favor of resorting to players who have injuries. First of all, because they cannot fully perform, and secondly because they can get injured again, so I decided, after talking to the doctors, that Javi will not play the next two matches and then we will see,” he said.

The position of Javi Martinez in the center of the field could be occupied by the Chilean Arturo Vidal who is coming back and recovering from a muscular injury.

"Arturo trained yesterday and today and is willing to play, but the decision will be taken tomorrow," said the coach.

Other candidates to fill the vacancy left by the Spanish player are the French Corenthin Tolisso and the German Sebastian Rudy, who replaced Javi Martinez after his injury in the match against Freiburg.