World Cup: Uli Hoeneß criticizes national coach Nagelsmann

“That wasn’t okay”

Hoeneß renews criticism – Nagelsmann responds

There is a lot of discussion about the World Cup nomination of national coach Julian Nagelsmann. One thing in particular bothers Uli Hoeneß.

Uli Hoeneß has criticized the communication surrounding the nomination of the German World Cup goalkeeper by national coach Julian Nagelsmann. “That wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair,” said the 74-year-old honorary president of FC Bayern Munich in the “Spiegel” top-level discussion. It was a mistake to announce the decision in the spring that Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann would be number one in the DFB goal.

Nagelsmann is now planning to use the currently injured Bayern captain Manuel Neuer as the starting goalkeeper for the World Cup finals starting on June 11 in Canada, Mexico and the USA. The appointment of Neuer and the demotion of Baumann as the previous number one in the German goal had sparked a lot of discussion. In terms of sport, Hoeneß defended the goalkeeping order. A week ago he had already described Neuer as the best. But he also said that he felt sorry for Hoffenheim keeper Baumann.

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Hoeneß repeated his criticism of Nagelsmann for not using the past international matches to play. “You would have had to let a team play together three, four, five times to form them into a unit,” said the 74-year-old. Hoeneß said this was not a personal criticism, but rather a “factual and professional criticism”.

The German squad is “good, but not world class”. Hoeneß cannot understand the fact that DFB captain Joshua Kimmich plays as a right-back in the national team and not in midfield as he does at FC Bayern Munich.

“I definitely wouldn’t burn Joshua, who played an outstanding season in FC Bayern’s midfield, because as a right-back he can’t give the game as much impetus and be a leader as he is at FC Bayern – and the national team needs leaders,” said Hoeneß. His dream line-up for the midfield center is the “Bayern block” with Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlović.

Nagelsmann reacted calmly. “The important thing is what I discuss with Joshua and that he knows what his job is and that he is fine with it. And he is. If you saw his influence in his role at the European Championships and in the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia, where he made great strides as a leader, I am very fine with my communication with Joshua,” said the national coach on the Sky microphone before the DFB Cup final between FC Bayern and VfB Stuttgart.