Germany U-20 coach Frank Wormuth: Germans are never being tired of wins
Sport Den za Dnem visited the head of the coaching academy of the DFB and once again is convinced of how Russian football is detached from reality.
Hennes Weisweiler Academy is hidden in a small forest on the very outskirts of Hennef — a small town near Cologne. This is the latest and steepest stage for each German coach, whose study years have not put him off running the Bundesliga club yet.
Even the great Hennes Weisweiler who died of a heart attack in 1983, just a month after he had won the championship for Grasshopper Club Zürich, was a wizard for football players: thanks to the symbiosis of science, theory and practice, he managed to get more than maximum out of certain players, allowing those to go to the level of potential world champions. Stielike, Heynckes, Vogts, Simonsen and a countless number of players were trained by Weisweiler, expressing not only their own gratitude. Until now, the memory of the coach is honored by the worst enemies - Köln fans and Mönchengladbach. The clubs that he dared to train one after another.
«Weisweiler was an absolute authority, even young players were afraid of him», recalled one of his Mönchengladbach trainees Wolfgang Kleff. «His one glance was enough to understand what the coach wants. Weisweiler helped many to find courage in the game one-on-one — an attack was considered his strength. Simonsen and Bonhof were at first, when they came to us, absolutely ''blind''. The coach armed himself with patience, worked intensively with them and made them international stars».
The Academy corresponds to loud, but good name. There is no luxury, but all is comfortable and functional. Several high-class training fields, heated outdoor pool, residential building of a good-hotel level, dining room serving only healthy food, and talks about the work that do not stop for a second.
It so happened that the door at the entrance to the office of Frank Wormuth, the Academy director, is held by Torsten Frings, vice-world champion 2002. This defies belief at once, if for no other reason than because his head is not nimbed, and each of us can put on such a training suit. Frings says hello as if waiting that someone from Russia is about to come to this woodside.
Frank Wormuth is an irreplaceable person for German football. He played with Joachim Löw for Freiburg, and trained Fenerbahçe with him. Since 2008, he heads the academy, which allows Bundesliga to do almost without foreign experts, and besides will bring team Germany to the World Cup U-20 next summer.
—
Frank, frankly, everything looks so good and friendly in your place
that it makes stay and work with you. Is German football the most
prosperous in the world?
— I would not say so, because there are a
lot of ways to get success. Yes, we won the World Cup! But however
Germany still has its own challenges. You say you watched our recent
qualification matches against Poland and Ireland (0:2 and 1:1 — Sports Daily). So, you see what we can face when the head coach has as few as 15 players of a really high level.
— But Germany is famous for an excellent youth training system, so you’ll surely cope with this.
—
That’s just the point! The fact is that everybody knows that we have a
system. It really exists, and this is really cool. Nevertheless, at the
moment we have a challenge how to fill positions of the left and right
backs in the national team, as well as find a forward like Miro Klose
for it. Almost all strong players in the youth and junior football are
gathered in the middle of the field. There’s nobody in flanks. Everyone
wants to mess about with the ball, control the game. For example, such
as my son. But one should change roles in order to discover potential.
So the coach and me almost pushed him to the flank. Run, learn to
fulfill potential, and the ball will come to you. Now Durm from Dortmund
plays on the left in the national team, who started as a forward. He
did not develop as a forward, so he was placed on the right side of the
defense. Then on the left. And in the end it turned out that the
22-year-old man cannot fulfill his potential in any one role to a full
degree. So we need to make an effort to deliver not just good football
players, but top-level players.
— How exactly are you going to improve the training system?
—
For example, now in youth football we see potential of guys who could
play better "one-on-one", and this concerns both defenders and
attackers. If in general, I do not really like the desire of a large
number of teams, including Bundesliga, to throw the ball as quickly as
possible to the front line. That’s not the way the national team plays!
On the other hand, unexpected things happen. For example, Karim
Bellarabi, who was called to play against Poland and Ireland. He played
well. I know him for long, he was in my national team, then I watched
him playing with Eintracht from Braunschweig. Karim’s technique is
excellent, he is able to work with the ball at a high speed. But tactics
should be explained to him in detail — where he should run to, how he
should open, to which zone he should give the ball. And finally he
joined in "his" team, Leverkusen, where he just receives a task: here’s a
ball, here’s a goal net, strike and make a goal. He fulfilled his
potential! You must not set challenging assignments for Karim.
