No experiments! That was something that Julian Nagelsmann emphasized conceptually on Monday evening. The national coach obviously wanted to use the press conference before the last international match of the year this Tuesday (8:45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for DFB international matches and on ZDF) in Vienna against Austria to clarify a few things on his own behalf.
And this included defending himself against the interpretation that he had deviated from the pragmatic line that he had announced when he took up his post in September. “We have an idea that we will leave almost the same,” he said, emphasizing that there had been no structural change in this regard compared to the two games against the USA and Mexico.
It is “not a big experiment” to use a different player in a position, “our rules remain pragmatically the same”. This mainly related to the discussion that had broken out about the use of Kai Havertz on the left side of defense; Nagelsmann said again that Havertz played a very good game, also defensively, and he didn’t understand how anyone could see it any other way. He didn’t read much, “thank God only one article, but that was enough.”
“We want to win, that would be really good!”
Meanwhile, the national coach left it open whether Havertz would play in the same role against Austria; He wanted to wait and see the impressions of the final training and his fitness level. He likes to have Havertz on the pitch with his qualities, “but it could also be that we see another player.”
The same applied to the other position that became the subject of discussion after the 2:3 against Turkey, the position in the center of midfield. There, Ilkay Gündogan and Joshua Kimmich once again didn’t work well together, and the question on Monday evening was whether a clear defensive-minded player might make sense given the strengths of the Austrians coached by Ralf Rangnick. “Of course we think about it a lot,” said Nagelsmann, but Nagelsmann didn’t want to answer what that could actually mean until after the final training session. “I have a very close look at it.”
Overall, Nagelsmann gave a tighter-lipped impression than during the trip to the USA in October. “I think we would all do well to put the publicity out of our minds for now,” he said. “It’s about us being convinced of the path we’re taking and making the games positive.” He said in his opening sentence that a win would be helpful, especially given the four-month break before the next international matches . “We want to win, that would be really good!”
In the search for the necessary ingredients, the aspects of defensive stability and emotionality that were missing on Saturday were discussed again. As far as the former was concerned, the national coach warned once again not to “want too much too quickly” in order not to become embarrassed by the situation, even if he indicated that a lot of good things came together with the Turkish goals, while his team did in terms of the quality of chances and that The value of the “expected goals” was actually at an advantage.
A comment from Christian Kamp, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 27 Tobias Rabe, Berlin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 7 Christian Kamp, Vienna Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
As far as emotionality is concerned, he spoke of the team’s “self-regulation”; he had taken up corresponding voices from the team with his statements in Berlin and was now focusing on “having as many players as possible on the pitch who are prepared to take responsibility without that it distracts from the actual task.”
In general, Nagelsmann did not want to give too much space to the negative tenor of the past few days. He preferred to talk about the approach to a positive spin. “We have to work for this flow and not fall into the role of victim,” he said, “then the tide will turn again.”
