Coach fights for his reputation
The darkest darkness surrounds Julian Nagelsmann
By Tobias Nordmann
November 26, 2023, 7:32 a.m
The German national soccer team is taking a long break with two poor performances. This is particularly bitter for national coach Julian Nagelsmann. Wild discussions are breaking out around him and he can’t do anything about it.
It will be long, very long months for national coach Julian Nagelsmann. And he can’t help but stay in defense mode. Until March, the 36-year-old was unable to come up with any arguments that would give the frustrated football nation new hope. Only then can we go back to the pitch and only then can faith in the summer fairy tale be rekindled. Until then, the discussions will blow up in his face. Is he the right man? Is he overtaxing his team? Does he still reach her?
Yes indeed. This cabin topic is also floating around again. How it once became oversized at the end of his time at FC Bayern. The coach and the dressing room, that’s a nice new journalistic story. She is almost always called upon when there is a crisis somewhere. So now on to the national team. It is so deep in the shaft that one has long since lost track of whether the lowest point has been reached. Whether the friendly community of fate has already approached daylight again.
“Planless, helpless and unimaginative”
As soon as the shockingly weak games against Turkey (2:3) and Austria (0:2) were over – they had left Bayern patriarch Uli Hoeneß, among others, stunned and perplexed – and the focus turned back to the Bundesliga, they fired Critics come out on all cylinders again. The gang’s always active boss, Dietmar Hamann, raged: “At the moment we are in nowhere. I was in Vienna on Tuesday and it was shocking. It was shocking how planless, helpless and unimaginative the German team was.” Nagelsmann is also to blame for this. “You can’t play against a good Austrian team with three defenders and seven offensive players,” said Hamann. “What worries me is that the national coach had six or seven games before the European Championships and four are over. After these four games he knows less than before. Trying things only brings something if it works. At the moment that’s all we know that nothing works.”
Back in October, you had the feeling that it could be bright again for this team that has been in the dark since the 2018 World Cup and can only occasionally shake the wetness from its body for a short time. But this team is as far away from a long dry spell as the nation of Germany is from collective satisfaction. And so Nagelsmann feels this black and white of the assessment faster than he could explain his tactical approach with Kai Havertz, who is defending on the left.
A presentation that hardly anyone understands
But what does fast actually mean here? After the defeat against Turkey, Nagelsmann lost himself in a long presentation about what he actually wanted to achieve with his experiment. He lost many listeners along the way. And whether anyone actually understood it in detail? Questionable, but no matter. The only important thing is that the players understand what the coach wants from them. Did it work out? Of course you don’t know. But the team heard that the coach wasn’t demanding too much of them. Mats Hummels said something like this.
Those who are very close to the team report that the national players would like to see more defensive players on the field. The balance between sophisticated people and “workers,” as the national coach called them, was not right. This became all too obvious on the field. His criticism of the defensive abilities (“They are not defensive monsters”) was not well received internally, it was said. Some players would like the coach to discard his complex ideas in favor of a more pragmatic approach.
A possible overtaxing of the team was identified as a major risk when the first rumors emerged that Nagelsmann had become the successor to the increasingly perplexed Hansi Flick. The coach was always particularly good when he had a lot of time to develop young teams and young players. In daily work. But he doesn’t have that at the DFB. The courses are rare and short. Practicing large variations is hardly possible. After the mediocre performance against Turkey and the desolate performance against Austria, this discussion caught up with him again. He himself defends himself against it as best he can. Talks about a simple approach. But the way he explains himself and his plan seems the opposite, at times aloof. Not approachable, hardly understandable.
The craze for experimentation in German football was a big topic this year. Too big for Flick, he flew in September. With a view to the home European Championships, everything should be focused on hierarchy, stability and routines. But no trace of it. Nagelsmann also tried and tried. After his encouraging debut trip with the national team to the USA with the games against the Americans and Mexico, the testing phase seemed to be over and the consolidation phase had been reached. Puppy cake.
The burden of Rudi Völler’s lightning comeback
And as if the mortgage wasn’t big enough after this international year, there was Rudi Völler’s lightning appearance as one-game national coach. There was a win against France, of all places. Against this ensemble, full of world-class players, who, however, didn’t seem very motivated. But whatever, hook. It was a game that aroused the feeling: It’s possible. It was simple and passionate. Football was suddenly not a science, but an exciting game. And Völler is a candidate for more. Even if he politely declined.
For Nagelsmann, this is a board that he had nailed to his shoulder and now carries around with him. For him, it’s not just about the state of the national team, but also about his own reputation. Through his stints at 1899 Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, he had earned the status of being one of the most exciting coaches in Europe. The world seemed to be his oyster. His path led to FC Bayern with a record transfer fee. He was supposed to stay there for five years. The club bosses were completely infatuated with the idea of finally having signed a man for an era. The last one was Josep Guardiola before he voluntarily withdrew.
Will history repeat itself?
But the time in Munich ended in failure after less than two years. In terms of sport, it was solid, but not brilliant. But that was less his downfall than the mood in the club, which had become increasingly uncontrollable after the failed World Cup in Qatar. In the summer, Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge pulled the emergency brake. They intervened in the operational business from retirement and fired Oliver Kahn and Hasan Salihamidžić. Nagelsmann had long since left, having been shown the door by the nervous bosses. A decision that is still not well received by rescue pensioners. Even if you can live very well with his successor Thomas Tuchel, despite a summer disagreement over transfer policy.
But a second project with Nagelsmann is in danger of not ending with the result that had been defined. In this case: a second summer fairy tale. There’s still time, of course. Only the 1:4 against Italy in 2006 is unpacked again and again. Jürgen Klinsmann and his team were torn apart, a few weeks before the home World Cup everything was terrible. This even led to some members of the Bundestag wanting to quote Federal Jürgen before the Bundestag’s sports shot. Things became different. Will history repeat itself?
The belief in it is still smoldering on a low flame. The next disaster awaits the DFB team and the habituation effect sets in. Nagelsmann, on the other hand, is likely to tumble down a few steps on the career ladder. The once most exciting coach in Europe would be disenchanted. There’s nothing he can do about it until March. Maybe he should hide in a dark shaft until then, at least then he can’t fall in. Darkness reigns until spring.