DIE MANCHAFT; THE DECLINE AND THE WAY FORWARD
The most familiar criticism of the nation is that you don't often see players like Neymar or Ronaldinho, players with the artistic flair the unnecessary dribbles just for entertainment, their football is often seen as raw and basic in well oiled machines. Even if that criticism is to hold, Germany is infinitely successful. They even have the most of separate individual ballon d'or winners (7) and as Muller said that is why you see 4 stars on their shirt.
But now the turmoil. Unfortunately things aren't looking good for Die Manchaft, before Germany beat France by 2 goals to one on the 13th of September they were on a 3 game losing streak and had exited two successive world cups in the group stage. This is horrendous for Die Manchaft, but the question is what exactly went wrong?
In 2004 Germany began a project called Das Reboot after falling out of the group stages on 3 successive occasions in 3 separate tournaments. This was a project to move the country's footballing approach from a more physical one to an intricate and technical approach and at the heart of the project were visionaries like Ralph Ragnick, Jurgen Klinsmann and Joachim Low. This quality shows in the amount of skilful and technical players produced by the country from 2006 to now. We saw players like Marco Reus, Toni Kroos and Philip Lahm. This saw fruition in 3 world cups where the country performed quiet well and at the peak of it all Germany conquered the world in Brasil in 2014.
After Rio de Janeiro its all been downhill for the German machine. Euro 2016 was okay perhaps, World Cup 2018 was terrible and Euro 2021 was unimpressive. This marked the end of Joachim Low's tenure. Coming in was a big profile, Hansi Flick. A sextuple winner. Possibly the man who steered the most successful time in Bayern Munich's history. Assistant coach to Joachim Low in Brasil when they conquered it all. The choice could not seem more obvious, however it's been disastrous. After a 4:1 lost to Japan on the 9th of September, Hansi Flick became the first coach in the 123 years of the DFB's history to be sacked.
Germany had seen better days but these dark clouds never seem to pass and there were no visible signs of a silver lining. The million dollar question is exactly what went wrong? The loses compounded, yes, the quality did not show much often, also yes, but there were much fundamental problems aside that. The side just looked lacklustre. Hansi is a high risk high reward coach, He requires expansive football which is very direct and this unfortunately leaves them ajar at the back a lot. This means like at Bayern, Hansi would need to rely on excellent 1 v1 tackling defenders like David Alaba and Jerome at Bayern. Unfortunately all the current crop of defenders could offer you was a good recovery pace. He tried to curb it with a makeshift 3 back defensive formation when they attacked but the problem was still there. That aside Hansi needs a clinical marksman to convert his chances. Robert Lewandowski is and would always be your ultimate Gunman in such situations but in the German national team these qualities in both boxes seem to be subpar or not suitable for Hansi's system.
Now Germany has to move on. They need a breathe of fresh air. They need a ray of hope because the European championship comes in closer and closer. Hansi is gone, he is a good coach but this was the wrong fit. Who would be the knight in shining amor for Germany? Well the obvious answer is Jurgen Klopp. Germany needs an experience hand to steady the ship and no better than loyalty man but loyalty man is all committed to Liverpool for now and is unavailable. Rudi Voller would not also be available for the job as he has already made that very clear.
The DFB has started negotiations with Julian Naglesman. If we learnt one thing from Julian's time at Bayern it is that he is an inventive pragmatic coach. He is idealistic about the future, he likes working with a project in mind. Maybe this is what the country needs, someone to start a new project. Naglesman would work hard to find solutions tactically to any problem the nation faces and would be willing to work on talent development. I think it is the right fit, a necessary change. I hope he says yes and I hope it goes well. Optimistically I say good luck Julian and welcome to the DFB.
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