What makes a successful match? What acts determine a victory or a loss? What was good, what was bad? DFB’s sports director Hansi Flick has spoken in a two-part interview with DFB.de about 2015 and 2016, and the new perception of playing at the DFB. In the second part, the focus is on the implementation of the guidelines for the new approach to playing on the pitch, on establishing specialist coaches and a look towards the New Year.
DFB.de: You have already spoken about the new German approach to playing, which describes the basic principles for a successful game. How evident will the new approach to playing be in future Germany matches?
Flick: I believe that many elements will be recognisable. The courage to search for one-on-one situations. The courage to defend compactly early on and leave little space. We will see that our players will be tight to opposition players in possession, even if this is 30 yards inside their half of the pitch. That requires courage. And you can only have that when you have the belief that you can win a sprint in the event of an opposition counterattack. Without this courage, it is more difficult to outnumber the opposition in attack.
DFB.de: It is also essential that the player with the ball stays close to the opposition.
Flick: We want it so that the opposition is pressured. We have to force them into making a decision. And that can only happen when, if I have the ball, I run towards the opposition and not into open space. Only then are they forced into making a decision. Do they retreat? Do they come to you? If they back off, then I continue running at them at pace, because they have to try and stop me at some point. In that situation, it is important that our players have the quality to get past or find a teammate in a better position and play through a tight defence with intelligent passing. Passing with meaning. This proximity to opponents is essential – both with and without the ball. Our players have to anticipate match situations, they have to get involved when it is useful and take a player with them if it can create space.
DFB.de: Every player has a role to play at every moment over 90 minutes.
Flick: Yes, without exception. Otherwise they would be out of the game and have done something wrong.
DFB.de: As well as initiative, variability and efficiency, stability is also one of the four essential factors mentioned in the guidelines. Also in the sense of overcoming pressure. At the junior tournaments in 2015 this was sometimes a shortcoming.
What makes a successful match? What acts determine a victory or a loss? What was good, what was bad? DFB’s sports director Hansi Flick has spoken in a two-part interview with DFB.de about 2015 and 2016, and the new perception of playing at the DFB. In the second part, the focus is on the implementation of the guidelines for the new approach to playing on the pitch, on establishing specialist coaches and a look towards the New Year.
DFB.de: You have already spoken about the new German approach to playing, which describes the basic principles for a successful game. How evident will the new approach to playing be in future Germany matches?
Flick: I believe that many elements will be recognisable. The courage to search for one-on-one situations. The courage to defend compactly early on and leave little space. We will see that our players will be tight to opposition players in possession, even if this is 30 yards inside their half of the pitch. That requires courage. And you can only have that when you have the belief that you can win a sprint in the event of an opposition counterattack. Without this courage, it is more difficult to outnumber the opposition in attack.
DFB.de: It is also essential that the player with the ball stays close to the opposition.
Flick: We want it so that the opposition is pressured. We have to force them into making a decision. And that can only happen when, if I have the ball, I run towards the opposition and not into open space. Only then are they forced into making a decision. Do they retreat? Do they come to you? If they back off, then I continue running at them at pace, because they have to try and stop me at some point. In that situation, it is important that our players have the quality to get past or find a teammate in a better position and play through a tight defence with intelligent passing. Passing with meaning. This proximity to opponents is essential – both with and without the ball. Our players have to anticipate match situations, they have to get involved when it is useful and take a player with them if it can create space.
DFB.de: Every player has a role to play at every moment over 90 minutes.
Flick: Yes, without exception. Otherwise they would be out of the game and have done something wrong.
DFB.de: As well as initiative, variability and efficiency, stability is also one of the four essential factors mentioned in the guidelines. Also in the sense of overcoming pressure. At the junior tournaments in 2015 this was sometimes a shortcoming.
Flick: Yes, not everyone can deal with the pressure of expectation, and that is one component of stability. The other component is opposition pressure on the pitch. Unfortunately we have had to determine that we have not fully performed in the really important moments. At the U17 tournament it was like that – we were not efficient enough and did not take our chances. At the U21s, we completely fell apart in the semi-finals against Portugal. We have analysed that one very closely.
DFB.de: With what outcome?
Flick: We have to practise pressure situations a lot earlier. The way that training is designed has to be a lot closer to the real competitive stuff. Passes in training have to be played under pressure. Receiving and controlling the ball has to be done under pressure.
DFB.de: And what about psychological pressure?
