“Like hyenas in the bush”
Nagelsmann practices harsh Germany criticism
Updated on 08.09.2025 – 8:13 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Player is loaded
Julian Nagelsmann shows understanding for the whistles of German fans on the one hand. On the other hand, he also has harsh criticism of the audience.
Football coach Julian Nagelsmann has spent the half-time whistles of the fans in the tedious 3: 1 (1: 1) in the World Cup qualification against Northern Ireland. On the one hand you have to show “Understanding for the fans because they expect something else. I think such a ticket also costs a little bit and they want to see others. I can understand that,” he said at RTL: “On the other hand, I can also say that such whistles don’t bring you too much at half -time.”
After a lively start, the German national football team had fallen into passivity in the middle of the first half and had conceded the interim compensation. Many of the 43,169 spectators in the Cologne arena with whistles at half time acknowledged this.
Nagelsmann also criticized the mentality of German fans. “If you do everything together – that’s what we still have to understand in our country – then it usually works much better,” said Nagelsmann. But he does not want to complain. He understands “if someone is dissatisfied, I almost whistled in the cabin on Thursday. Sometimes it is the case.” On Thursday, the DFB team had a lot of embarrassed at 0-2 in Slovakia.
Defender David Raum meanwhile gave an insight into the soul life of some DFB players when playing against the northern Irish. “It was not easy after Thursday. We were disassembled by the media. Some things were wrong. It is completely normal and human that we were shocked for the goal.”
After the goal in Cologne, the DFB team seemed inhibited in its joy. Suddenly she struggled to continue playing the opponent dominant. Nagelsmann also expressed himself to this: “What happened now? We got the balance. Wow! That often happens in football,” said the national coach. “The fans whistled. Wow! It is important now how we react to it”.
Nagelsmann struggled with the reaction of the audience. He put the whistles in a context with the general mentality in Germany. “On the other hand, I also look at games, and I’m not always super satisfied either, but I don’t whistle. Because I think that people do nothing down there. When we all sit in the bush and wait until you can finally bite and say how bad someone is shitty – I don’t think you develop so well as a country”.
Nagelsmann called for a further increase for the upcoming tasks in the World Cup qualification. Due to Bratislava’s embarrassment, this course is only “50 percent satisfactory,” said the 38-year-old. The next one, emphasized Nagelsmann, “should be 100 percent satisfactory”.