On the stands of the Veltins Arena there will be grumbling and scolding when Hansi Flick’s national team play in front of at least 45,000 spectators on Tuesday evening for the “atmosphere final” (table football) against Colombia, that much is already clear beforehand. However, this does not necessarily have to do with the performance of the team and the difficult phase it is in, but above all with the laws of nature. Because capacity was limited for the 1000th international match of the DFB in Bremen last Monday, the association has now invited its former national players to Gelsenkirchen, where there is more space. More than 50 guests had already confirmed their attendance a week ago, so nothing is more logical than a Babylonian jumble of critical expert opinions to be heard in the VIP rooms. Old internationals naturally know better, which is one of the reasons why Lothar Matthäus is a sought-after man on all media fronts.
“Matthäus hands out against Flick”, “Matthäus shoots against Kimmich and Flick”, “Matthäus: Flick urgently needs to change that”. That’s what some headlines read in the press review on Monday by the chief commentator, who is a personal friend of the national coach, but also a veteran footballer with incorruptible expertise – and the task of expressing a pointed opinion.
Most recently, Matthäus complained about the many experiments of the national coach on RTL: “Back and forth, back three, back four: As a player, I also want to have certainty at some point as to how the coach thinks of me. What job does he give me? What trust do I have?”
In addition to Gündogan and Kimmich, Malick Thiaw also receives a commitment guarantee
How Flick is doing now that he is hearing and reading everywhere what he has done wrong again has been revealed by another prominent old international who, as acting DFB sports director, is firmly at the side of the national coach. In his defense speech for Flick at the weekend, Rudi Völler not only guaranteed a job for the coach, but also sympathetically reported “from his own experience”: “If you are praised and patted on the back, it’s a bit more pleasant. Of course it is not nice for Hansi now. It might feel a bit unfair.”
Flick himself bravely countered on Monday that he was still “a lot of fun” with the job and that it was “everything wonderful”. What is happening to him is “part of football and part of life”. He sent a defiant message to the critics: “I go my way uncompromisingly.” Contrary to the prevailing opinion, he “saw progress” in the 0-1 lost game in Poland, the coach insisted.
Flick admitted that the game against Colombia was “very important for our path and our development” given the recent extremely poor record. The national coach is aware that a win should take precedence over the test result for the head of the laboratory in order to calm the spirit of the people: “It’s really about the result,” he said and promised to focus on the offensive game. In addition to Ilkay Gündogan and Joshua Kimmich, Malick Thiaw also received a commitment, and Flick was silent on the rest of the line-up. Anyway, there’s grumbling.