Here’s more from June, 2005 when I wrote for GOAL.com. I was in Germany at the time and covered the Confederations Cup. My opinion of Klinsmann is looking ever more sound in the light of current events in Bavaria…
Behind The Wall: The Emperor’s New Clothes
So that’s it for another two year’s then. The Confederations’ Cup is only truly meaningful in the year preceding the World Cup finals. With Germany hosting the big show next summer, the tournament was always going to be of more importance to Jürgen Klinsmann than to any other coach. What did we find out about the Nationalmannschaft? Quite a lot, actually, but we’ll never find out what we truly need to know as long as Klinsmann persists with his particularly vacuous style of management.
The main criticism levelled at the German team over the past few weeks has been that of defensive vulnerability. Yet, I feel this is somewhat akin to stating the blindingly obvious and still missing the point. Leaving philosophies of play aside, a defence in its most stripped-down form comprises the complete back line as well as the goalkeeper. With Philipp Lahm and Christoph Metzelder likely starters next summer, Germany was already without half of Klinsmann’s ideal back four though injury. Of course, it almost goes without saying that it was also without its regular goalkeeper – Oliver Kahn playing only the once prior to the Mexican third-place match.
Defensive solidity is based on familiarity. In my view, you cannot rotate a goalkeeper in the ludicrous manner that Klinsmann employs without destabilising the whole unit. The relationship between a goalkeeper and his sweeper or centre-half is pivotal to leadership and organisation at the back. Without stability, there is no routine organisation. Per Mertesacker and Robert Huth have been asked to lead from the back as boys with absolutely no assistance from the man in goal – simply because there’s not been a man in goal, there have been three!
Klinsmann is making a fundamental error in refusing to select his number one now. While he claims Kahn is that man, he brazenly insists on holding his non-sensical competition for the number one shirt all the way to next May. Yes, Huth and Mertesacker must really feel at ease knowing that the man behind them will be chopped and changed all the way to through next season.
The pyschology of the goalkeeper is unique. This is the one position on the field where confidence is vital – the confidence, that is, of your coach and team-mates. A goalkeeper will inevitably make mistakes, it’s a by-product of the human condition. However, he must be able to play without fear knowing that he will not be hung out to dry when he does slip-up. Kahn, Jens Lehmann, and Timo Hildebrand do not have that confidence, and they know any slip now will see them out of the reckoning. A nervy goalkeeper does not convey stature and a sense of calm to his boy defenders. Huth and Mertesacker, inexperienced as it is, are therefore further undermined by the misjudgement of their inexperienced coach.
However, don’t take my word for it. Take that of Ottmar Hitzfeld, the former Dortmund and Bayern coaching great. This week, Hitzfeld told Kicker: “I’m not sure continuously changing the goalkeeper is a particularly good move.” Jupp Derwall, one of Klinsmann’s illustrious predecessors, believes a “defined hierarchy would certainly be better.” Former German number one Harald Schumacher, a European Championship winner with Derwall in 1980, and one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation who fought a successful selection battle with Hamburger SV’s Uli Stein in his heyday says: “I’m not in agreement with it.” He should know, as his competition with Stein eventually led to the HSV man being sent home from the 1986 World Cup finals in frustration.
And therein lies the problem. The man that loses out next May will brood dementedly having had his hopes cruelly dashed at the last moment. His frustration will erase his focus and he will fester like a seething boil in a World Cup squad distracted by his disappointment and resentment. If anything happens then to the number one…
The number one, meanwhile, will not have played enough matches with the first choice defence in the build up to the competition, and will feel that his position is vulnerable at best. The truth for him will be obvious. Klinsmann doesn’t actually have any great confidence in any of his goalkeepers. Only a selection battle can make his mind up for him, for if the chosen one was obvious, he would have been chosen in the blink of an eye.
Klinsmann is making a rod for his own back. If his anointed stopper makes a mistake next summer, the coach will be accused of undermining confidence or of making the wrong choice. Rudi Völler could take no blame for Kahn’s World Cup final faux pas in Japan. Klinsmann will not be spared if his number one – whoever that may be – blunders under the German sun in 2006.
Brian A. O’Driscoll, June 29, 2005
