After two late goals helped Germany rescue a 3-3 draw in yesterday’s friendly against Ukraine, head coach Hansi Flick answered questions from the media about his impressions from the match.
Germany just drew 3-3 against Ukraine. You were likely not satisfied with the result.
Hansi Flick: Looking back on the game, it was a relatively easy – almost too easy – start. We scored pretty early on and then had the feeling that everything would go great for us and that we could rely on that. All of our mistakes were instantly punished and we just weren’t good enough in defence. We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us still and that this is just the beginning of the process, so we need to eliminate these mistakes in our upcoming games and be rock-solid in defence.
You tried playing with a back-three before switching to four at the back during the game. Is that the end of this experiment?
Flick: No. We have a plan that we will continue to follow. There are routines that can only be learned through more training and games, and we will continue to work on this, as well as addressing and improving those areas in which we made mistakes.
You always mention the quality within the team. Is that not perhaps a misjudgement on your part?
Flick: No, it’s not. I have coached many teams before, including in different roles, and as an assistant coach for the national side. The level in our training sessions is very high. However, the team lose confidence quickly in their quality, which we need to work on. In the best case, we will be able to win this back bit by bit with the help of some wins. That’s why the path that we’re on together is a bit more difficult than normal.
There’s not much time left before your next game against Poland on Friday.
Flick: If we want to focus on the positives, then it’s this: we managed to draw level due to two individual moments from Kai Havertz. Nevertheless, we will need to pick ourselves up and go again on Friday, when we want to avoid making the same mistakes.
Were you worried that the mood would change? There hasn’t been much to get excited about recently…
Flick: That’s true, we only have one year to go. But many of you were also around in March 2006 when we lost 4-1 in Italy and the mood was incredibly negative. Nevertheless, we managed to have a fantastic summer. We have a bit more time now than we did back then, and we know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us still. I have full confidence in the team. The best thing, however, would be for us to win games.
You brought in some new players in March and now are playing around with a new formation. Is that maybe too much for the team?
Flick: We only have a few players who arrived here feeling confident. Our task is to bring back that team spirit and to give the players confidence. I can’t fault them for their willingness to work. I don’t think that we’re overwhelming them. We need to have a second formation that we can use. Today, it didn’t work so well in some situations, and we also had a few individual errors that we can’t allow ourselves to make.
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After two late goals helped Germany rescue a 3-3 draw in yesterday’s friendly against Ukraine, head coach Hansi Flick answered questions from the media about his impressions from the match.
Germany just drew 3-3 against Ukraine. You were likely not satisfied with the result.
Hansi Flick: Looking back on the game, it was a relatively easy – almost too easy – start. We scored pretty early on and then had the feeling that everything would go great for us and that we could rely on that. All of our mistakes were instantly punished and we just weren’t good enough in defence. We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us still and that this is just the beginning of the process, so we need to eliminate these mistakes in our upcoming games and be rock-solid in defence.
You tried playing with a back-three before switching to four at the back during the game. Is that the end of this experiment?
Flick: No. We have a plan that we will continue to follow. There are routines that can only be learned through more training and games, and we will continue to work on this, as well as addressing and improving those areas in which we made mistakes.
You always mention the quality within the team. Is that not perhaps a misjudgement on your part?
Flick: No, it’s not. I have coached many teams before, including in different roles, and as an assistant coach for the national side. The level in our training sessions is very high. However, the team lose confidence quickly in their quality, which we need to work on. In the best case, we will be able to win this back bit by bit with the help of some wins. That’s why the path that we’re on together is a bit more difficult than normal.
There’s not much time left before your next game against Poland on Friday.
Flick: If we want to focus on the positives, then it’s this: we managed to draw level due to two individual moments from Kai Havertz. Nevertheless, we will need to pick ourselves up and go again on Friday, when we want to avoid making the same mistakes.
Were you worried that the mood would change? There hasn’t been much to get excited about recently…
Flick: That’s true, we only have one year to go. But many of you were also around in March 2006 when we lost 4-1 in Italy and the mood was incredibly negative. Nevertheless, we managed to have a fantastic summer. We have a bit more time now than we did back then, and we know that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us still. I have full confidence in the team. The best thing, however, would be for us to win games.
You brought in some new players in March and now are playing around with a new formation. Is that maybe too much for the team?
Flick: We only have a few players who arrived here feeling confident. Our task is to bring back that team spirit and to give the players confidence. I can’t fault them for their willingness to work. I don’t think that we’re overwhelming them. We need to have a second formation that we can use. Today, it didn’t work so well in some situations, and we also had a few individual errors that we can’t allow ourselves to make.
