Japan falls DFB in World Cup horror
National coach Hansi Flick suffers the system damage
By David Beürglich & Stephan Uersfeld, Doha
November 23, 2022, 8:30 p.m
A contrite Hansi Flick, soured players in the catacombs: Germany collapses against Japan in a very short time because the vulnerabilities of the national coaching system are coldly exploited, Flick makes fatal mistakes when switching – and there is an eleven on the field without a goal-scoring striker.
Hajime Moriyasu expected applause. The Japanese coach beamed with satisfaction. He had just brought Germany to its knees with his system change in the second half. The Japanese press thanked him. Hansi Flick received no applause. He had expected nothing else after this debacle at the start of the World Cup. Flick came to explain. He didn’t want to make excuses, he didn’t want to explain this “brutal disappointment” with the unspeakable dispute with FIFA and host country Qatar.
And Flick had a lot to explain. The Flick system was too vulnerable on this dreary evening in the Khalifa International Stadium, which had cooled down to 19 degrees. Only a few German fans had gotten lost in the wide circle anyway and they were silent anyway, giving this performance the dignity of a ghost game during the pandemic. “We made individual mistakes that we simply shouldn’t make. Especially not at a World Cup,” said Flick, who now needs a win against Spain to be allowed to make any mistakes at all after the third group game at this World Cup.
National coach Hansi Flick and the DFB-Elf suffered the system damage. After a good first half, they suddenly collapsed. The winning goal of the Japanese is of course exemplary. Contrary to how Flick put it, this was not just preceded by an “individual error”, but much more. The hit put the finger deep in Germany’s wound. It was not without reason that Flick then referred to “chain behavior”. “We have to do better,” he said. The German team was much too high when the Japanese took a free kick. Niklas Süle canceled the offside, Nico Schlotterbeck lost the running duel with Takuma Asano and David Raum, trotting to the edge of the penalty area, pleaded for offside.
David Raum is not Alphonso Davies
This scene combined some of the flaws of the Flick system. He appeared out of nowhere at Bayern Munich in 2019 and within a few months had turned a downed team into a Champions League winner. One of the key players back then: Alphonso Davies. The Canadian, who moved to Europe as a left winger, found himself only in the left-back position and still plays left winger. He did a double job, giving Flick a man more on offense. And what a. But the problem is: Alphonso Davies is Canadian.
Germany does not have such a player. But Flick wants such a player. Flick loves the asymmetric system, even if it rarely works at the DFB. Because there are no players for it. Leipzig’s David Raum can at least cause a stir up front, but he has neither the pace nor the will of Davies. This is also problematic for the offensive, in which Raum’s high role takes the air out of other players. More on that later.
Without space in defense, the DFB-Elf was dependent on Niklas Süle, Antonio Rüdiger and Nico Schlotterbeck this Tuesday. Which was surprising. After the preliminary round, hardly anyone expected the former Freiburg player Schlotterbeck to play at his new club Borussia Dortmund. The BVB defender had repeatedly dropped the scale of grades in recent weeks and completely lost his rhythm. So the idea of putting him and not Süle with all his experience in the middle and then perhaps calling up Joshua Kimmich or Lukas Klostermann on the right is all the stranger.
Müller is not (yet) in shape
Full-backs have been rare in Germany for years and a national coach can hardly be blamed for that, but it becomes problematic when he overrides the performance principle he formulated earlier and pulls an international class central defender from the middle. Then it gets as adventurous as in this 83rd minute, in which the DFB-Elf was far too high and ran into the next debacle.
Offensively, the DFB-Elf debacled in a very obvious (missed chances) and hidden (please read on) way. Due to Flick’s preference for asymmetry, a kind of back four formed behind the striker Kai Havertz when in possession of the ball in the German offensive: space on the left, then slightly offset next to Jamal Musiala, in the center Thomas Müller with a sphere of action to the right – and on the far right Serge Gnabry. The ten was literally pushed to the touchline and almost taken out of the game. His move in and to the gate? As good as never existed. deep runs? Difficult to go that far out.
Flick also blundered by fielding a Müller who is obviously not in top form after his injury break. The original Bavarian clearly fell behind, made many bad passes and hardly caused any danger. Because he was allowed to work in the headquarters, Jamal Musiala had to move to the left. The teenager did well there, but a Musiala in this form in the middle could have given the German team a goal or two, or at least one or two big chances.
Because the Bayern professional was the only one in the DFB team who knew how to dribbling offensively under pressure, either playing off an opponent or cleverly passing the ball on. He opened up spaces, always showed himself to be flexible and ready to play, moved cleverly and kept the ball in his own ranks with simple passes. The Flick-Elf missed all of that after he had to leave the field. The national coach also took the second technically strong ball processor, İlkay Gündoğan, off the field for no reason (perhaps he wanted to give Leon Goretzka a good start in the tournament) and the build-up play from behind suddenly didn’t work anymore.
Goretzka sees the question of consistency
İlkay Gündoğan had pulled his black peaked cap down over his face in the catacombs of the Khalifa Stadium. In front of the journalists, the man from Manchester City didn’t make a face. “When you make it so easy for the opponents, it’s safe to say we’re too high,” he says. And also: “You have to play such a game down confidently.” Quite subtle criticism of Flick’s alignment of the team and the changes. Gündoğan also criticized that “the maturity is missing or the quality to a certain extent” and that the teammates should have been “even more active” in the end. He was then already sitting on the bench with Musiala.
Flick could also have placed Havertz in attacking central – the position in which the 2021 Champions League winner feels most comfortable – and thus put a real striker on the pitch. For example, the best German attacker in the Bundesliga, Niclas Füllkrug.
After the game in the mixed zone, all the DFB kickers wrestled with the journalists as to how the many missed opportunities could be explained an angry Leon Goretzka and added: “It’s a question of consistency.” Joshua Kimmich explained that “we have to be more ripped off” because “we should have killed the opponent”. You could have “decided the game” several times. He lacked “the effectiveness in front of the box”.
However, no one could answer how to find this callousness and the consequence until Sunday. Perhaps Hansi Flick’s eleven, in his damaged system, simply lacked a player whose daily bread is precisely this goal scoring. There are far fewer opportunities to jump out against Spain.