Julian Nagelsmann is already under pressure before his debut as national coach. At the USA and afterwards he will rely on veterans like Mats Hummels. Joshua Kimmich, on the other hand, will probably be out.
Julian Nagelsmann’s choice of words was not suitable for American ears. “If you lose, everything is…”said the new national coach before his debut game against the USA. It sounded in the “ESPN“-Video a long beep that signals that a vulgar word was spoken. A defeat in the premiere as DFB head coach with the DFB team on Saturday (October 14th, 2023, from 9 p.m. in the live ticker) with almost 40,000 spectators sold out Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field Hartford would actually be indescribably bad for Nagelsmann – and cause for swearing.
Friendly games There is no longer
Football Germany is suffering so much from the agonizing lack of success. That’s why the great hope Nagelsmann prefers to talk about winning before kick-off. “This is the most important topic to get a good mood. In football it’s always like that, when you win, everything you did before was good” said the 36-year-old.
“What comes with the situation that we have lost a lot is that we don’t sell these friendly games as such. We definitely want to win and get off to a good start“said Bayern veteran Thomas Müller.”To stoke the fire that can carry the country at the home European Championships, two wins may not be a basic requirement, but they would be very important“Müller’s friend and DFB returnee Mats Hummels argued in the same vein.
Now only short-term success counts
Nagelsmann’s coordinates are clear. Momentum trumps perspective. And extra tactical loops do not bring any additional profit on the project path to the home European Championship in 2024. “He mentioned this two or three times knowing that he didn’t want to make it too complicated“, reported Müller, who otherwise noticed few changes at Nagelsmann compared to his time at Bayern, which ended with a bang in March.
Nagelsmann knows how much an opening win would set the mood in the right direction. Otherwise, he can also ask Rudi Völler directly, who quickly promoted him to the national coaching job in September and is closely monitoring developments in the USA. Under team boss Völler, Germany won the first game in 2000 against Spain 4-1 in a similarly bleak situation – less than two years later, Germany found itself, completely unexpectedly, in the World Cup final against Brazil in Japan.
Müller: Responsibility for the EM atmosphere is “cheese”
Football Germany needs similar euphoria again. Even if Müller can no longer tolerate the demands on the national team to be responsible for the mood in the country. “But I don’t believe that we always have to fight for every fan’s favor and always create a sense of optimism. I called it cheese and it’s still cheese. We are there so we have to concentrate fully on winning games. The games create a spirit of optimism“, he said.
“You can do team building events, you can push all sorts of things, but success on the pitch is what bears fruit“, said Hummels. The last national coach to date to lose an opening game was Erich Ribbeck in a 1-0 defeat in Turkey in 1998. An existing parallel to Ribbeck’s time should not be an obstacle to success. 28.5 years on average. That’s how old it was The last time a DFB team was under “Sir Erich” was at the end of the 1990s. The team oldies Müller and Hummels, world champions together in Rio 2014, are symbols of the commitment to maturity under Nagelsmann, who is just two years older. There are twelve professionals There are 30 in the 26-man squad.
Success through more consistency and “Basic principles” in the lineup
On the one hand, quickly creating stability and at the same time enabling the desire to attack again – these are the current footballing challenges. Attentive observers were able to determine in the short camp on the US East Coast: 4-2-2-2. This is the system formula with which Nagelsmann wants to achieve both. This “Basic principles”as Nagelsmann would say, were missing at the sad end of the hapless era of predecessor Hansi Flick.
Kimmich-Aus is threatening
“A big keyword is that we find the right positions in our group as a team in the various processes“, said Müller. Nagelsmann will rely on an axis that does not necessarily include Müller, but alongside captain Ilkay Gündogan and his favorite Munich player Joshua Kimmich in the headquarters.
The national coach may have to do without Kimmich at his premiere. The Bayern Munich midfielder was missing the final training session with a cold and his appearance in Hartford appears questionable.