analyse
A year before the European Championships, sports director Rudi Völler realized that some national players were overrated. He still appreciates the national coach, although he damaged his reputation with the international matches in June.
The Sports Committee of the German Bundestag will meet again on Wednesday (06/21/2023). A week earlier, the German Football Association (DFB) had made representations to politicians to talk about the preparations for the 2024 European Championship. According to the minutes before the committee, Bernd Neuendorf said social and ecological sustainability are major issues.
But the focus is on sport, according to the President of the DFB. After three unsuccessful tournaments, the German national team wants to be successful again, Neuendorf assured: “With the support of our own audience, that should also be possible.”
Little reason for optimism
Two days before the meeting, the elite selection of the DFB had played 3:3 against Ukraine. It was not an appearance with which the President should have aroused enthusiasm among the parliamentarians. But at least the team scored goals and avoided defeat. A week and two games later they are 1-0 in Poland and 2-0 against Colombia.
Internationals 2023 right arrow
To the results come the achievements that make it difficult to spread optimism. On the contrary: The question that the members of the sports committee are probably also asking themselves is: Is it possible to have a successful European Championship with Hansi Flick? Or, apart from a bear as a mascot, is there also a problem bear as the national coach?
Völler criticizes players
For sports director Rudi Völler, Flick is a pig, and the poorest. He said that on Tuesday evening in Gelsenkirchen, thereby reaffirming his loyalty to the coach. Völler, on the other hand, denied the “top quality” of some players without naming names. He, too, “perhaps saw it a little too positively at the beginning”.
Völler’s beginning was after the World Cup in Qatar, which Germany left again after the preliminary round. Nevertheless, the new sports director saw a team that was hardly weaker than Argentina, i.e. the team that left Qatar with the World Cup.
Völler and the national coach are convinced that Germany can certainly claim to win the European Championship in 2024. Five games and just one win (against Peru) further, their doubts have grown. Völler counted some players whose names will be known by September at the latest, because the sports director announced that they would no longer be invited because they were too weak for the national team.
Flick is betting on September
Even before the game against Colombia, Flick refused to say that he wanted to win the title by elegantly avoiding a request. However, he confirmed the plan to continue being the national coach.
His conclusion and outlook in short: The tests in June failed, everything will be better in September. Then there are the games against Japan and France. Flick then wants to rely on a group of “ten, twelve, 14 players”, who should also be clearly assigned their position and role.
The time of viewing and testing, with which he got himself into the predicament, should then be over.
The big try
Even before the World Cup, in the very short preparation time, Flick made a decision against rehearsed processes and routines. The only friendly against Oman was played by a team that knew there would be little left in the first World Cup game.
In the three friendlies in June, Flick went to extremes, like a defiant child who always does the opposite of what he is advised to do. Joshua Kimmich played against Ukraine as “eighth” in attacking midfield, in Poland then in defense, against Colombia initially not at all. Malick Thiaw, who impressed in Warsaw as a central defender in a back three, was pushed to the right flank in Gelsenkirchen. In the headquarters, however, Emre Can, who played a strong second half at Borussia Dortmund, played not in defence, but in defensive midfield.
Jamal Musiala played more defensively than Ilkay Gündogan in midfield against Colombia, although most would have expected it the other way around. In attack, Flick used Kai Havertz as a false nine, then Niclas Füllkrug as a real one.
Flick’s reputation has suffered
Ultimately, at the latest against a strong Colombia, there was no longer any idea of how Germany wanted to get dangerously in front of the opponent’s goal. The tempo that Jamal Musiala brought into play from time to time to the murmurs and cheers of the spectators was picked up again by his colleagues with astonishing reliability.
In the summer of 2023, Germany has a staid national team with very good, good, but also many mediocre footballers compared to the upper European segment. The national coach’s reputation has suffered greatly, and his quality is being questioned. The realization in Gelsenkirchen that Rudi Völler would also change his mind should give Hansi food for thought.