Nagelsmann hints at big decisions

Julian Nagelsmann is trying to put the gloomy mood surrounding the national team to one side. In ZDF's "Sportstudio", he promotes optimism and has a few good tricks up his sleeve. He throws a few spectacular options into the ring and clears up a fatal sentence.

Judging by the applause Julian Nagelsmann received on ZDF's "Sportstudio" on Saturday evening, the still new national coach still has good credit with the people he wants to inspire with the German national soccer team next summer. At the home European Championship, which is supposed to be a summer fairytale, but is currently evoking nightmare scenarios. In public perception, the DFB team is much closer to the next tournament disaster than to a big surprise.

This is particularly upsetting for Nagelsmann. He is aware of the historic opportunity, for himself and for his footballers. Not everyone gets to experience a home European Championship. And if they do, then at most once in a lifetime. And so he is campaigning for more optimism in the country, even though he knows that the team has an absolute duty to do its bit to turn the atmosphere around. The sometimes appalling performances against Turkey and Austria in November were therefore toxic. "I knew it would be difficult, a very big but also exciting task," said Nagelsmann, who had a few tricks up his sleeve from then on to spread good feelings.

The composition of the team is and remains the big issue. Does Germany have the quality to really join the big boys in 2024, to seriously challenge countries like England, France or Spain? Of course, Nagelsmann was unable to answer this question. But he believes that he can fix the team's serious problems with a few changes to the squad structure. These mainly concern the defense. Neither he nor his predecessor Hansi Flick had managed to close down the back line in the way that was perhaps last achieved at the 2014 World Cup, when the heroic Mats Hummels and Jérôme Boateng cleared everything. Flanked by a Philipp Lahm on the right flank, who at the start of the tournament had still been planned for the six. And this model is now apparently serving as a role model for Nagelsmann.

Havertz experiment officially over

He is apparently thinking hard about a U-turn and wants to remove Joshua Kimmich from the center and place him at right-back. "By making a small adjustment, it's not a 180-degree change, Josh is also a candidate in this position," said Nagelsmann. He had "of course" also spoken to him about it, "I don't think it would be wise for me to sit here and say (it) without informing him." And FC Bayern's driving force is clearly happy with the plan, saying he wants to help where he can.

Nagelsmann also spoke about the left side, where he had recently deployed Kai Havertz. As a mixture of full-back, wing-back and playmaker in disguise. The soccer nation didn't quite understand what the Arsenal player's job was. And now it doesn't have to worry about it any more. The experiment is over. "He didn't play at left back. But that's over. But not because it failed. He played two very good games in that position." He's not saying that because he wants to defend, "but because I'm convinced of Kai Havertz in various positions."

The national coach did not say who would defend at left-back. But it will probably be someone who also regularly performs this task in the bread-and-butter business, i.e. club soccer. After all, defending will become a top national team duty in the coming months. "We have learned good lessons from these games (editor's note: Austria and Turkey). We need to make some changes to the squad structure to become more defensive monsters." He put into perspective the sentence that immediately blew up in his face. He admitted that he had forgotten an important half-sentence in the excitement immediately after the game. It read: "If we didn't change anything in the squad structure. That's the crucial half-sentence that I didn't say then. Shortly after the game, you don't think about what the next squad might look like."

New position for Gündoğan

It was also very important to the national coach that he did not refer to individual players at all, but rather to the composition of a first eleven - whether they would think defensively or more offensively. "You simply have to say that the distribution wouldn't fit one hundred percent for the status we're currently in. That's why we will make adjustments to the structure of the first eleven." Of course, this also applies to the center of midfield, which will now apparently be formed without Kimmich. But with whom? With İlkay Gündoğan? Yes, but not on the six. The captain is to take on a more offensive role in future, as he once did at Manchester City, where he was the conductor of the best team in Europe. This clear distribution of tasks is entirely in line with the playmaker's wishes. He recently emphasized that every player must know "what he has to do on the pitch. Then a symbiosis has to develop," said Gündoğan: "It can't actually be that difficult, because we are a team with character and decency. We don't have anyone who causes problems."

Gündoğan will be backed up by two defensive sixes. Pascal Groß remains a candidate. And perhaps also a world champion? Will Toni Kroos return to the national team? Nagelsmann called this idea an "interesting thought". In the quick Q&A session in the sports studio, he initially didn't want to say any more about it and glibly pointed out that asking questions was against the rules of the game. However, he then emphasized: "You have to think about all players who have a German passport, I think that's my job." But that's not all, Nagelsmann fueled the rumors even more: He had quite frequent exchanges with Kroos, even well before his time as national coach.

Preliminary decision made in goal

He sees Kroos as an outstanding player and an outstanding person who is very reflective and selflessly has an opinion on many topics in soccer. In a team looking for stability and leadership, the man who has achieved legendary status at Real Madrid would certainly be a help. However, they had "not yet discussed the option of a return in such concrete terms. We have spoken about the national team in general. About his impressions," explained Nagelsmann and then added: "I think every German footballer sees a certain appeal in playing a home European Championship." The fact that it sounds as if he has already spoken to Kroos about it is an interpretation. They had not spoken about the current situation. As far as he knows, Kroos also has a German passport and is welcome to show his best performance. "If he shows the best performance, I may call him up again," said Nagelsmann.

A preliminary decision also seems to have been made in goal for the tournament. Long-serving captain Manuel Neuer clearly has the edge over his colleague Marc-André ter Stegen, at least for the international matches against France (March 23) and the Netherlands (March 26). "Manuel is doing exceptionally well, his comeback was a very emotional moment. I think his performances have been outstanding," said Nagelsmann, who also referred to ter Stegen's back surgery. It seems likely that Neuer will return to the DFB goal in March.