Annual balance sheet
Julian Nagelsmann’s statement after the German national team’s next weak performance resonated: “We won’t be defensive monsters in the summer either,” said the national coach on “ZDF” after the 2-0 defeat in Austria. What he probably meant by that was what he had said in advance: The time until the home European Championships in the summer is too short, the mountain of work to be done is too enormous. Studio neighbor Per Mertesacker was annoyed by the statement, but a look at the statistics could also show a certain realism with which Nagelsmann approached his task. According to numbers, the German defense has never been weaker in the last 67 years than it is this year. In the TM community, solutions arise, but also anger.
The national team’s annual record shows a catastrophic average of two goals conceded per game – 22 in eleven games. The DFB team was already at this level in the Corona year 2020, but in significantly fewer games and including a 0:6 against Spain. To find an even worse value, you have to go back in history to 1956. In the TM statistics, the national team’s balance sheets can be traced back to the beginning of 1908. In the year of the first ever international matches, the German selection also had the weakest goals conceded ever. Today the team also has such a poor points average in one year as rarely before.
All national coaches according to points average: Weak Nagelsmann start
“Everyone who understands football knows that defense is not defense and offense is not attack, but that everything always works together,” commented Mats Hummels on the situation after the Austria game, when asked about the lack of unity in the defense and in the entire team. The colleagues at the front also had to blame themselves for the fact that the Austrians were able to counterattack too often. Goalkeeper Kevin Trapp denied the ÖFB kickers, who were still powerful, an even greater victory in Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, especially in the final phase.
Community discusses DFB defense: “The hour from Tah, Thiaw, Koch & Anton must beat”
Hummels was only part of the German defense in two games this year. Apart from the Austria game, the Dortmund player escaped the team’s biggest defeats, such as the 1:4 against Japan and the 2:3 against Turkey. In the TM community, user “dude23” still wants a permanent replacement for the 34-year-old, who played his 78th international match: “Now the hour has to come for Tah, Thiaw, Koch and Anton. Hummels must finally retire. And Rüdiger at least needs a break to think.”
TM user “Marcelinho1000” refers to Nagelsmann’s “defense monster” statement and asks: “How do you determine that? Are our defensive players not good enough? Players from Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, AC Milan, RB Leipzig, etc.” All national coaches in the recent past have placed too little focus on the defense. “Only Völler (as interim coach against France (2:1), editor) chose such an approach. Result? With complete success! The team defended courageously and was very stable against the individually strong French. Coincidence? Certainly not.”
Weak DFB defense: Mertesacker points to stable Austrians
After the 2:3 against Turkey, Nagelsmann actually strengthened the defense. Leon Goretzka came on as protection in front of the central defenders. Hummels, as another force in the center of defense alongside Antonio Rüdiger and Jonathan Tah, should bring more stability to the German game. But the opposite was the case, the defense was shaky and vulnerable, and the opponent was also motivated and well organized – also defensively. “I saw an idea in Austria, a stable defense, a clear back four, two sixes in front, but they also kept looking for and finding Gregoritsch up front,” ex-national player Mertesacker summed up.
The TV expert, who played more than 100 international matches in his career, emphasized Nagelsmann: “He talked about a lot of work. A focus should really be on the fact that we have to think a lot about the transition from offense to defense. We have to defend much better together. Just going on the offensive and putting seven or eight offensive players on the pitch won’t help us. We need a balance so that we have at least five or six defensive players on the pitch who are more concerned about defense.”
In the TM community you can read a lot of frustration in the user posts, at least the Austrian community member “oopa_AUT” enjoyed the game and wrote: “Rarely have we seen a team that can be outplayed with such simple balls. If a Gregoritsch, who is really not a sprinter, runs past the defense three times because A the IV is standing there like pillars of salt and B there is no pressure at all on the passer, then that is a declaration of bankruptcy for German football and for Nagelsmann.
For me, the difference between a good and a bad coach is very easy to explain:
The bad coach (ideally) has an idea of the game, system, direction, etc. from which he does not deviate. He is so confident in himself and his system that he tries to implement it with all his might, no matter which players (types) are available to him. Furthermore, for him the world only revolves around himself and his incredible competence.
The good trainer looks at…
To home page