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Page 1 — The reboot after the reboot before the reboot
Page 2 — New plans for Kimmich
There are only six months left until the opening game of the European Championship and the brainstorming phase should actually be completed. But Julian Nagelsmann’s renewed chat suggests otherwise. What kind of appearance was that on ZDF?gym? An interview? A review and outlook? A justification? Did he announce decisions or just think out loud? In any case, German football fans should quickly add tarot cards to their wish list if they want to correctly interpret the statements of their national coach.
There was a little bit of everything. Sometimes Nagelsmann responded to Jochen Breyer’s questions, sometimes he asked them himself, sometimes he mused about changes to the game system. If Nagelsmann had opened it, it could have been seen as a signal for a 4-2-3-1.
Like communion
One central sentence could cause you particular concern because it revealed how Nagelsmann sees his job. “You have a big advantage as a national coach: you can always reassemble the squad,” he said. He sounded like a Comunio online manager.
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With the decision to put Kai Havertz in defense, Julian Nagelsmann demonstrated his willingness to experiment. Since then, the nation has been debating whether that was a good idea, where Havertz is better off and which full-back is really better? In general, there are many vacancies due to the many changes in recent years. It has rarely been so unclear what the German team will look like in the next tournament.
In a special episode “You Can Kick,” the ZEIT ONLINE sports editorial team gives free tips. Our football podcast usually discusses one player in detail each time. This time the two hosts Christian Spiller and Oliver Fritsch line up their German team – and explain their selection.
Germany may be missing the outstanding individual players of 2014, when four players were world class. But Germany has enough good players to compete against Austria or Turkey. Spiller is relying on a new defensive formation that includes “the most underrated German footballer”. And Fritsch basically wants “diamonds to be easy every now and then”, but also suggests a player who no one publicly has on the bill.
The national coach just has to listen (and decide on one of the two options), then things can still work out with the home European Championships next year. You’re welcome.
Write us! We accept criticism of the show and suggestions for Mister X at [email protected]. “He can kick” is the football podcast from ZEIT ONLINE. It appears every two weeks and is dedicated to the best footballers of our time. We talk less about tactics and more about what really matters in football: the individuality of the players. You can find all episodes of the podcast here, all Powercard ratings here.
Scenes and texts we talked about in the episode:
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However, what he declares to be the advantage of his office is the task at which he has so far failed. A trainer should quickly recognize his framework in which tasks and hierarchies are distributed and clarified. His predecessor couldn’t do exactly that in two years. Did the new guy learn from it? You would expect it from someone who earns more than some DAX board members. Also that he thought about it before taking office and presented his plan. But after this appearance in Mainz, doubts grow.
Rather, there is a fear that the national coach’s flood of ideas will not subside. That he will even implement them. Maybe he’ll soon put Bastian Schweinsteiger in goal. A few months ago that was just as unthinkable as left-back Kai Havertz. Nagelsmann has now ended this much-discussed experiment, although according to him it went well. It is probably one of the few experiments that is discontinued because it was too successful.
Then the name Kroos appears
Nagelsmann looked like someone who wanted to build a cupboard but had the instructions for a table in his hand. And you could hear him talking about the architecture of a chest of drawers. The appearance in gym was his rhetorical longboard moment. He praised Breyer twice for understanding his explanations. It should appear edgy and confident in the face of the sporting crisis, but it could also be that it will come back to haunt him like a boomerang next year.
For example because of Toni Kroos. He resigned in 2021, has since commented on the events in his podcast from his Madrid villa and has shown no discernible comeback ambitions since then. Only Antonio Rüdiger recently joked about it. Nagelsmann, who has the same advisor as Kroos, now sees Kroos’ return as an “interesting thought”. So can club colleagues with gags be put back on the agenda?
There are only six months left until the opening game of the European Championship and the brainstorming phase should actually be completed. But Julian Nagelsmann’s renewed chat suggests otherwise. What kind of appearance was that on ZDF?gym? An interview? A review and outlook? A justification? Did he announce decisions or just think out loud? In any case, German football fans should quickly add tarot cards to their wish list if they want to correctly interpret the statements of their national coach.
