DrHorst Hrubesch, the former under-21 coach, can do nothing with frequent criticism of the level of young German footballers. “There are always better, slightly weaker types,” said Hrobish of Sport Build (Wednesday). “Because the youth are not bad, we just have to train them well. We have enough of a couple of decades,” said the 70-year-old, who is currently a junior manager at Hamburger SV and was previously in charge of several small teams in the German Football Association. Professionals who can change that.”

Hrubesch said he can’t do anything with the demand for more specialists or certain types of jobs. “I was equally upset today when my coach told me: ‘We need a great centre-back,'” he said. “I answered: Why? Where is the problem? I don’t have to have big boys to make them good defenders. It’s a matter of training and development.”

U 21 is weak, women are strong

Hrubesch has trouble thinking about entitlements in Germany. “Sometimes I think we are too conceited. With us there is nothing else than that we just have to win. We also have to accept that other countries will be better over a period of time,” he said.

Discussions about youngsters in the Bundesliga are back again recently after a poor performance by Germany’s Under-21s. The team lost 4-0 to Poland in qualifying for the European Championship, the first defeat for the juniors in 14 months. Among other things, the long-time coach of Bayern Munich and the current assistant to the under-21 coach Antonio de Salvo, Hermann Gerland, clearly spoke about the shortcomings of his opinion between some players and the general training path of German young footballers.

But for German women, things are currently going much better: after a successful year-end, the European Championship can come from the perspective of German female footballers. “The expectations are really huge” as she waits for the next few months with EM’s mission to England in the summer (6-31 July 2022), said midfielder Sarah Dabritz.