What if Thomas Müller always has to play?
The German national soccer team remains a patient and is far from over on the road to full recovery on the way to next summer's European Championship at home. Coach Nagelsmann is missing something elementary in his players.
The contrast could not be greater: The Turkish party night in Berlin, which took place first on the streets of the city, then in the Olympic Stadium, and later on the streets again, was loud, it was emotional. Nothing on this Saturday night was reminiscent of the bleak times of the coronavirus pandemic, when life was restricted and soccer was played in private. This time certainly did not spread joy, but it did provide insights (more on this later) that echoed until this hot November evening.
National coach Julian Nagelsmann was anything but satisfied that evening. In his third game in his new role, the former FC Bayern boss suffered his first defeat. The duel against Turkey was lost 2:3. It was not just a sporting showdown, but also an emotional one. And the Turks won not only in the stands, where they were in the majority, but also on the pitch. Although Germany seemed to have the game clearly under control after 20 minutes, the visitors first fought their way back and then played themselves into a frenzy at times.
"Tactics are secondary, it's always the emotion first"
Nagelsmann saw that. He saw how his team had been put through the wringer by their powerful opponents. He saw how his team allowed themselves to be outplayed far too easily and conceded two great goals to make it 2-1. And he said afterwards: "The tactics are secondary, it's always the emotion first. If you're at 100 percent, you can be much worse tactically. If the emotions aren't there, then you have to be tactically brilliant to still win the game." That is a harsh judgment - and a relief for himself. After all, Nagelsmann had pulled off a big surprise before kick-off by deploying Kai Havertz at left-back. He himself praised his idea to the skies, but this euphoria was quite exclusive to him. Unlike the assessment that his team was emotionally inferior that evening.
The "why" is likely to be a big topic over the next few days. After all, Austria await on Tuesday at the end of the year, an opponent that operates at a similar emotional level to the Turks, but is significantly stronger in footballing terms. That was Nagelsmann's analysis. The neighboring duel should be no less atmospheric than the "away game" in Berlin. How the national coach wants to wake up his team will be one of the big topics in Vienna. He may shuffle his personnel.
Mats Hummels and Thomas Müller may be flushed back into the team. The two former champions sat on the bench all evening in the Olympic Stadium, wrapped up tight. In sporting terms, other footballers could have given the team more, such as the strong Florian Wirtz, whose ball security and overview of the game had carried the German game. Or Jonathan Tah, who had developed remarkably at Bayer Leverkusen. And yet there is something that Hummels and Müller can give the team more than all the other footballers that Nagelsmann has nominated: Emotion.
Nobody broadcasts like "Radio Müller"
That was a great insight from the ghost games. The silence in the stadiums gave the world an impression of how highly frequented "Radio Müller" broadcasts. Throughout, the Munich man drives his colleagues on, organizes the pressing and is the coach on the pitch. In the silence of the men, a problem that Joachim Löw already had to deal with (you can guess how long it has plagued the DFB squad) and for which no sustainable solution has yet been found. Not by Professor Hansi Flick, who completely lost track in his wild frenzy of experimentation. And not from Nagelsmann either, even if his work must be judged much more mildly. After all, the first appearances in the USA in October had given hope that things were clearly looking up, that next year's European Championship at home would be a summer fairytale after all.
Müller's situation is particularly remarkable. Whenever the 34-year-old's great time seems to be running out, someone rediscovers the outstanding qualities of the Bavarian title collector. The old Louis van Gaal mantra "Müller always plays" may no longer apply unreservedly, but "it doesn't work without Müller" seems to hold true. For the national coach, this is a confrontation with the past. Even at FC Bayern, Müller was not always first choice under Nagelsmann. But he couldn't get past him. Thomas Tuchel is currently vying for the role of the veteran in Munich. So far, the role as a valuable wild card has worked out, but the record champions' coach has also hinted that it will not be any easier to comment on Müller's substitute role in the long term. As long as the results are right, however, he has the strongest arguments in his favor.
Of course, this also applies to Nagelsmann, who needs good results just as much as his successor at the record champions. The only problem is that, unlike a club coach, a national team coach has little chance of brightening the mood after setbacks. Bad games reverberate for a long time, allowing debates to grow ad infinitum. FC Bayern, for example, responded to the cup defeat at third-division club 1. FC Saarbrücken with a furious win at Borussia Dortmund. Germany now have Austria in front of them and then a long period in which they will only be an inactive protagonist in the discussions.
"I'm far from seeing everything negatively"
But now there's been the slap in the face from Berlin. The DFB team is far from out of the woods. "We became too lethargic. It wasn't the pressure we wanted to generate against the ball. We weren't aggressive enough. We were simply too passive. That can't be the case," said captain İlkay Gündoğan, who played against his parents' home country for the first time and was loudly booed by the Turkish fans. The FC Barcelona man, who was born in Gelsenkirchen, struggled to maintain possession and security in midfield. But after some good moves at the start, he was no anchor of stability either. And certainly not an emotional leader. Nor is he an emotional leader by nature. Unlike his partner Joshua Kimmich, however, who seems very preoccupied with himself these weeks and doesn't have the influence on the game that he used to have.
"We don't want to analyze the game to death. We won't let it get us down now, it's our job to keep going," said Thomas Müller. With that, the veteran struck a chord with the noticeably irritated national team coach. "We can now start to paint everything black again and see everything in a bad light. We can do that, but we won't get anywhere as a soccer nation," said Nagelsmann. "I'm far from seeing everything in a negative light," he said.
Despite the defeat in Berlin, coach Nagelsmann believes that emotion is more crucial than tactics for the German national soccer team. He might consider bringing back experienced players like Mats Hummels and Thomas Müller to inject more emotion into the team. Julian Nagelsmann, who is missing an emotional spark in his players, will need to find a way to motivate his team before facing Austria, a team that operates at a similar emotional level but is stronger in footballing terms. Berlin, where the Turkey game took place, was filled with emotional frenzy, contrasting the bleak times of the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: www.ntv.de
