Friday 10th December 2021
Bad prospects for World Cup 2022
Flick: Hummels is currently not good enough
Mats Hummels is still a regular player at the European Football Championship in the summer, but the new national coach Hansi Flick has so far done without Borussia Dortmund’s central defender. In an interview with RTL / ntv, the DFB coach explains why this is and what a return to the national team depends on.
Mats Hummels has played 76 international matches for the German national soccer team so far. The most important of his five goals was certainly the decisive one because it won 1-0 against France in the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup. In a few days, the defender will be 33 years old – and after the According to the latest statements by national coach Hansi Flick, the likelihood that Hummels will spend his 34th birthday at the World Cup in Qatar next year has decreased. “At the moment he doesn’t have this level or quality in his game,” said Flick in an interview with RTL / ntv.
Under Flick’s predecessor Joachim Löw, Hummels was eliminated from the national team after the disastrous preliminary round at the 2018 World Cup, but returned at short notice before the EM this summer. There he was in the starting line-up in all three group games as well as in the 2-0 draw in the round of 16 against England. After the coaching change, however, Flick has so far waived the Borussia Dortmund defender in all six games. “I also know, when I see him like that, when I talk to him, that he already has one or two problems,” explains Flick.
Hummels has already been replaced seven times in the current season by his club coach Marco Rose, unusually often for a central defender. Rose spoke of muscular problems, among other things, and knee problems plagued the 1.91-meter man during the EM. No serious injuries, but restrictions that prevent Hummels from reaching the level that has distinguished him for years. “We also know that it has a quality”, Flick keeps the door open for him in an interview with RTL / ntv. Also for everyone else, “who have an enormous quality that takes us further”.
Hummels should definitely benefit from the fact that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which has been severely criticized for its poor human rights situation, will not take place in the summer as usual, but will not start until November 21, 2022. This means that the BVB defender has time to relax and rehearse during the season break. Something that Flick could also welcome. In October he said that Hummels would not be considered, that he could “regenerate a bit, charge the battery a bit” during the international break. Something that is neglected in view of the recurring ailments, the tight schedule and its great importance for BVB. Especially since Hummels has repeatedly emphasized that he would like to play for the national team again.