When Oliver Bierhoff was relieved of his duties as Direktor Nationalmannschaften und Akademie (aka technical director), you might have thought that he would have checked out from following the German national team for a bit.
Not so fast my friend.
Bierhoff has been fully engaged in keeping up with Germany as it had a successful run in the group stage.
“(Germany) fully deserved to win the group. In my opinion, we saw a very strong German team in the group stage, which showed their dominance and class, particularly in the first two matches. Against Switzerland, we were clearly the team that dominated the game, but we didn’t have the same 100% impact over 90 minutes as we did in the first two matches. Now we need to take the good feeling and self-confidence with us for the decisive games in the knockout stages,” Bierhoff told Tz’s Philipp Kessler and Mano Bonke (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).
The interviewers might have gotten ahead of themselves in asking Bierhoff to compared the “team spirit” of this group vs. the World Cup winners in 2014, but the former executive responded anyway.
“2014 was of course a very special tournament in many ways. The cohesion and team spirit on and off the pitch were unique. But I have the feeling that the team also has a strong cohesion on and off the pitch at the current tournament, that they fight together and support each other. Julian Nagelsmann and his staff have played a big part in that. They have put together a team where you always have the impression that everyone is helping each other and everyone is tearing themselves apart for each other. Now it’s important to maintain this spirit and mindset and show that they have the absolute will,” said Bierhoff. “(Nagelsmann) is an absolute top coach. I knew that even before his time at the DFB and he has already successfully demonstrated it in the Bundesliga. You can see that he has clear ideas that he communicates to the team.”
Looking for some thoughts on Germany’s group stage performance, Bayern Munich’s wild start to the transfer season, and why the New World Order in the front office might not have a long-term plan at this stage? Good, then we have you covered with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Weekend Warm-up Show! You can get the podcast on Spotify or below: