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In football
Hansi Flick has made the Germany team one of the most formidable groups in Europe. His secret is that there’s no secret.
By Rory Smith
On the eve of the most important match of his life, Per Mertesacker was summoned to a quiet educational center on the beach of Germany, a few hours from the Brazilian town of Porto Seguro, and told him that he would not play.
Joachim Lew, the coach of the national team, explained coolly that he would make some adjustments for Germany’s quarter-final match against France. Although Mertesacker was one of his team’s most experienced players, and he played each and every minute of the 2014 World Cup, he was going to be one of them. Jerome Boateng would move to the center, with Philipp Lahm back in his right-back role.
At this point, Mertesacker—and friendly and understanding, a player as smart as Lew hoped to have on his team—admits that his “ego has come out a little.”
“I was surprised. I think, “I think those guys trusted me with “I like it, ” what about that? What about that? ‘”
It was at this point that he stopped talking, turned to his assistant and allowed Hansi Flick to take over. Flick knew what to say.
From the outside, the effect That Flick has had since taking over at Bayern Munich in November, after Niko Kovac’s dismissal rubbed the miraculous; Certainly, the 8-2 destruction of Barcelona on Friday night representing its zenith (current) seemed to come with a divine touch.
With Kovac, Bayern entered the list. An end-of-century air had settled in the club. The team became enrrced and its leaders wondered if the time had come to relieve the declining stars, iconic figures such as Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller, outside the team.
Flick was, as you saw, a reserved space. He had played for the club in the 1980s, as an “aggressive, tough and fair” midfielder, according to his former teammate, Olaf Thon, so he understood Bayern’s “culture” as the team’s long-term general manager. team, Oliver Kahn. Put.
Since his retirement, he had built an impressive curriculum and a discreetly superior reputation, especially in his 8 years as an assistant in Germany. In fact, Bayern named him in the summer of 2019 as a component because the club felt that maybe it could interfere if he were to fire Kovac.
But this is not designed to be a long-term solution. Flick 54 when he returned to Bayern and had not managed a team for 14 years. Even then, his delight in Germany’s declining steps: he left Hoffenheim in 2005 after failing to win promotion to the division for the time being.
When Flick appointed Lunw’s assistant, Mertesacker admitted that there was some skepticism among the players. “Hesitation, I would say, ” he said. “Of course he’s a player, but you wait to see what he can bring.” At Bayern, who shared some of the same bookings, Flick is there to keep the seat warm, not to occupy it.
Within a few weeks, however, it became clear that Bayern did not want to worry about the wage demands of Mauricio Pochettino or whether Julian Nagelsmann could be persuaded to leave RB Leipzig. Flick would finish the season with a revitalized team, a win record that eclipses even Pep Guardiola’s: 33 games played, 30 wins, plus a Bundesliga name and a German Cup.
Flick took over when it seemed that Bayern had ended up as a force in Europe. On Friday he produced what is the surprising maximum result of the season, and such devastating functionality that it would possibly have led to Barcelona at the end of an era. The transformation between and today between this team and this team is remarkable.
Although those who know Flick well, those who, like Thon, have accompanied him and those who, like Mertesacker, have worked with him, do not seem as surprised as they do. As far as they are concerned, there is no wonderful mystery here, no secret spell, no revolutionary tactical twist that he has discovered.
Instead, they say that Flick’s wonderful strength is what prompted him to address him in this room in Brazil and ask Mertesacker to sense his decision. “He’s very humble, he has a very human sense, a genuine social skill,” Mertesacker said. “He has a genuine interest in you as a person. He’s not afraid to show his own vulnerability. And it’s contagious.
That day in 2014, while Mertesacker struggled with his disappointment, Flick calmed him down, calmed his doubts and told him that things can still be replaced for the semi-final. He pressed that the most vital was the smart thing for the team. “He’s a communicator,” Mertesacker said.
It is the same delight that Arne Friedrich, a member of the German groups at the 2008 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup, recalls. “It’s very open, very honest, even when it comes to critical opinions,” said Friedrich, now the sporting director of Hertha Berlin. “It takes time with the players. It’s not just about ‘working, working, working’. It’s very authentic. And that’s the maximum strength a coach can have.”
Kahn, a member of Bayern’s board of directors, puts it more succinctly. “He knows what he has to say to the players, especially in difficult times,” he said. “He knows how to handle the players.”
This is perhaps the ultimate critical skill a club coach like Bayern can have. The Bayern team is full of high-level, well-paid stars. Although the club’s reputation as “FC Hollywood”, a position that has never been more than a day or two after some kind of public sequel or shocking mutiny, has diminished, a really extensive component of a Bayern coach’s job is to manage the fragile ones. wardrobe policy.
It’s a role Flick excels at. Mertesacker gives him credit not only for building lines of communication between players, training and the rest of the backroom – “so that everyone who needed the data” – but also for helping foster the team spirit that led to Germany. World Cup victory in 2014.
“It was he, I think, who told Jogi Lunw to congratulate the replacements,” he said. “Don’t congratulate the first team. You congratulate the guys who didn’t play, the guys who worked hard all week and created the atmosphere.”
Friedrich sees a similarity in Flick’s technique to that of Jupp Heynckes, the only coach in Bayern history to win a hat-trick in the league, the cup and the European. “Looking from afar, Heynckes had the ability to develop intelligent equipment chemistry,” he says. “You’ve never heard of a player on the bench who complains. I think Hansi is similar.
In part, this is possibly due to Flick’s relationships with many of his players. “Meet Neuer and Muller from the national team,” Kahn said. Others, such as Joshua Kimmich and Serge Gnabry, know his time as technical director of the German Football Federation. He stepped in front of the bridge building.
I mean, Flick has replaced all the Bayern style. Kovac’s technique has been reactive: he has dedicated educational sessions to instructing his team of very talented Americans in their defensive duties, creating a climate of frustration.
Instead, Flick focuses on what they can do with the ball, encouraging players to think more about how to use their talents. In any case, he has taken a step forward in the speed of Bayern’s draws – only Liverpool pushes more in the five most sensible European leagues – and has served to repair the shine for players like Muller.
There is an honest confidence in Munich that Lisbon can still provide the brand of the upper waters. For such an enthusiastic speaker, Flick’s career is quiet. He spent a lot of time away from the spotlight, a spouse and an assistant. Mertesacker, for his part, never had the impression of being interested in being “the main man.”
Now, however, it’s two brightest football matches football can offer, two achievement-type matches that are the subject of any debate. Tuna certainly has no doubt that its time has come.
“Bayern have quality,” he said. “They will win the Champions League in public and be a wonderful coach.”
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