Jürgen Klopp has offered the clearest indication yet of what he wants his German national team to look like, while acknowledging that international football will force him to adapt methods refined across more than two decades in club management.
The new Bundestrainer named an extraordinary 44-player squad for Germany’s opening four UEFA Nations League fixtures, giving himself an unusually large pool with which to begin shaping the next version of the national team. Klopp nevertheless knows that the compressed nature of international football places obvious limits on how quickly his ideas can take hold.
“We have very little time to develop our style of play,” Klopp said. “And I swear I’m not asking for more time or something like that. That’s something I can’t change. I still can’t do much if someone is naive enough to think we can turn the footballing world upside down with a few training sessions. I can promise you that I will try to make our new way [of football] visible as soon as possible.”
Klopp outlines the current state of his project
“I expect more immediately,” Klopp continued. “And more is always possible, but, if things aren’t exactly organized then things can get a little wild. That can sometimes manifest itself in chaos. Fine. I’ll take it. But it [the football] must be lively. That’s the beginning. After that, it’s about using every minute. I’ll be attempting to remain in contact with every player in-between the international breaks.”
That work has already begun. Klopp spent much of the last month traveling to meet players and watch them personally before selecting his first squad. The Germany head coach admitted that seeing footballers live materially altered some of the impressions he had formed while away from the Bundesliga.
The result was not merely a large squad, but an unusually broad one. Eleven players received their first senior Germany call-ups, while Klopp divided his 44 players into two balanced groups for the four Nations League fixtures.
Klopp: “My entire life has prepared me for this job”
The transition into international management inevitably produced questions over whether Klopp can translate extraordinary club success into a completely different coaching environment. Germany’s recent history gives the question added relevance.
Hansi Flick arrived after a hugely successful spell with Bayern Munich. Julian Nagelsmann had established himself as one of Europe’s most highly regarded club coaches before taking charge of the national team. Klopp nevertheless resisted drawing broad conclusions from their experiences.
“I’ve been doing this job for 25 years,” Klopp said. “At that time Julian was 13. But don’t make a big story of that. He’s a good coach. 100 percent. I respect him.”
“The job is different, but that’s totally irrelevant,” Klopp continued. “But the job is always different. The job in Liverpool was completely different than in Dortmund. The job in Dortmund was completely different than in Mainz. If I had known while coaching Mainz what awaited me in Liverpool, I would have quit. But I was prepared. My entire life has prepared me for this job.”
Klopp learns to embrace international football’s constraints
The Nations League itself offers another example of Klopp’s willingness to change his perspective. The 59-year-old admitted that he was initially no great admirer of UEFA’s decision to reduce the number of traditional international friendlies.
“Earlier in my coaching career, national teams played more friendlies,” Klopp said. “That’s not the case anymore. Someone at UEFA made the decision to dispense with them. I [initially] wasn’t a fan of it.
“How many things have changed in my life?” he asked. “I once thought I’d be done if I ever witnessed a €100m transfer. Then things came and I remained. One learns [to adjust] relatively quickly. I went from not finding the Nations League so great to then liking it. I’m simply glad that we’re there and participating.”
There remains one complication.
“Someone still needs to explain to me how the Nations League affects the European Championship qualifying group,” Klopp joked. “I’ve been informed, but I think I understood that we just need to play well.”
Klopp refuses to promise four wins
Germany’s new coach is therefore neither asking for patience indefinitely nor promising an immediate transformation. He will not guarantee victories in all four opening fixtures.
“I obviously can’t promise you that we’ll win the next four games,” Klopp said. “I would be happy if you could observe that we really want it. Then that would be good. If you were to tell a younger version of myself that we had to do a photo shoot after two days [of training], I would have torn down the house. The experienced version of me says, ‘okay, we’ll work around it’.”
“Fine,” Klopp said of the possibility that things may become chaotic early in his tenure. “I’ll take it. But it [the football] must be lively.”
<
p style=”font-weight:400″>GGFN | Peter Weis
Discover more from NAIRAVOICE.COM.NG
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
