DHe can do nothing with former U-21 national coach Horst Hrubesch’s repeated criticism of the level of young German football players. “There are always better and slightly weaker vintages,” said Hrubes of “Sport Bild” (Wednesday). “Since basically youngsters are not bad, we just have to train them well. We have enough specialists who can change that,” said the 70-year-old, who is currently working as a junior director at Hamburger SV and was responsible for various junior teams in the DFB for the first two decades.

Hrubesh said he could do nothing with some sort of demand for more specialists or positions. “I’m just as angry today when my coaches tell me: We need a great central defender,” he said. “I answer: Why? Where’s the problem? I don’t need the big boys to make them good defenders. It’s a question of training, of development.”

U21 is weak, women are strong

In Germany, Hrubesch has a problem with entitlement thinking. “Sometimes I think: We are too arrogant. We have nothing else to do but we just have to win. We also have to accept that other nations get better with time,” he said.

Discussions about the DFB youth had recently resumed after the weak performance of the German U21s. The team lost 4–0 to Poland in qualifying for the European Championship, Junior’s first defeat in 14 months. Among other things, Hermann Gerland, long-time FC Bayern co-trainer and current assistant to under-21 coach Antonio di Salvo, expressed his lack of opinion among some players and clear about the general training path among German youth footballers. spoken eloquently.

For German women, however, things are currently going much better: after a successful end to the year, the European Championship year may come from the point of view of German women’s football players. “The expectation is already huge,” said midfielder Sarah Dabritz with the EM mission in England over the next few months in the summer (6 to 31 July 2022).