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National team: “You Germans did something wrong,” says Arsene Wenger

Sthey beamed and let themselves be celebrated. Even though they hadn’t won the game that was just over. But that she is the German national soccer team only 0: 2 (0: 1) were inferior, was enough to end the evening properly. While the substitute players of the German team relaxed their muscles in the St. Gallen stadium on Thursday evening and completed a few runs, some Liechtenstein players treated themselves to a first beer and a sausage away from them on the lawn.

The reward was given to the players in the 189th in the world rankings after their remarkable performance against the four-time world champion from the fans in the stands. In return, a couple of supporters were thrown a jersey – the blue piece of fabric will forever remind them of a game in which, as Liechtenstein coach Martin Stocklasa said after the final whistle, they “threw everything in” and delivered “a top performance”. “The game, the defeat, is almost like a win for us. It’s a sensational result for us, ”said Stocklasa.

A victory that doesn’t feel like one. Germany struggles to a 2-0 against Liechtenstein

Source: dpa / Sven Hoppe

In order to classify the words of the satisfied coach, it should be mentioned that his team, which is last without points in qualifying group J for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, had lost the two previous games significantly more: with 1: 4 against Iceland and with 0: 5 North Macedonia.

“We are not satisfied with that”

Martin Stocksala revealed that there were also congratulations from the opponent. Hans-Dieter “Hansi” Flick approached him after his premiere as national coach and congratulated him on the performance of his team, which had defended well in the 90 minutes before. Flick later said about his own team that he couldn’t blame them, but he complained that after good starting minutes there were hardly any fast pace runs, for example.

Liechtenstein v Germany - 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifier

Hansi Flick still has a lot of work to do with the national team. The game against Liechtenstein exposed the team’s weaknesses again

Source: Getty Images / Alexander Hassenstein

“Unfortunately, it was only enough for two goals. It was just a beginning that we weren’t entirely happy with. After three training sessions, not everything worked. ”Which couldn’t be overlooked.

There was great hope that now that Flick is directing as national coach, there will be a turnaround. A turn towards better football, more enthusiasm, more joy in playing. The past few months, in which the German team was rarely able to convince at the end of the 15-year term of Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw and whether their way of playing, their style of play raised many more questions than they gave answers, should be forgotten.

85 percent possession. 30 to 2 shots on goal

Against Liechtenstein, however, it became clear once again that it still takes a lot to get back to the top level. You can hardly imagine how Flick’s debut would have turned out if his opponent on Thursday evening hadn’t been one in which players played who played in the fourth, fifth or sixth division of Switzerland on a daily basis.

It is astonishing that the German team struggled again just a few weeks after the knockout round at the European Championships and, above all, could not convince in their offensive game, especially in view of the bare facts and figures from the game against Liechtenstein. Germany had 85 percent possession, got 30: 2 shots on goal, 751: 129 passes and 15: 0 corners. The fact that, despite this superiority, there were only two hits in the end speaks volumes.

The selection of the German Football Association (DFB) had started well. The first ten minutes, with the players rotating a lot and playing fast, were promising. But as the playing time increased, the German team no longer knew how to assert itself. There was a lack of ideas, there was a lack of assertiveness. The game became more and more static – and if you tried it on the outside against the opponents, who were densely staggered in the center, hardly a player dared to go into a one-on-one situation there. The fact that Timo Werner, who made it 1-0 after 41 minutes after a good action by Jamal Musiala, but only had four ball contacts after 30 minutes, once again showed where the problems lie in the German team – in the storm center in any case.

Even before the game, Jürgen Klopp had put his finger in the wound in a conversation at RTL and confirmed that Germany had a striker problem. “England have at least seven classic center forwards who could play in the national team. Why don’t we have that? The players have to come from somewhere, “said the coach of Liverpool FC:” We have a large number of people, a few boys running around, that would be cool if a center forward came out in the long term. ”

“Now you have Haaland and Lewandowski”

Flick’s predecessor Löw had already complained about the error in the training of the youngsters. After the 2-0 win against Liechtenstein – Leroy Sané scored the second goal (77th) – the long-time successful coach Arsené Wenger not only noted that Germany was a football country, but not a favorite for the World Cup at the moment. He also criticized the missing striker. “Germany used to have world-class strikers in every club, now you have Haaland and Lewandowski. Yes, you did something wrong. At the moment Germany doesn’t have enough strikers, ”Wenger said on BILD TV.

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Arsenal’s former coach Arsene Wenger

Quelle: pa/empics/Matt Crossick

Hansi Flick believes that the lack of goals is currently also a matter of the head. “What you can tell is that the team doesn’t have that confidence that they can score goals. There is tremendous quality there, without question, ”summed up the new national coach after his debut. He understood, added the 56-year-old, “that the fans in Germany may be a little disappointed with the result. But it was a start. We all know we still have a way to go. But there were three points that were important to us. We have an important game against leaders Armenia on Sunday. We can then pass by. We want to harmonize even better offensively ”.

After all, with Werner, who scored his 17th goal in the 41st international game against Liechtenstein, and Sané, who scored his eighth goal in the 35th international game, two attacking players who were recently badly criticized and each had a poor start to the season had: Werner is currently only second choice at FC Chelsea behind Romelu Lukaku, Sané had to endure whistles from his own appendix at Bayern. Flick still bet on her. He had talked to them a lot, encouraged them in the past few days. The goals they have now scored should strengthen them, be a little balm.

It remains to be seen whether Werner and Sané will also be in the starting line-up against Armenia. National coach Flick has not only announced that he will rotate because of the tight schedule – on Wednesday the third game will take place in Iceland within six days. Whoever will be used in the end, the appendix will closely watch how the German national team acts. On Sunday in the stadium, where 18,000 spectators are admitted to the game against Armenia (8.45 p.m., RTL and in the WELT live ticker) – and at home in front of the television sets.

Liechtenstein - Germany

Timo Werner (left) celebrates his goal to make it 1-0 with Robin Gosens

Source: dpa / Sven Hoppe

The fact that interest in the national team was also limited at the premiere of Hansi Flick shows how urgently the elite team have to do image advertising on their own behalf – on the pitch and not at autograph sessions or public training sessions. On average, 6.74 million TV viewers followed the 2-0 win against Lichtenstein on Thursday evening on RTL and ensured a market share of 26.9 percent. In the end, the transmission was the most successful program of the day on German television, but it was below the average of the previous year of 7.12 million. In 2019, that number was 8.76 million.

The credit that the German national team has lost has to be worked out again. She is aware of this task, of this responsibility. Also your new trainer. “We have to make sure that we can improve the things that we analyze,” said Flick, who asked for training on Friday morning before leaving St. Gallen for Stuttgart. According to the coach, the team must ultimately “deliver when it counts”. Like on Sunday against Armenia, the leaders in Group J. With a win, the German national team, currently one point behind in second place, could overtake Armenia (ten points).

“We’re starting to learn what he asks of us,” said goal scorer Timo Werner after the meager 2-0 win against Liechtenstein: “It wasn’t the best first step, but it was a good first step.” confirm applies.

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