—
Your U-20 national team includes representatives of all three major
leagues in Germany. Why does it happen that Bundesliga guys are together
with Bundesliga 3 players on the list?
— The age of my players
is 19 at the moment. You can imagine that it is difficult for those
young guys to play permanently in the highest league. Therefore I have
to look in the second, third and in the fourth league because it is
important that young players play from week to week. It helps the U20
national team to get success. So if they are not included in the first
teams of their clubs, they should be rented by those which will give
them practice. Another thing is, unfortunately, the level of players is
developing far more slowly in the lower leagues. This is why it is not
always easy for the national youth and junior teams to stick to the same
style of play as Bundesliga.
— How do you share the players with the national team U-21?
—
It is clear that U-21 is a more promoted team. This is, in fact, the
last step in front of the door to the national team. Therefore, all the
best ones are selected for this team. Our situation is full of
experiments. My colleagues ask me whether these or those guys suit, and
what my team has for solving larger tasks at next year's World Cup in
New Zealand. I answer: "How do I know at the moment?!" One player can
express himself, but another can fail to. And the challenge is to
compose the 18+3 for U-20 World Cup.
— Davie Selke from Werder
Bremen was the best goal scorer of the European Championship U-19,
which was won by Germany. He could help you...
— Davie Selke is
not very eager to play with us at the moment. He wants to stay in
Werder, focus on it, fight for a place in the first eleven. In general
coaches are not very willing to let players go, which also makes sense
for coaches of club teams but not for a national coach (Laughs) (At the time of the interview, Werder’s coach was Robin Dutt — Sports Daily).
—
In order to work as licensing center head and coach of the national
youth team simultaneously, a day should be planned in a special way,
shouldn’t it?
—(Laughs) Timetable is tight. As to the
center, work there begins on Monday morning and ends on Wednesday night.
Course planning takes the rest of the time, because next to the head of
the academy I have enough to do as the main instructor. Besides, about 5
times a football season I work with the national team U-20, which plays
about nine matches. It is anything but simple to bring players together
— you need to understand clearly who you need, so I usually go to the
matches on the weekends. And I have to analyze matches, prepare
trainings, moreover, keep in touch with players and candidates for the
team besides the training camps. Remember that we are constantly
involved in some presentations, both in Germany and abroad. In general,
there is no word "free time" in my vocabulary, because I could turn my
hobby into a career.
— Who is harder to train — young players or young coaches?
—
Players. Because they are the personalities not mature enough to
perceive some things immediately. Coaches already have life experience,
the only thing left is for them to confirm some of their knowledge
through theory and give necessary impetus for a new round of
development. As for young people, they just play football for now. Their
worldview sounds exceptionally like: "I play football."
—
Russia lacks young players who can strengthen the national team. Some
say a limit for foreign players should be established. Others say it’s
not necessary. Does Germany need the limit?
— Our Bundesliga club must have 12 players with a German passport in the application.
— And why do you need them? The determining factor is free competition...
—
What for? Bundesliga clubs, both the first and second one, are required
to have their own academies. And if they invest a lot of money in terms
and salary for skilled professionals who are able to develop a player
to the level of the necessary requirements, it is quite logical that the
board sets the aim: give us one or two talented guys once a year. And
once the task is set, it means that German players appear in clubs.
Those that have a chance to play in the first eleven, since they are
sufficiently prepared.
— Does Germany have any salary cap for young players? Maybe a non-public one.
—
No. We live under capitalism. One club wants player X, the second one
wants player X, there appears an agent who negotiates with both. Indeed,
there are situations where a young football player gets a too expensive
contract, although his playing is not very good. But this means that he
merely has a strong agent! In the end, the club says that it needs this
player and pays him money.
— Does that mean that high salaries of young players are not a problem for German football?
— Yes, it does.
— Why?
— I don’t understand you.
—
Well, let me explain. In Russia, if a player representing the youth
team of the Premier League club immediately receives a good salary
covering all his needs, he usually loses motivation.
