Joshua Kimmich insists Julian Nagelsmann had NOT lost the dressing room at Bayern Munich

Joshua Kimmich has denied Julian Nagelsmann had lost the dressing room at Bayern Munich ahead of his shock sacking, but acknowledged the German champions had underperformed in recent Bundesliga matches.

Bayern Munich confirmed Nagelsmann’s sacking on Friday, despite the 35-year-old having steered the club into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Nagelsmann was sacked after a 61-minute meeting and replaced with former PSG and Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel takes over with Bayern just one point off the top spot in the Bundesliga, with rivals Borussia Dortmund currently on course to end their run of ten-consecutive top flight title wins.

Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn had claimed the squad’s quality had come to the fore less often, prompting the change.

There had been reports of issues between manager and board, and a number of players seemingly losing faith. 

Kimmich, who has claimed Nagelsmann is one of the three best coaches he has worked under, has denied suggestions the Bayern squad had stopped playing for the 35-year-old. 

‘No, I wouldn’t say that,’ Kimmich said, as reported by TZ. ‘The reasons are that we didn’t win enough games and weren’t successful enough. 

‘Of course we are represented in all competitions. You could see that we didn’t perform properly in the Bundesliga. We only won five out of ten games. 

‘But I can say that he coach has not lost the dressing room. I’ve already been through a couple of coaching changes: it wasn’t the case that it was indicated internally in the dressing room because the players were dissatisfied. We were surprised.’

Nagelsmann’s final match in charge was a 2-1 defeat away to Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen, which left them second in the table behind Borussia Dortmund, who they face in their next match on April 1.

After defeat at Leverkusen, Nagelsmann ripped into his players for having ‘zero per cent work rate’.

Sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic also labelled them ‘lazy, like I’ve never experienced’ after their title-race blow.

Speaking at Tuchel’s unveiling, Kahn has claimed the new Bayern manager’s achievements dealing with tricky personalities at PSG prove his quality.