Following the 4-1 home defeat to Japan and the departure of coach Hansi Flick, Germany will now play their second game of the international break against France in Dortmund. Interim coach and sporting director Rudi Völler spoke to the media alongside captain Ilkay Gündogan. They discussed the mood within the dressing room and the importance of the France game.
Völler on...
...Hansi Flick: Everybody knows that I took the job here as sporting director to support Hansi, particularly after the group-stage exit at the World Cup. We obviously hoped things would go better – life doesn’t get any easier when the results don’t come right away. We simply couldn’t carry on like this given the way we had played in the last few games. Even though I still had belief going into the Japan game, we had to make the decision we did, even if I’m incredibly sorry for Hansi. He’s still a fantastic coach and we all hoped it would work out.
...the current set-up with him and his two assistants: Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will both be able to make some important contributions over these few days, both in meetings and on the training ground. This is important for me.
...the France game: They are currently the best team in Europe, there’s no doubt about it. As a result, we will have to play extremely well and our defending in particular must improve. They are incredible on the break with their rapid strikers, which is their main threat. We can’t afford to lose the ball easily and have to massively improve on our display against Japan.
...Flick’s successor: The France game will be a one-off for me. We all want to find a successor pretty soon and that’s our main task right now. We want to get everyone excited about our home EUROs next summer together with a new coach. Hansi was still carrying the burden of the World Cup failure with him. A new man in charge can hopefully bring new ideas and provide a fresh impetus. We have obviously already discussed several names and will continue to think things over before announcing the right man for the job in three and a half weeks.
...the squad: Niclas Füllkrug will definitely not play. We don’t know about Niklas Süle right now, but he’ll probably be unavailable too.
…the tactics: We have a lot of creative and quick players and I still believe we can have a good tournament at home. I hope we can play better football under our new coach and do well next summer. I felt that the team gave their all against Japan, but just made far too many mistakes and we need to cut them out. The desire is there, however you can’t keep making these basic errors. We’ve had far too many of them in recent games.
Gündogan on...
...the mood in the dressing room: It’s currently a mix of sadness, frustration and disappointment, and that’s not just because of the Japan game, which we obviously hoped would go differently. It’s down to the whole situation – a few of us players feel that we let Hansi down. You could see how driven he was to improve things. He was always fully motivated, but we simply didn’t manage to perform well as a team.
…the quality in the team: We often speak about our expectations as a team. We cannot underestimate ourselves, have to be self-critical and talk about things. We have to create the basis upon which the coach can then successfully work with. Every single player has to ask themselves if they are doing enough to perform to their best. We can only be successful as a team. We have lots of world-class players, but are not performing well on the pitch. The best teams are those that fully trust one another on the pitch and that starts with how you are off the pitch too. Even though the general mood in camp at the national team is positive, I think it can be better and we can become a tighter-knit group too.
...the France game: First of all, we want to cut out the mistakes we keep making – there have been far too many in our recent games. It’s important to get a decent result, though it won’t be any easier than it was against Japan. It’s up to us to give our all tomorrow.
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Following the 4-1 home defeat to Japan and the departure of coach Hansi Flick, Germany will now play their second game of the international break against France in Dortmund. Interim coach and sporting director Rudi Völler spoke to the media alongside captain Ilkay Gündogan. They discussed the mood within the dressing room and the importance of the France game.
Völler on...
...Hansi Flick: Everybody knows that I took the job here as sporting director to support Hansi, particularly after the group-stage exit at the World Cup. We obviously hoped things would go better – life doesn’t get any easier when the results don’t come right away. We simply couldn’t carry on like this given the way we had played in the last few games. Even though I still had belief going into the Japan game, we had to make the decision we did, even if I’m incredibly sorry for Hansi. He’s still a fantastic coach and we all hoped it would work out.
...the current set-up with him and his two assistants: Hannes Wolf and Sandro Wagner will both be able to make some important contributions over these few days, both in meetings and on the training ground. This is important for me.
...the France game: They are currently the best team in Europe, there’s no doubt about it. As a result, we will have to play extremely well and our defending in particular must improve. They are incredible on the break with their rapid strikers, which is their main threat. We can’t afford to lose the ball easily and have to massively improve on our display against Japan.
...Flick’s successor: The France game will be a one-off for me. We all want to find a successor pretty soon and that’s our main task right now. We want to get everyone excited about our home EUROs next summer together with a new coach. Hansi was still carrying the burden of the World Cup failure with him. A new man in charge can hopefully bring new ideas and provide a fresh impetus. We have obviously already discussed several names and will continue to think things over before announcing the right man for the job in three and a half weeks.
...the squad: Niclas Füllkrug will definitely not play. We don’t know about Niklas Süle right now, but he’ll probably be unavailable too.
…the tactics: We have a lot of creative and quick players and I still believe we can have a good tournament at home. I hope we can play better football under our new coach and do well next summer. I felt that the team gave their all against Japan, but just made far too many mistakes and we need to cut them out. The desire is there, however you can’t keep making these basic errors. We’ve had far too many of them in recent games.
Gündogan on...
...the mood in the dressing room: It’s currently a mix of sadness, frustration and disappointment, and that’s not just because of the Japan game, which we obviously hoped would go differently. It’s down to the whole situation – a few of us players feel that we let Hansi down. You could see how driven he was to improve things. He was always fully motivated, but we simply didn’t manage to perform well as a team.
…the quality in the team: We often speak about our expectations as a team. We cannot underestimate ourselves, have to be self-critical and talk about things. We have to create the basis upon which the coach can then successfully work with. Every single player has to ask themselves if they are doing enough to perform to their best. We can only be successful as a team. We have lots of world-class players, but are not performing well on the pitch. The best teams are those that fully trust one another on the pitch and that starts with how you are off the pitch too. Even though the general mood in camp at the national team is positive, I think it can be better and we can become a tighter-knit group too.
...the France game: First of all, we want to cut out the mistakes we keep making – there have been far too many in our recent games. It’s important to get a decent result, though it won’t be any easier than it was against Japan. It’s up to us to give our all tomorrow.
