National team coach Nagelsmann: “Don’t fall into the role of a victim”

TOexperiments! This is what Julian Nagelsmann conceptually emphasized on Monday evening. The national coach obviously wanted to use the press conference before the last international match of the year this Tuesday (20:45 live on FAZ for DFB international matches and on ZDF) in Vienna against Austria to clarify some things on his own. on behalf of.

And that included defending against the interpretation that he had deviated from the pragmatic line he announced when he took office in September. “We have the idea that we will keep it pretty much the same,” he said, stressing that there were no structural changes in this regard compared to the two games against the United States and Mexico.

Using another player in a position is “not a big experiment”, “our rules practically remain the same.” This mainly concerned the ongoing debate regarding the use of Kai Havertz at left back; Nagelsmann once again said that Havertz played a very good game, including in defense, and he does not understand how anyone could look at it differently. He read little, “thank God, only one article, but that was enough.”

“We want to win, that would be very good!”

Meanwhile, the national coach left open the question of whether Havertz will play in the same role against Austria; He wanted to wait and see his impressions of the final training session and his level of fitness. He likes to have Havertz on the pitch with his qualities, “but it could be that we see a different player.”

The same applied to another position that became the subject of discussion after the 2:3 match with Turkey – the position in central midfield. There, Ilkay Gundogan and Joshua Kimmich failed to work together again and the question on Monday night was whether playing a decidedly defensive-minded player made sense given the strengths of the Austrians, coached by Ralf Rangnick. “Of course we think about it a lot,” Nagelsmann said, but Nagelsmann didn’t want to answer what that might actually mean until after the final practice. “I’m looking at it very closely.”

Overall, Nagelsmann came across as more subdued than during his trip to the United States in October. “I think we should all put this publicity out of our heads for a while,” he said. “It’s about us being convinced that we’re on the right path and making the games a positive experience.” In his opening remarks, he said the victory would be helpful, especially given the four-month break before the next international matches. “We want to win, that would be very good!”

In search of the necessary ingredients, aspects of defensive resilience and emotionality that were missing on Saturday were again discussed. Regarding the first, the national team coach once again warned not to “want too much too quickly” so as not to be embarrassed by the situation, even if he noted that a lot of good things came with Turkey’s goals. while his team did well in terms of the quality of the chances and that the expected goals value was actually at an advantage.

Regarding emotionality, he talked about the team’s “self-regulation”; he echoed the team’s respective voices with his statements in Berlin and now focused on “having as many fit players on the field as possible.” take responsibility without it distracting from the real task.”

Overall, Nagelsmann did not want to pay too much attention to the negative tone of recent days. He preferred to talk about the positive rotation approach. “We have to work on this flow and not fall into the role of the victim,” he said, “then the situation will turn around again.”