The defeat against England in the Euro 2020 round of 16 marked the end of Joachim Low’s reign as Germany manager, as he had previously confirmed his departure after the European Championship. In a spell extended more than a decade, Low led the Germans to a World Cup title and Confederations Cup. However, his downfalls in recent years, particularly an early exit from the 2018 World – the team’s low watermark in their history – and the painful defeat to Spain in Nations League last year – has been magnified a lot. Without a shadow of a doubt, the dominance established by the Germans under the same Joachim Low is now gone, and the question amongst many is what’s next for Die Mannschaft.
Enter Hansi Flick. There has been optimism among a section of fans that Germany will be restored to its glory days ever since the confirmation of Flick as Low’s successor. The former Bayern Munich manager made a remarkable turnaround after leading the Bavarians to a sextuple in the 2019/20 season while playing the most attractive style of football – probably the second-best team of this decade after Guardiola’s Barcelona. Here is how Flick can restore order to Die Mannschaft.
Implementing an attacking brand of football while abandoning the 3-4-3 formation
Although Germany have preferred an attacking style of football, with traits such as building from the back and cautiously manipulating the opponents, they have often lacked the enthusiasm, verticality and precision in the final third. Flick can fix this issue by promoting high-press(Gegen Pressing), positional play and the ability to deal with the transitions quickly in his preferred 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. He has been highly effective with this during his spell at Bayern, and now he can do the same for the national team.
He unleashed Robert Lewandowski at the front for Bayern Munich, but Bayern have also won without the Polish striker. He turn around Bayern fortune in no time after he was made in-charge of Munich club.
Making room for more youngsters
Die Mannschaft boasts a plethora of youngsters in the current crop of players, but players like Thomas Muller and Matt Hummels were prominent fixtures in this year’s Euros. Although the duo has been successful with their respective clubs, they failed to have a similar impact on the national team. Now, Flick can make sure that leaves behind the likes of the ageing players and instead get the best out of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala, Florian Neuhaus and many more. In addition, there are top talents like Florian Wirtz, who can break into the senior team soon.
Solving the striker conundrum.
Under Flick, Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski flourished and was regarded as one of the best players in the World. Elsewhere, Die Mannschaft have failed to create an impactful striker over the years. Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose were the successful names who thrived as strikers for Germany in recent memory. Werner, Gnabry and Havertz do have the qualities to excel, and Flick can turn them into prolific goal-scorers.
World Cup 2022 could be the first major tournament Flick will be stepping into as the national team manager, and there are high hopes among the fans that he can be as successful as he was at Bayern.
