If there was a need for a sign of how bad things really are with the German national team, then it was the red card against Leroy Sané. It was the 49th minute of the test against Austria, the last international match before the long winter break for the national team. At this point, the DFB team was trailing 0-1 after a dismal performance in the first half. We could see beforehand how frustrated Sané was with his team’s game and his own performance. Sané had scolded and cursed a lot and attempted a frustrating foul against Austria’s full-back Stefan Posch – without any consequences.
Shortly after the restart, the Munich attacker completely blew his fuse: First he fouled opponent Philipp Mwene, the Austrian in return brought Sané down and provoked him further, Sané then roughly knocked Mwene over with his elbow and was rightly shown the red card. But despite the clarity of the situation, Sané did not calm down and instead tried to say a few more words to Mwene. The teammates had trouble calming the Bayern star. It was a picture of misery.
Sané’s sending off punished the team even more. As a result, the team played a bit more concentrated and better in a kind of defiant reaction, but it wasn’t nearly enough against numerically superior Austrians. On the contrary: the German team conceded another goal. That evening in the Ernst Happel Stadium it must have become clear to the last football optimist in Germany: nothing is going on with the German national team, their nerves are on edge. Even ZDF expert Per Mertesacker only had sarcasm: The best thing about it, Mertesacker said, was that the Germans, as hosts, automatically qualified for the European Championships next year.
Sané’s highly unprofessional behavior vividly illustrates the plight. Nothing worked in terms of football, and then the self-control failed glaringly. The national coach’s verdict was mild (“He apologized to the team”). That honors him. But anyone who saw Julian Nagelsmann appear in the ZDF studio after the game knows: the man is increasingly at a loss, perhaps even desperate. His words sounded like those of his predecessor Hansi Flick: “We still have a lot of work to do,” “We need German virtues,” and so on and so forth. Everything is correct, but no one knows how to implement it.
And that is the most alarming finding: the national coach apparently has no means of countering mental lapses like Sané showed with his freak out. The cohesion in the team is very good, emphasized Nagelsmann, but when the kick-off sounds and the players are on the pitch, the team falls apart (“The transfer to the pitch doesn’t work”) For Sané things got serious that evening – Happel Stadium only shown in its most extreme form. He is playing in outstanding form at the club, but in the national team everything is blown away. This is commonly called a head problem.
Now you can start discussing Nagelsmann as a coach, as is already being done. It is quite obvious that the young coach has not yet found the right approach and the right mix of players to prevent the next failure at a major tournament. Does he overwhelm the players with his ideas? Is he thinking too complicated? Or are the players making it too easy for themselves? Is it just an unmotivated mess that doesn’t fit together? Both are perhaps somewhat true, but they do not explain the depth of the crisis. At Nagelsmann, the problems that already existed under Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick are simply continuing.
Perhaps the DFB and everyone who means well for the national team should say goodbye to certain beliefs and demands. The talk about the extremely high individual quality of the players is such a standard saying. It may be correct in itself, but (as you can painfully see) it means absolutely nothing. The more often it is said, the hollower it sounds.
Perhaps it would also make sense not to declare the upcoming European Championship tournament a summer fairy tale revival beforehand. 2006 and 2014 are a thing of the past. Nagelsmann explained in the ZDF studio that it was about “accepting that we have a lot of work.” It sounded like a realistic assessment of the current situation.
Maybe therein lies the hope for improvement.
