“His ideas have power”
Everyone celebrates Julian Nagelsmann
By Till Erdenberger
October 15, 2023, 10:29 a.m
Julian Nagelsmann is celebrating a very successful debut as national coach – and is ensuring satisfaction and renewed confidence in the German national football team. Nagelsmann “immediately makes an impression,” they say – and praise his “wonderful manner.”
Julian Nagelsmann has only been national coach for 23 days, but the new one has already achieved what predecessor Hansi Flick was unable to do in many paralyzing months: the German national football team is eight months before the start of the 2024 home European Championship at least one idea of anticipation for the big event emerged.
The 3:1 (1:1) win over the USA also ensures that confidence in their own qualities and a functioning plan has returned. The latter in particular had been lost under Flick, who until the end had declared his measures as an experimental phase and who was never able to provide the increasingly insecure team with a working concept. Now everyone is celebrating Nagelsmann.
“A good start is always the most important thing”
“We had a good week of training,” said DFB sports director Rudi Völler after the successful, sometimes inspiring start to the Nagelsmann era: “Julian conveyed that wonderfully in his carefree way in the training sessions, also in the meetings – just like many players did Of course we know him from the various clubs he has already coached.”
It’s “always the most important thing that you have a very good start, that you start straight away with a really good game. That’s what we did today, that’s the basis of everything.” Völler described Nagelsmann, who has a contract with the DFB until after the end of the European Championship next year, as a “stroke of luck” when he took office.
Niclas Füllkrug, who scored 2-1 in Hartford and prepared the final score through Jamal Musiala, praised: “He’s a coach who has a lot of ideas, who is very ambitious. The things we tackle are the ideas The coach has strength and will take us to the next level.” Flick’s ideas, on the other hand, had no longer caught on by the end of his short era.
“We’ve changed a few things in the last few days. We wanted to have a relatively simple structure. It’s easier to get the simplicity perfect,” goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen said in September after the 2-1 win over runners-up France, the first game of the post-Flick era, quite frankly. And thus admitted that Flick’s meandering between systems and personnel ideas had overwhelmed the team. “We wanted to take a step forward – and I think we did that,” said goal scorer Jamal Musiala, summing up the performance in front of 37,743 spectators.
“It makes an immediate impression”
“We notice that there is someone standing in front of us who has an authoritarian, good demeanor. You can also notice it in the meetings. It is a natural authority, not an artificial one,” said striker Füllkrug. “He can provide everything with explanations and solutions. That immediately makes an impression when you as a player notice that it works.”
Ilkay Gündogan, who was extremely strong against the USA, assured: “We saw that he asked us to play football in a certain way and we are trying to implement that.” Flick and his predecessor Joachim Löw had never found a place where the game designer from Champions League winners Manchester City could be used to maximum profit for the German game. The training under Nagelsmann quickly bore fruit. “We did a lot of good things in such a short time,” said the goalscorer to make it 1-1. The Spanish sports newspaper “AS” summarized: “Nagelsmann brings Germany to life.”
“That’s how fun it is”
RTL expert Lothar Matthäus was also filled with so much unusual joy in the game, especially in the second half: “The game warmed me up, it was a good game. The defense was also better in the second half. A lot of flow, a lot Joy, then also compactness – that’s what makes it fun.”
The praised man himself was happy with his debut, but “not everything was brilliant,” said Nagelsmann. “But that’s good, I still have something to do,” he summed up after the first game on the USA trip. After all, “we’re not here to whistle La Paloma. Now we’ve won one game. And it would be quite good if we won the second one too.” Next Wednesday (2 a.m./ARD and in the live ticker on ntv.de) the DFB selection will play another test match in Philadelphia against Mexico.