The new concept is in place. But does it work? In the stress test against France, the national coach wants to send a strong signal after his false start. He declares “pressure” to be a bad word in the EM countdown.
Julian Nagelmann took the steps to the blue podium with the rooster on the French coat of arms with a big stride. Pressure? Fear? Make you afraid? The national coach brushed aside all of these negative views on the greatest possible endurance test against the big European Championship favorites France with a passionate appeal for the joy of football.
“We gave the game a title. It’s: ‘We’re kicking,'” said Nagelsmann before the final training session in the still empty Groupama Stadium in Lyon. The motto for the German national team’s guest appearance on Saturday (8 p.m./ZDF) with the World Cup finalists is “simple”. And for a good reason.
“I don’t like this ‘what if?’ “That’s no use to us. There’s life, it’s big. And there’s football, and it’s always fun. If it crushes us, then we’ll stop playing football,” said the 36-year-old. “It’s not politics,” it’s not about fate or the jobs of 30,000 people. “We’re trying to win. And if we don’t win, we’ll try to win again on Tuesday,” said Nagelsmann.
The surprising thesis: It’s not the result against France that matters for him. The national coach assured that they would only be able to be measured at the home European Championships in the summer. But pressure? No, that shouldn’t be the issue. Nagelsmann presented these philosophically tinged insights with great verve. He continued his plan to lead the national team out of the crisis with simple, clear principles.
The fuss about pink jerseys, the historic change of supplier from Adidas to Nike (“not my construction site”) and the general football doubts at home seemed far away when Nagelsmann went to the last training session with Ilkay Gündogan. He called the captain, along with the young stars Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, his “three magicians”. There are no more tactics in the final training. Just having fun with seven on seven. Of course, the national coach cannot ignore the storming power of PSG superstar Kylian Mbappé as the greatest possible threat to his radical restart plans.
Feedback from the World Cup finalist
What Nagelsmann made clear: He will no longer deviate from his course. “We had a lot of time to discuss what was needed. You don’t get immediate feedback as to whether it’s working,” he said, describing the debates among his coaching staff. In spring-like Lyon he will receive feedback from the highest football authorities from the Équipe Tricolore.
A defeat with a high humiliation factor against the World Cup runner-up and big European Championship favorites, like the recent 2-0 defeat in Austria, would dramatically weaken Nagelsmann’s position shortly before the home tournament. All the nice ideas would be exposed as wishful thinking.
Apparently, Nagelsmann has decided on a starting eleven in a way rarely seen by a national coach. He is thus steering his thoroughly stringent leadership course towards the European Championships. “It’s about giving the players a certain security, a clarity,” he said. But does it work at the push of a button? Against a football superpower? After the many disappointments.
In the short training period visible to the media, he formed clear working groups before departing for Lyon. The conclusion: Marc-André ter Stegen in goal replaces Manuel Neuer, who was injured again shortly before his comeback, but who remains number one for the European Championships despite his torn muscle fiber, as Nagelsmann assured. “The decision does not change,” said Nagelsmann in Lyon.
Defending in front of ter Stegen on Saturday in the new white and not the pink European Championship jerseys are Joshua Kimmich, Jonathan Tah, Antonio Rüdiger and Stuttgart’s Maximilian Mittelstädt, who is the only one of the four remaining newcomers who is allowed to play straight away. The man from Stuttgart convinced him. “Cheeky” and yet “humble” – the national coach likes this combination.
A worker as Kroos’ sideman
Almost three years after his resignation from the DFB, returnee Toni Kroos has a high-hitting six at his side in Robert Andrich. Gündogan plays in an offensive diamond with his magician colleagues Musiala and Wirtz and striker Kai Havertz. In attack, that sounds more like delicate football than the “worker” mentality that Nagelsmann missed so much.
If the anti-pressure attitude against France does not produce a respectable result, it will of course be questioned why the DFB head coach forgoes the experience of Mats Hummels, Niklas Süle and Leon Goretzka. On the substitutes’ bench, Leipzig’s David Raum, with 19 international matches, is the most experienced player behind one prominent exception.
Her name is Thomas Müller, with 126 international matches since 2010. “When I play, I’ll be on fire. And if I don’t play right from the start, then I’ll be on fire too,” said the Bayern professional, who obviously goes on holiday as late as possible in the summer wants “Sports Illustrated”. His former club coach Nagelsmann will love these words.
Müller knows the France key
Müller also knows how to beat France. In the 2-1 win under Rudi Völler as interim coach in September, he scored the important 1-0. He also scored in the last win in France in February 2013, also a 2-1. It is the small statistical facts that German football hopes are currently relying on.
The French can fight against it. They have lost just one game since losing on penalties in the World Cup final to Lionel Messi’s Argentina just before Christmas 2022 in Qatar. Precisely the test in Dortmund six months ago, which was less important for them in the ongoing European Championship qualification. Mbappé was on the bench for 90 minutes. This time France’s long-time successful coach Didier Deschamps, who can lose just as badly as Nagelsmann, no longer has any reason for closed periods in the European Championship countdown.
dpa
#Subjects
