"Stunned" Hoeneß leaves the DFB team speechless

"Stunned" Hoeneß leaves the DFB team speechless

The DFB squad is in perpetual crisis. The investigation into the causes, which has been ongoing since 2018, has not yet produced any results. So what's going on? Has national coach Nagelsmann lost the dressing room or do they simply need to train harder? In the midst of all the questions, Uli Hoeneß, of all people, is lost for words.

After a week that rounded off a dismal international season with two painful defeats against Turkey (2:3) and Austria (0:2), Germany continues to puzzle over the state of the national team. Once the country's flagship team, it has been on an ever-accelerating downward spiral since winning the 2014 World Cup. The crisis seems endless.

World Cup-winning coach Joachim Löw was succeeded in 2021 by Hansi Flick, who was so successful with FC Bayern. But even he could not stop the fall. After the World Cup disaster in Qatar, which kicked off exactly one year ago with a 2-1 (1-0) defeat to Japan, Flick was given another nine months.

However, another defeat against Japan, this time in Wolfsburg and more emphatically (1:4), ended his tenure after just two years. After a brief interlude with Rudi Völler, the next savior of German soccer appeared in the form of Julian Nagelsmann. After just four games, a successful home European Championship seems almost impossible. Yet that is the DFB's main goal with its president Bernd Neuendorf, who had only declared the final in Berlin as the goal of the European Championship after the defeat to Turkey.

"The paint is off"

The country's 80 million national coaches are puzzled as to why the fall is so hard. That's the way it is in a soccer nation. There is still no answer to the riddle. But different groups are formulating different approaches. Some bold ones are asking whether Julian Nagelsmann has already lost the dressing room, as was allegedly the case at FC Bayern Munich in the spring. However, the bold ones do not bring any real arguments to the table.

Others less daring criticize the tactics and arrogance of the new national coach. He has been rather thin-skinned in recent days, just a few weeks after taking office. He has also deviated from his original plan of simple soccer, with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper asking him this week, for example: "Can't a back four just be a back four?"

Others bluntly blamed the "lack of German virtues" of the national team players for the crisis, while former national team player Holger Badstuber criticized the modern times and came closer to those who will be discussed in a moment. "The paint is definitely off, nothing shines anymore. We have created a generation of players in soccer Germany who are making themselves comfortable at the DFB," Badstuber wrote in his column on web.de: "International matches are just a number on your own business card and obviously nothing worth tearing yourself apart for."

Is Füllkrug simply too bad?

In addition to the primarily politically motivated analysts in the media and social media who blame the supposed disintegration of the country for the DFB team's downfall, another group has now joined them, two days after the disgrace of Vienna. They ask: Has it not been Julian Nagelsmann who has lost the dressing room, but has Germany simply lost an entire generation of players? So does soccer mean less in the lives of young people, and does it also produce less talent?

This group is led by two Bundesliga legends who have already ended their active careers on the sidelines. "At the moment, I have to say this clearly, we are not competitive," wrote 70-year-old Felix Magath, one of the two leaders of this new movement, in the Hamburger Abendblatt, underlining his criticism of the DFB voiced the day before on Sky.

Magath said: "There is a lack everywhere. We can start somewhere now - no matter where. One says defender, the other striker. The third says central defender and the last complains that we don't have a six-man. And everyone is a little bit right somewhere." The master coach had brought himself into play as national coach in September.

Schalke legend Huub Stevens lined up next to Magath. The 69-year-old Dutchman has spent large parts of his now ended coaching career in the Bundesliga. Now he has identified the problem with German soccer: the quality of the players. "With all due respect, of course Niclas Füllkrug has quality. But if he has to play for the national team - I don't know. Don't they have any better ones in Germany?" he asked in amazement in an interview with dpa, singling out the DFB's top goalscorer of the year.

"Practice more!"

Immediately after the defeat in Austria, even the national coach had made similar comments. He did not refer to Füllkrug, but rather linked them to the decision to play left-back Kai Havertz, which was questioned by many. Germany simply don't have any real defensive full-backs, he said, and basically talked about the national team's lack of defensive ability.

However, world and European champion Jürgen Kohler refused to accept this. "It's not enough to say we don't have defensive monsters. Then we just have to practise it! Defending is easier to learn than creativity - and it's a decisive factor in being successful," he said in "Kicker", recommending Nagelsmann a player who can simply get stuck in, someone like Pascal Groß.

Uli Hoeneß is overconfident

The 32-year-old professional from Brighton & Hove Albion had remained on the bench in the last two games after his strong debut on the US tour in October. He is someone "who does the dirty work", said Kohler, opening the door to possible success at the European Championships. He said of Groß: "He runs like a devil, is inconspicuous, but decisive. You need these players because we are good going forward. That's why I don't see black for the European Championship."

However, there is still plenty of time before the next international matches in March, which are currently scheduled to be against France and the Netherlands. The national team will drag the desolate year 2023 into the European Championship year 2024 and the country will think what Uli Hoeneß already formulated in "Kicker" on Wednesday. "I'm stunned by this development and don't know what screws need to be turned to fix this mess in the short term," said the honorary president of FC Bayern. He was probably more honest than all those who are now joining in the guesswork surrounding the crash with their recommendations.

1. Despite the criticism from Felix Magath and Huub Stevens, the German national soccer team continues to struggle, with some questioning if they've lost a generation of talented players, like Niclas Füllkrug.
2. Uli Hoeneß, the honorary president of FC Bayern, expressed his shock over the team's downward spiral after Germany's loss against Austria, and suggested that changes need to be made quickly to improve their performance.
3. In an effort to strengthen their defensive abilities, Julian Nagelsmann, the national coach, is considering bringing in players like Pascal Groß, who are known for their hard work and ability to defend effectively.

Source: www.ntv.de