Germany’s embarrassment in Austria – no goal, no win, no team

The German national soccer team ends the year with a very weak performance in Austria (0:2). National coach Julian Nagelsmann announces small corrections in the selection of personnel. Workers are in demand.

Mats Hummels sneaked ahead and just managed to applaud the German fans. There were only a few people who came to Vienna anyway, and some of them left the Ernst Happel Stadium before the final whistle, most of them in a hurry at the final whistle.

Hummels and his colleagues had ended a bad year with a very bad international match. The Austrian fans enjoyed both the 2-0 victory and the humiliation of their neighbor, who is considered a big neighbor, and that was true not only in terms of the area and the number of inhabitants, but also in terms of the qualities in the popular sport of football.

Gündogan: “It can’t be any worse right now”

That’s certainly not the case at the moment, and the Austrian fans had a chant ready for it: “The DFB is so fucked.” İlkay Gündoğan had a similar view: “It can’t be any worse right now. Maybe that’s the only positive aspect.”

When captain Gündoğan was replaced by Joshua Kimmich after an hour, he did not hand the armband to his deputy Kimmich, but to Antonio Rüdiger, who also looked puzzled. But there are far, far bigger problems in the German national team than this oddity.

Germany: Rüdiger and Hummels also weak

Basically, the team is the problem, on the one hand because, according to national coach Julian Nagelsmann and many other credible eyewitnesses, they do not appear as a team. On the other hand, because seven months before the start of the European Championship it is difficult to predict what the team will look like.

Even a professional like Rüdiger, who is considered seeded, raises the question of why he is considered seeded. In Vienna, the central defender made glaring mistakes, both in passing and in positioning. Hummels was hardly better, nor was Jonathan Tah as a right-back.

Sané frustrated – red was the logical consequence

Gündoğan successfully disguised his qualities, Julian Brandt even hid them. Center forward Niclas Füllkrug, whose strength is finishing, was unable to finish and barely got the ball.

Leroy Sané, who has been in impressive form for months, appeared frustrated and overly aggressive from the start. His red card for assault wasn’t all that surprising.

“ÖFB team humiliates Germany”

“Strong ÖFB team humiliates Germany,” wrote the Viennese newspaper “Der Standard” in a report rich in graphic language. For example, in the description of the two trainers Ralf Rangnick and Nagelsmann: “Both are considered to be perhaps not consumed by ambition, but at least nibbled at.”

If a football teacher who is at least nibbled by ambition only gets one win from his first four games against good but by no means outstanding teams and concedes an average of two goals, it will probably inevitably cause great annoyance.

Nagelsmann with clear criticism

This could be seen, heard and felt at Nagelsmann on Tuesday (November 21st, 2023). The explanations sometimes became confusing, for example with the constant repetition that he neither wanted to play the “victim role” with the team nor did he see himself in it.

Nagelsmann was harsh but accurate in his criticism of his team when he accused them of a “slow delivery of the game” and “absurd ball losses”. She had to defend too often, and she couldn’t do that, at least not well, and that won’t change until the European Championships.

More workers needed?

According to the national coach, the strength of the German national team is ball control and offensive play. He has no doubts about that and he wants to continue to emphasize these strengths with his focus.

However, he doesn’t need that many players, whose strengths are primarily in ball control and offense. “Maybe we need one less top talent and one more worker,” Nagelsmann borrowed from Freiburg coach Christian Streich, who once used the English word to make fun of youth language.

Nagelsmann suggests a different mix

“Two percent less talent, but two percent more work” – the national coach promised a different selection of personnel.

In March, when we play against France and probably the Netherlands (unless there is a duel against the Netherlands in the preliminary round of the European Championship), everything should be a little different and a lot better.

2023: Only three wins from eleven international matches

This resolution continued throughout the year after the disappointing World Cup in Qatar. But things just got different, rarely better. Of eleven international matches in 2023, only three were won and six were lost. Only in the first, in the 2-0 win against Peru, did the opponent fail to score.

The mood around the national team could hardly be worse, and the national coach has no hope that this problem can be solved externally. Only victories would help, said Nagelsmann: “We have to do it and not babble.”