Things have to go up, says national coach Hansi Flick (l.). Did Niklas Süle understand it?
Photo: imago/Wunderl
Hansi Flick will probably enjoy looking at the national team’s games and dates on the German Football Association (DFB) website. There are four games for this year, results have not yet been entered. After league play, the new international season now starts – and the national coach has a clean slate, so to speak. That’s what he wanted in June: “I can promise that we’ll see a different team in September.” You can see that for yourself this Saturday in the game against the Japanese in Wolfsburg.
If only it were as easy as a club. But it is not. Flick cannot buy new players, the options for selecting the best are limited. This is confirmed by a look at the squad for the games against Japan and three days later in Dortmund against France. Of course, the national coach doesn’t have a new team. And then the trouble begins again. Just one click further on the DFB page and you will find the last international season: eleven games, six defeats, including another elimination in the preliminary round of a World Cup, this time in Qatar. Overall, the German national team was only able to win four of the last 16 games.
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Nobody really knows where Flick gets his confidence from. The ongoing lack of success due to the same weaknesses in the game over and over again has attracted a lot of critics. Outraged, Flick rejected comments from the Bundesliga about his dubious squad composition in the summer as “outrageousness”. That’s when he really lost his temper. He had to accept reprimands from other quarters. When DFB Vice President Hans-Joachim Watzke recently asked Flick to “develop a system that makes success possible,” the national coach did not object. When Matthias Sammer spoke about the fact that German football was in its greatest crisis and was now only a world champion in looking for excuses, Flick praised him as a “critical spirit.” The devastating verdict came directly from the DFB task force.
In any case, the 58-year-old is no longer a strong national coach. Flick knows: “The only thing that counts for us now is victories.” Japan is just the right opponent to prove that things can be better. The disaster at the World Cup in Qatar began with the 1:2 in the first group game. In the game afterwards, France, a top-class player in world football, awaits. With two good performances, the coach and his team could calm the critics for the time being. Otherwise there is a risk of extinction. You can read about two “games of fate” for Flick – and about possible successors like Sammer, Julian Nagelsmann or Oliver Glasner.
The pressure is undoubtedly great. That’s not a good prerequisite: Flick has to change something, but unlike in June, his decisions now have to bring results. During the defeats in Poland and against Colombia, the national coach tested the three-man defense and seemed a bit perplexed afterwards: “Of course we didn’t think that the results would be so bad.”
Courage could be helpful in this situation. On Wednesday, Flick showed a portion of that: in a friendly against the German U20 team, he had Joshua Kimmich play at right-back. The transfer of the Munich player has two advantages. On the one hand, the eternal problem in this position in defense would be solved; there is no one better than Kimmich for this. On the other hand, there is also space for a new solution in central midfield. Despite his often stated leadership demands, the 28-year-old has not been meeting the requirements there for a long time, in the national team and at FC Bayern. Flick previously made it clear that he would not tolerate any contradiction: “The team is the star – not the individual.”
İlkay Gündoğan should take on more responsibility – as the new captain and “in a different role in midfield,” as Flick said on Friday. Overall, the national coach’s plan is to find a “core team of six to eight players.” He should also remain courageous. The decision to bring Thomas Müller back into the national team does not represent this. Like many others, the 33-year-old is also a face of years of failure. A change that, as was the case under Joachim Löw, was never carried out by Flick due to important “tournament experience”, could be the beginning of better times again.
Two disastrous World Cups and the round of 16 exit at the 2021 European Championship: 20-year-olds like Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz couldn’t do any worse. But it’s not just a question of age. Pascal Groß was called up to the national team for the first time at the age of 32. “He makes very good decisions on the pitch and is a very intelligent, clever player,” says Flick. This could have been figured out earlier. But quite apart from the footballing skills, the upheaval could also solve another problem: the motivation and attitude of the national players were not only criticized by fans, experts and the media, but, as can be seen in a current documentary about the DFB team at the World Cup in Qatar , including the national coach himself.
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