National team
Völler comeback: “No one can have their pants full”
Rudi Völler is stepping in as interim manager of the national soccer team. photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Hansi Flick is history. Rudi Völler should regulate the present with clear immediate measures against France’s top team around star striker Mbappé. The DFB will then take care of the future.
“No one should have their pants full,” said the DFB sports director, sweaty and “shocked” after the 4-1 defeat against Japan, which was also “embarrassing” for him. As early as Wolfsburg night, the 63-year-old felt inwardly that Hansi Flick would no longer have a bright future at the 2024 home European Championship.
Völler holds the players accountable
During his comeback to the DFB coaching bench 19 years after his resignation, Völler is supposed to stop the decline of the national soccer team in Dortmund on Tuesday (9 p.m./ARD) and ideally bring about a change in the mood in the country. And for this, the former fan favorite takes today’s generation of players, who could no longer (or didn’t want to?) deliver under Flick, particularly to task. “We have to try to regain credit,” warned Völler.
He simply believes that a team with professionals like Ilkay Gündogan, Marc-André ter Stegen, Antonio Rüdiger or Joshua Kimmich who have proven themselves in many Champions League games can and must do more than in the five international games without a win in the end-time atmosphere under Flick .
“The players can do it too, they all come from top clubs and show their performance there – and I expect that on Tuesday too,” said Völler. The DFB entourage traveled by bus from Wolfsburg to Dortmund on Monday. There Völler, supported by U20 selection coach Hannes Wolf and ex-national player Sandro, had to prepare the totally unsettled team for the French in just one training session, but they may now have been freed of doubts and ballast. Local hero Niklas Süle, who left the team at least temporarily due to the imminent birth of his second child, could drop out.
“We have a game against the best team in Europe at the moment. That will of course be difficult,” said Völler. But he added a sentence in the self-image of the 1990 world champion: “We are still Germany.” A football nation, that was the subtext.
Association is working on the successor solution
Völler’s team boss comeback is planned as a one-off – the association around DFB President Bernd Neuendorf wants to present a successor solution for Flick as “promptly” as possible. Names from Jürgen Klopp to Julian Nagelsmann are traded, no matter how true and, above all, how realistic they are. The group of candidates is not large shortly after the start of the season. But Völler could buy the association valuable time with a bright spot in results and performance against France. The DFB team is going on a trip to the USA in October.
What immediate measures will the former world-class striker take? First and foremost, Völler will try to give the team security and stability in the formation and tactical orientation and to rely on experience. In short: no further experiments. Back to the 4-2-3-1 system that has been tried and tested for years, possibly with Joshua Kimmich (80 international matches) and Ilkay Gündogan (68 appearances) as experienced double sixes in midfield and with DFB veteran Thomas Müller (122) as a reaction to that Centre-forward emergency. After conceding 13 goals in the last five international matches, Völler named one main problem that annoys him: “We simply defend poorly.”
It is now the players’ turn, Flick is no longer an alibi. “We have to question ourselves,” said Kimmich, who, with a view to the big challenge against the Équipe Tricolore, strictly denied fear (“Zero!”) and instead gave this route: “It’s not about us playing nicely and about passing relays come into play, but we have to do everything we can to achieve good results.” With the fans behind you.
First test without Flick against strong French
The Bayern professional urged a return to the basics of football: “We make a lot of mistakes. Accordingly, it is now important that we bring other attributes onto the pitch, passion and such. That’s what it’s about now.”
The French, with their well-established team and numerous attacking skills such as Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembélé, Randal Kolo Mouani, Marcus Thuram or Bayern’s Kingsley Coman, are certainly not suitable as opponents. National coach Didier Deschamps’ team started their European Championship qualifying group with an impeccable five wins and 11-0 goals, including a 4-0 win against the Netherlands.
The last defeat and the last goals conceded came in the 3-3 in Qatar’s gripping World Cup final against Argentina and Lionel Messi with the defeat only on penalties. Even a Völler comeback won’t be enough as an answer. “In the last few weeks and months, I would never have imagined that it would be so difficult,” groaned the sports director, who actually didn’t want to switch from the stands to the coaching bench.