National coach Hansi Flick starts the international match year 2023 with several new players, he is giving some established players a break. Record national player Lothar Matthäus finds it difficult to understand some of the decisions.
The first nomination of national coach Hansi Flick after the World Cup debacle left Lothar Matthäus with “many question marks”. “You have to ask Hansi himself what he was thinking. Do the players want a break? Do they need a break? These Süles, Sanés, and whatever their names are,” he asked himself on “Sky”.
The national coach had already told leading players like Ilkay Gündogan and Thomas Müller in advance that they would not be there against Peru (25 March) and Belgium (28 March). World Championship drivers Niklas Süle, Antonio Rüdiger, Leroy Sané and Jonas Hofmann are also missing from the squad. Hofmann was “disappointed” and said combatively: “As long as I’m back in June everything will be fine.”
Flick brings a number of younger players to the senior national team and caused quite a big surprise. Mergim Berisha from FC Augsburg, Kevin Schade from FC Brentford, Josha Vagnoman from VfB Stuttgart, Marius Wolf from BVB and Felix Nmecha from VfL Wolfsburg can hope for their first appearance.
“The national team must be something special”
“Important players are missing now and others are coming that you don’t actually know at all, who don’t yet have the regular place in the club that you should actually have in order to be able to be nominated for the national team,” Matthäus explained critically: “I still think the national team has to be something special.”
Stuttgart’s Vagnoman, for example, who was surprised by the nomination, is not one of the starting eleven of the relegation candidate under VfB coach Bruno Labbadia. In this Bundesliga season, the soon-to-be new international only played seven games from the start.
Appointment of BVB professional for Matthäus understandable
According to Lothar Matthäus, the nomination of Borussia Dortmund’s Marius Wolf, who has secured his regular place in the back four as a right-back, is understandable: “The performance is right. He comes from the offensive, but I think this position is better. He is a fast and big player, so the full-back position here in Dortmund is better for him.” According to Matthäus, no one played this role in the DFB team at the World Cup.
As hosts for the 2024 European Championship, the DFB selection does not have to play a qualification and instead tests in several friendlies until the home tournament. If Matthäus has his way, you should “somehow have your own tribe now, also with a view to the European Championships”. Flick should “trust the players” who have also belonged to it in recent years”.