The German national team makes an unexpected step backwards against Hungary. The DFB managers around national coach Hansi Flick and director Oliver Bierhoff are seriously concerned.
It remains to be seen whether it is the aftermath of a long season of league games and Champions League games? Or is there more of a structural problem within the German national team?
But what can already be said: After the rather fortunate 1-1 draw against Hungary and the three hardly encouraging appearances in the Nations League At least the enthusiasm that recently prevailed around the new national coach Hansi Flick has turned into disillusionment. Three draws in a row (1-1 against Italy, 1-1 against England) are not what everyone involved imagined beforehand. Even Flick cannot simply eliminate the team’s most fundamental problems, which even his predecessor Joachim Löw despaired of.
basic criticism
“We simply built up without conviction, we were too sluggish in building up the game. We made it relatively easy for the opponent to be compact.”said DFB director Oliver Bierhoff after the game in the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
And the national coach didn’t even try to embellish what was shown. “It was a step backwards for us in terms of the result and the way we approached the game”, said Hansi Flick. Extremely sobering assessments by those responsible, as they criticize fundamental factors and approaches of their players to the style required by Flick.
We simply built up without conviction, were too sluggish in building up the game. We made it relatively easy for the opponent to stay compact
Lack of concentration and positional errors
And: Again, the German team had to concede a goal. But even more worrying was the fact that Hungary – like England recently – had the best chance of winning the game towards the end of the game.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved his team from bankruptcy again. “It’s usually the case that when a goalkeeper is outstanding, something is wrong in the game. I’ve said it many times, Manu is an absolutely world-class goalkeeper and he just saved that point for us in Budapest today, captured it “said Flick.
But not only the lack of concentration and position errors in the DFB-Defensive should let the alarm signals go off at the national coach. In the offensive area, too, anything but optimism is appropriate from the start of the build-up game: there was no joy in playing, moments of surprise or even emphatic dribbling. On the contrary.
Cross and back passes determined the German game in particular. The result: The attacking game ended early in midfield. “If you look at the statistics – I don’t think we have a lot of goals. We can do a lot better than that.”said Flick.
Kimmich and Goretzka went into hiding
There was almost nothing to be seen of Josuha Kimmich and Leon Goretzka in the central defensive midfield, they simply could not assert themselves against the Hungarians, who were strong in the tackle. Jamal Musiala in front of the two sixes tried every now and then to use his ball skills for his team with his snake-like movements. But he was also unable to set any emphatic accents.
And at the top of the attack, Timo Werner, who had been weak for months, had been hanging in the air. “I would let it go under the fact that we completely lack conviction in the team. It’s true that he has a lot of effort and tries to put the opponent under pressure. That he always offers himself. But we just don’t have enough chances to score”said Flick, looking at his only “nine” in the team.
Neuer wants to “ignite rocket”
Captain Manuel Neuer had to watch the sometimes agonizingly lengthy game of his colleagues from behind. He must have questioned his announcement that he wanted to be world champion this year at the latest this evening from Budapest.
“You saw today that we’re not quite there yet. We’re learning from that. We’ve already seen good sides of ourselves against Italy and England. We have to take that into the game against Italy. We want to ignite a rocket there.”, said the DFB captain. There was no conviction on his face.