Flick: We have spoken together with Hans-Dieter Hermann, the national team’s sports psychologist, about the psychological pressure. A lot is based on upbringing and what the parents have given the players. For me personally, and also when I was younger, I enjoyed tight situations, situations when it was important. With me the excitement was always less than the anticipation. We have to transmit these thoughts to the players. We want to develop success, and to do that we have to develop players who are mentally strong. The desire to win has to be greater than the fear of losing. This is not a new statement, but it is correct.
DFB.de: Even the nicest idea is useless when it is not achievable. The new approach to players assumes that players are capable of being in a position to implement the approach. Good footballers.
Flick: Absolutely. That is why the approach to playing is only one part of our future strategy for sport: "Our Way". It specifies what we want to see out on the pitch.
DFB.de: As well as the approach to playing, what else is part of the future strategy for sport at the DFB?
Flick: The vision for teaching and training. They entail what how we want to achieve what we want to see. On the basis of the approach to playing, we have adjusted the existing teaching and training vision. We still need better players, but we also still need better coaches. The key to a player’s training is the quality of the coaches. The task of our youth coaches is have an eye out for talent and a good intuition for how they can be further developed. Many factors are important for this. Communication with coaches at the clubs but also with the people around the player, for example the parents.
DFB.de: You have often pushed for more specialist coaches in football. Technical coaches, tactical coaches, attacking coaches and defensive coaches.
Flick: In Germany there is the goalkeeping coach and the fitness coach. Other specialist coaches are not well established. I believe that this is a mistake and that it will change. With Marcel Lucassen we had a technical and tactical coach for Germany, but unfortunately he decided to move on. He was involved from the U15s upwards, and we want to fill this position again in the future. And with this position we want to be able to get closer to providing talent even earlier. Our technical coach will continue educating local coaches. In that way we can pass on the basics to a greater number of players from an earlier stage. And then the players who come to the national teams will be in the position to find the best solution under pressure. And that is what we want in the future.
DFB.de: Are these coaches necessarily limited at youth level?
Flick: No, and to see that you just have to the look at the situation at the World Cup in Brazil. We had two classic coaches, Joachim Löw and me. We also Andy Köpke who had a specialised role as goalkeeping coach, and four fitness coaches. I’m convinced that the set-up will change in the future. We will have more coaches who will work with the team in a technical and tactical way alongside the classic football coaching. The head coach will take more of an overseeing role. So there will also be a defensive coach, an attacking one and probably one more. Some clubs already have this sort of set-up: Hoffenheim and Köln’s youth sectors for example.
DFB.de: 2015 was about working on the new approach to playing. What will be your major task for 2016?
Flick: There are three major tournaments in 2016, especially the EUROs for the senior side. That team is the flagship for the DFB and everyone in the association wants to help us be successful in France. We also have the important European U19 Championship at home, in Baden-Württemberg. It would be great if we could back up the success we had in 2014 in Hungary. And then in the summer we have the Olympics for the women and also the men under Horst Hrubesch. Rio will be a huge challenge and a great opportunity. We want to put out the best possible team and the clubs have signalled that they are ready to support us.
DFB.de: It will be a return to Rio for you. How emotional will that be?
Flick: I don’t think it will be too emotional. I sometimes astonish myself in this sense, because for me the past is the past. What is happening in the here and now and what the future brings is more important to me.
DFB.de: You look at the triumph in Rio in such a business-like fashion. It’s over so move on?
Flick: It was a wonderful success which no one can take away from us. Brazil will forever live in our memory, but I am not somebody who always pulls out the medal to take a trip down memory lane. But of course Brazil will always hold great meaning for me. What the team did in those four, five, six weeks was sensational and simply the stuff of champions. The team was always focused on the big goal and always worked as a close-knit unit. There came a point where I had the feeling that it has to happen, that it will happen. I had never felt such a great sense of basic trust in a team. It was amazing what we all experienced there and I will always cherish the memory. I am proud to have been a part of it.
DFB.de: Your eyes light up when you talk about Brazil.
Flick: Yes, but that must not distract from the facts. And it cannot lead to complacency, which luckily is not the case with anyone here at the DFB. It is important that we don’t remain stagnant, that we invest, that a new DFB emerges with new possibilities at the academy. The spirit of the co-workers at the DFB is outstanding and there is real excitement over the project for a new DFB – that’s how you recognise the quality of the workers we have here at the DFB, and is something that the association can be very proud of.