— Ah, that’s
what you are talking about! No, our young people do not have problems
with the mentality, no matter how much they earn. Look, Mario Götze - he
perfectly plays football, scored a goal in the World Cup final and has
plenty of money. He could already go to, say, the Dominican Republic and
lie with a cocktail. But he continues to play at the highest level.
Given that no one has cancelled the idea that when you have money, live
is wonderful. The guys like to play for full stands, in beautiful
stadiums, pit strength against serious rivals. They love football,
therefore their mentality is all right. Our youth has another
psychological problem: many in the early age get used to win
tournaments, score goals, become the best. But the transition from the
red carpet to adult football where they are nobody just yet is hard for
them, not everyone can get ahead in the end. It takes nearly three years
to find feet really in the period between the youth teams and main
ones. Only if you're a great player, you manage to go through this stage
quickly and painlessly.
— May be, you won’t understand the next question as well, it’s again about Russia...
— (Laughs) Come on, I like your questions!
—
Your colleague Nikolai Pisarev has produced an idea discussed so much:
to include the picked team in the country championship, with the help of
which it would be possible to prepare players for the World Cup 2018.
What do you think?
— A good idea. I would even say, an excellent
one. From the point of view of creating a special team spirit, building
relationships in such a team, even playing links. For example, players
from all over Germany come to join in our national teams. Someone once
played with someone in one team, but still the guys know each other
little. Everyone has his own idea of football. It takes much time to
make them equal. But if you have a team that constantly plays in one of
the divisions, there won’t be such problems. However, it is impossible
to create such a team in Germany, of course. We have a lot of rules and
laws (Laughs).
— Some time ago Russia was fond of
football training system taken from Holland, Netherland specialists are
still in demand in many Asian countries. Can you explain why?
—
The Dutch philosophy is to develop the qualities of a particular player
to the highest extent. We in Germany primarily talk about training the
teams as a whole. Individuality and team — inseparable things. They
admit in Holland that a team is very important, but add that it is
composed of 11 players. A coach there will say, "I'm working today on
the position of the 11th number. Let us learn to be a Robben for an
hour." And the player is really getting better and better. That is why
Dutch players reach high peaks and play for great clubs. But on the
other hand, that’s why it’s hard for the national team of this country
to win prizes. They achieve a lot for a small country. But something is
always lacking.
— A small country, not very rich, and
therefore clubs always have sell football players. Actually, that is why
they train them. Germans do not go abroad with the same easiness...
—
We have enough money in our clubs, that’s why players do not want to
leave. And as I already said, every match in Germany is served as a
small event. So why should we lose this? You can certainly go to, say,
Italy. But now Serie A is not very interesting for our players, except
for Miro Klose and Mario Gomez. Ozil, Khedira, Podolski play for
Arsenal, but that's because Arsène Wenger likes German players — after
all, he's from Alsace, he was born in Strasbourg. It is quite close to
Germany. But in general it’s not easy to go abroad and at the same time
earn a lot of money and have the same emotions as our football gives. In
terms of the atmosphere, we are on top now. And in some countries
people do not want to have German players. France for example and
normally England, and Spain and …. I don´t know why (Laughs).
—
How often do you meet as a whole coaching staff? I mean, coaches of
German youth and junior teams, as well as Bundestrainer Joachim Löw.
—
About once a month. We meet in the evening, go somewhere together just
to chat. The next day, we discuss all the pressing problems during 6-7
hours in the normal course of business. Everyone tells something about
his team, then we all together analyze it, formulate challenges.
— Do you always share the same opinion with your colleagues?
— Never! We are Germans, we don’t have a common point of view (Laughs).
We can argue ourselves hoarse. But when it comes to public statements,
we all speak in the same way and are common in our opinions.
— Do you really argue yourself hoarse even with Joachim Löw?
— Yes, we do, of course. Simply he reserves the right to decide (Laughs).
At least because the main source of the Federation income is the
national team. If it doesn’t bring results, all the other teams will
face problems.
— And will your team go to the World Cup — New Zealand on shipboard?
— (Laughs) Yeah, on shipboard! But in business-class cabins!
Pictures: Natalia Zhidkova
