Former international midfielder Dietmar Hamann has become the most high-profile name to call for Hansi Flick to be sacked, but his bosses have given the under-fire Germany coach their backing.
Tuesday’s 2-0 home friendly loss against Colombia was Germany’s fourth game in a row without a win as they prepare to host Euro 2024 next June and July.
Media criticism of Flick has intensified and he acknowledged after the Gelsenkirchen defeat that some of the things he has tried have not worked. Three at the back and a loose front two may have to be re-evaluated in friendlies with Japan and France in September.
But former Germany midfielder Hamann has already seen enough.
“The danger of things going wrong with him is so great that you have to act now,” he told Sky on Wednesday. “It’s going in the wrong direction at breakneck speed.”
Utility player Emre Can said after the Colombia defeat that Germany needed to revert to four at the back but Flick’s boss, team director Rudi Völler, defended the coach.
He told RTL: “Hansi Flick is unlucky because he has the players at his disposal. He has tried everything to make sure we are successful. He is trying things out a little bit.”
Völler, who took on the team director job until the Euros following Oliver Bierhoff’s sacking after a woeful World Cup, added: “Maybe when I started I might have underestimated how low the quality is – it is not at a really high level like it was a few years ago.
“We have some players who are really top drawer but we have some who are a bit behind and I’m pretty sure they won’t make it to the Euros. Without naming names, they have come as far as they can and it will be hard for them to get to the Euros and the required level.
“Now we have to make sure that the right players are called up for the next international.”
Germany also lost 1-0 in Poland last week as well as drawing 3-3 at home with Ukraine thanks to a late comeback.
Flick, assistant to Joachim Löw when Germany won the 2014 World Cup, won seven trophies including a treble in a two-year spell at Bayern Munich before falling out with the board in 2021.
He then replaced Löw as Germany coach after a meek showing at the European Championship in 2021. Flick won his first eight games but a second straight group-stage exit at the Qatar World Cup in November and December has been followed by poor friendly results.
German football federation president Bernd Neuendorf told Bild there would be no emergency meeting about Germany’s form.
“The coach has assured me that we will see a team in September which will play differently to recent games,” he said.
Julian Nagelsmann, who replaced Flick at Bayern and won a Bundeslige title before being fired, is available but Germany’s record appearance maker Lothar Matthäus thinks it is too early to press the panic button.
“Only if you think he can’t do it any more and you have someone new whom you trust more, then of course you have to pull the plug,” he said.
“But for now, we should continue to support Hansi despite this situation, in which he has certainly made mistakes.”
Hamann said a first ever foreign coach such France’s Zinedine Zidane could be the answer, with other top German names like Thomas Tuchel and Jürgen Klopp busy coaching Bayern and Liverpool.
“It can’t get any worse than it is at the moment,” he said.
