National team
Smiling Nagelsmann is looking for solutions and wants to use time
Julian Nagelsmann is in a demonstratively good mood in the USA. photo
© Federico Gambarini/dpa
Julian Nagelsmann is now on the training ground as national soccer coach. The European Championship project begins for him in America. When it comes to crisis management, he could consult with a US legend.
Thumbs up from Rudi Völler, victory sign and cheeky video sayings from Thomas Müller – and a mischievous smile from the new national coach.
The national soccer team started Julian Nagelsmann’s term in office as a feel-good express in America with the first day of training on the New England Patriots football field. “We are ready,” Müller trumpeted on the plane to the football world via social networks. “The national team is in a good mood,” said the Bayern professional so loudly that DFB returnee Mats Hummels cringed in the business class seat next to him.
The new head coach Nagelsmann also wants to lay the foundation for a new high spirits with practical work on the training ground and started with this on the first full day of work in idyllic Foxborough.
“Making the most of the time we have”
“We don’t have the full six days of training on which we can work at full capacity. But of course we try to make the most of the time we have,” said the 36-year-old. In any case, the US master plan is clear: “Of course we’ll try to get the content across as quickly as possible and create the first basic structure.” On Saturday (9 p.m./RTL), fans will be able to experience Nagelsmann’s successful football brand in front of their televisions in Germany.
Renaissance, i.e. rebirth. The name of the team hotel in Foxborough couldn’t be more appropriate in the shadow of the concrete stadium of the New England Patriots, who are going through a similar veritable crisis in the National Football League after four sometimes humiliating defeats as the national team under former national coach Hansi Flick.
Nagelsmann could easily discuss how to deal with crises with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick if the paths of the American coaching legend and the German national coach newcomer cross on the NFL team’s huge area south of Boston.
Nagelsmann wants stability
The “first structure” that Nagelsmann wants to give the national team is to “become stable” again. He also reactivated defense veteran Hummels after two years of being ignored by Flick. However, the almost anthemic praise of the 34-year-old Dortmund central defender as a born leader by the new DFB head coach alone will not be enough. There are many construction sites, which Nagelsmann is also aware of. Routine is a recipe. Twelve of the 26 players in the squad are 30 years old or older and are therefore practically part of the generation of the national coach, who is only slightly older at 36 years old.
He doesn’t want to reveal his gaming system in advance. “If I describe everything, it will be too easy for you,” he flirted after questions from journalists. He will have to give his first answers after traveling to Hartford in the first part of the friendly double pack against the host USA.
Bierhoff among the spectators
According to information from the German Press Agency, Oliver Bierhoff will also be among the spectators – around ten months after his departure as DFB managing director following the World Cup debacle in Qatar. Bierhoff landed in America on Monday a few hours after the DFB entourage.
Many questions arise about Nagelsmann’s start, both tactical and personnel-related. Permanent return to the 4-2-3-1 system as a reliable tactical component? Or the preferred three-man chain at the back? How to deal with Joshua Kimmich? Where does the confidant from Munich days help? In the preferred six position or at the back right? Is there room for Kimmich, captain Ilkay Gündogan and Leon Goretzka as another Bayern special in Nagelsmann’s starting eleven? When solving the last question, Flick made crucial mistakes when he wanted to please everyone – especially at the botched Qatar World Cup. Nagelsmann will have to deal with this too.
Or are system questions generally overrated? “It’s important that we define ourselves by the way we play. We’re trying to implement that right now in the USA,” said Nagelsmann. In the beginning it’s also about the atmosphere. “A kind of training camp abroad is always good because, in a positive case, we depend on each other and have time to talk to each other, have time to get to know each other,” said Nagelsmann.