DFB-Elf: Which way out Julian Nagelsmann still sees

Of course, the bard Rainhard Fendrich couldn’t be missing from such a triumphant evening. “I am from Austria”, the emotional hymn to his home country, was played by the stadium management in the Ernst Happel Stadium as the red-white-red heroes took their lap of honor. Tens of thousands of flags distributed to all fans in Vienna’s Prater were waved to the beat while the bemused “Piefkes” disappeared towards the cabin wing. From the corner, the DFB players shouted tauntingly, “Goodbye! Goodbye!” and – quite vulgarly, “the DFB is so screwed!” in contrast to.

The Austrians like to call the neighboring comparison with Germany more than a friendly international match. The fully deserved 2-0 was the second success in a row in the “derby” as they say in the Alpine republic – the last time something like this happened was in 1931. Dortmund’s Marcel Sabitzer (29th) and Leipzig player Christoph Baumgartner (73rd) were worth seeing. Austria also won the last meeting, a World Cup test, in June 2018 in the Wörthersee Stadium in Klagenfurt. One would have guessed it back then, but could not have imagined how catastrophically the upcoming World Cup in Russia would end for the DFB team – namely with the group being eliminated from the preliminary round as bottom of the group.

And this time? Before the home European Championships in 2024, this team is on the ground, seems lifeless and lethargic. Julian Nagelsmann, highly praised and hired as a savior after the ultimately leaden Hansi Flick era, has fallen so far so quickly – immersed in problems and puzzles. He puzzles over the quality and enthusiasm of his team, which in turn puzzles over his measures and tactical expertise (even if not publicly). And for all observers, the disastrous overall situation is a complete mystery.

Doom and gloom in the DFB?

For Nagelsmann, the 2-0 defeat means the second defeat in the fourth game – with only one success, the 3-1 win in October in the USA. The two October international matches were intended to be an awakening experience with a view to the home European Championship, at best rousing, while evoking new, long-buried emotions around the national team. The 2:3 against Turkey was a bitter setback that was still sold as a setback. Which can no longer be said after the second off topic three days later.

Dark clouds are gathering after this hearty waddle to the 2023 sweepstakes over the 36-year-old, who was actually hired as a euphorizer. Everything fizzles out, everyone is lost, almost everyone is alienated. His most recent catchphrases were: creating a certain level of energy in the team and thus creating euphoria among the fans. Nagelsmann had particularly impressed upon his players this causal connection in a team meeting after the largely emotionless 2:3 against Turkey, which was not qualitatively better but was more passionate.

And now? The great emptiness, gloom everywhere? Doom and gloom? In fact, yes. 206 days before the start of the home European Championship, which is always talked about as a new summer fairy tale, the national team has had a disastrous test match year with only three successes in eleven games – and six defeats. As on Saturday, Nagelsmann seemed annoyed and annoyed, this time complaining about a “lack of vigilance” and an “absurd number of ball losses”. At least he hadn’t completely ruled out defeat; after all, his plan for the difficult time ahead in the four months until the next international matches in March sounded well thought out.

“We must not fall into the role of victim now, but must accept that we have a lot of work ahead of us,” said the national coach and concluded: “This trip must encourage everyone to work more. It will be with regard to the European Championships nothing comes easy.” His demand: “It’s all about German virtues. That’s a fact. We shouldn’t die in beauty.” There it is again, the myth that was so happily buried in better times when it came to playing, that the only way to get to the game in the DFB jersey is to fight.

Leroy Sané in aggression mode

DFB sports director Rudi Völler, who had once completely unexpectedly led the national team to the 2002 World Cup final during the Rumpelfüßler era and briefly resuscitated them as a one-off interim coach in the 2-1 win against France in September, also spoke in Vienna about the need for the players Just “put it a step further”, “introduce more dynamism and emotion. We were missing the five or ten percent of passion again.” Völler literally longed for the “German virtues” and defined them like this: “You have to hurt your opponent at the right moment.”

Only Leroy Sané was in aggression mode shortly after the break; Völler described his violence and the resulting sending off as “naive”. In the 49th minute, the winger’s fuses blew. Sané roughly grabbed his opponent Phillipp Mwene, who was actually somewhat brutal and came in from behind and who had also become violent, but not as violently, by the neck, threw him to the ground and rightly saw red. Sané’s first dismissal in the 602nd professional game was a disservice to him him, his team and coach Nagelsmann. Remorsefully, Sané apologized to the team in the dressing room and then to the media. A ban of two to three games is likely to await Sané, who sometimes plays well at Bayern.

Still the smallest of Nagelsmann’s construction sites. On defense the shoe pinches – but so much that you can barely walk. In the past 23 games, the DFB team has only managed to keep a clean sheet three times: against Israel, Oman and Peru. This year they conceded an average of two goals per game. Mats Hummels, who was reactivated by Nagelsmann for more stability, and the experiment with Kai Havertz as a left rail player couldn’t change that. Nagelsmann, who has so far only been actively challenged in his coaching career as a club coach, tends to give his players too many possible solutions on the pitch and to be too detailed in terms of content – always with the fine line of risking latent excessive demands. He defended his game idea again, emphasizing: “It’s very simple. It’s not complicated.” A matter of opinion.

A little kicking is no longer enough

Nagelsmann’s conclusion from the imbalance between offensive potential and defensive torment: “We can be successful if we minimize the defensive time.” Because: “We won’t become defensive monsters in the summer either. That’s not who we are.” So Nagelsmann has an idea: Cheers to the working class! In the future it would only be about “extremely hard work” because you have to accept that “you can’t get out of this with a little kicking”. He himself has to build a structure on the pitch with the help of the squad composition in order to move away from the fact that we are all great footballers, which they undoubtedly are, and work towards more football. From mentality and emotion to quality – and not the other way around .”

However, he also admits: “As a coach, it burns under my nails when you see all the talent we have. But then you might have to bite your fist and say: I’ll recruit one less top talent and instead one Workers more.” What he meant: A defensive-minded worker, a guy for rough things, who is not above taking a tackle or a run. Nagelsmann used Austria’s six-man Xaver Schlager from RB Leipzig as an example.

“As a coach, you have the hope: Okay, if you have five magicians, they might be able to do it for you. Normally, if we had the trust and had won more games than we lost in the last few years, then they would be like it more “It’s not possible at all. But we haven’t won that many games.”

Let’s see how the new working class performs in the next test matches in March. The DFB has runner-up world champions France (in Lyon) and the Netherlands (in Frankfurt) on their wish list as opponents – big calibers. Are you doing yourself a favor by doing this?