Boss Nerlinger says Bayern will improve defence

Posted Wednesday, April 06, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

BERLIN (AFP) - Bayern Munich's director of sport Christian Nerlinger said Wednesday the Bavarian giants will strengthen their defence at the end of the season, but dismissed reports they will rebuild their team.

"We must act to improve the defence and we will make one or two changes this summer," Nerlinger told German magazine Sport Bild.

"In total, there are three positions we have to think about."

Having been dumped out of both the Champions League and German Cup, as well as being 14 points behind leader Dortmund in the Bundesliga, Bayern face a season without silverware.

Coach Louis van Gaal will be replaced by current Bayer Leverkusen boss Jupp Heynckes at the end of the season.

Bayern are reported to be interested in signing goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, from Schalke, plus defenders Fabio Coentrao of Benfica and Ajax's Gregory van der Wiel.

Nerlinger would only say both Coentrao and van der Wiel are 'interesting players' and dismissed last week's reports here that Bayern have a budget of 60 million euros to spend on a new-look team.

"It's not as if we have a team that needs to be completely redesigned," said Nerlinger.

"We have a solid foundation with world-class players, we just need to make some improvements."