#hansi-flick

#hansi-flick

9:51 AM ET



Gabriele MarcottiSenior Writer, ESPN FC



DOHA, Qatar -- When you're a four-time World Cup winner, two straight first-round exits is bound to bring gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair and the sort of self-criticism that would have done Chairman Mao proud.That's what awaits Germany as they travel home.

Alphonso Davies has not been at his best for Bayern Munich this season; there's no getting around that.He has dealt with some minor injury problems, but that's nothing out of the usual ever since he's joined Bayern from the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS.Last season, he had to recover from having myocarditis that saw him sidelined for a considerable spell, while the season before, he had to recover from a pretty significant ankle ligament injury.

After an up-and-down 2-0 win over Peru, former Bayern Munich boss and current Germany manager Hansi Flick is planning changes to his lineup.What we know as this point is that Chelsea FC's Kai Havertz and Borussia Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck will hit the bench in favor of Bayern Munich's Serge Gnabry and West Ham 's Thilo Kehrer.

Initial reactions and observations


With this loss, Union Berlin seem poised to overtake Bayern Munich in the table this week.Makes next weekend's clash an absolute nail-biter, the Bundesliga could be on the line.Strange stat: Bayern Munich have not won vs Gladbach since Hansi Flick was in charge, a 6-0 win at the Allianz Arena in May 2021.

Germany has had...well, an iffy year to say the least.On one hand, they crashed out of the group stage of the World Cup and failed to advance to the final round of the Nations League.On the other hand, though, they still showed a lot of fight, bar a few occasions, and well, in this state, that may be all that fans can ask for.

According to a report from Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Germany's coaching staff is not altogether concerned about the future of the squad.After taking time to assess the performance of the group at the World Cup in Qatar, former Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick and his assistant coaches feel as if the chanced to advance were there, but they did not get converted at nearly a good enough rate:

Hansi Flick and his staff are confident regarding the future and feel the main problem at the World Cup was the chance conversion.

One of the more bizarre transfer rumors that has emerged in recent weeks is the one linking Bayern Munich to Chelsea FC attacking midfielder Mason Mount.Mount had been linked to Bayern Munich back in 2021, but the rumor has started to pick up more steam now that former Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel is at the helm in Bavaria.

Leon Goretzka limped off injured for Germany in Tuesday's clash with Belgium, making him a doubt for Bayern Munich's crunch Bundesliga clash with Borussia Dortmund.Bayern trail Dortmund by just one point at the Bundesliga summit but may have to do without Goretzka for Saturday's crucial Klassiker after the midfielder suffered an apparent ankle injury.

Despite managerial upheaval, conflict between the fans and the board and their current position in second place, Bayern Munich are set to rack up an 11th consecutive Bundesliga title this season.Before Bayern's suffocating stranglehold of the German top flight over the past decade, no team had ever won the Bundesliga more than three times on the spin - and that had only happened on four occasions in the history of the competition.

Could Bayern Munich be back in the running for FC Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong?According to Sport (as captured by The Sun), De Jong would be tempted by a move to the Bundesliga:

Manchester United and Chelsea target Frenkie de Jong could snub a move to England in favour of joining Bayern Munich, according to reports.

In a somewhat odd report, Bayern Munich might be shying away from a pursuit of Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane in favor of chasing Manchester United 's Marcus Rashford:

It is almost certain that FC Bayern will want to strengthen their attacking team in the coming season.In this context, the name Harry Kane, who is said to be the absolute dream player for the Bayern bosses, is mentioned again and again.

Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Joshua Kimmich lauded Julian Nagelsmann as "easily" being among his top three coaches ahead of the 35-year-old's expected dismissal by the Bundesliga giants.Strong reports began to circulate on Thursday suggesting Bayern would remove Nagelsmann from his post despite club officials recently describing him as a "long-term project".

Feb 28, 2023



Chris WrightToe Poke writer



The Best FIFA Awards gala took place on Monday night with the great and good of the beautiful game descending upon Paris for one of football's most prestigious and clumsily named annual ceremonies.The big winners on the night were Lionel Messi and Alexia Putellas, who were crowned best men's and best women's player of the year, respectively, while the equivalent coaching awards went to Lionel Scaloni of Argentina and Sarina Wiegman of England.

According to one report, Chelsea FC is considering offering Bayern Munich a proposal - USMNT star Christian Pulisic for France forward Kingsley Coman:

Chelsea have proposed a swap deal to Bayern Munich to sign French forward Kingsley Coman.Graham Potter may have to consider revamping his attack in order to be more effective in front of goal, and a report from GOAL (via SPORT), has claimed that Chelsea have proposed a swap deal to Bayern Munich involving Coman.

Hansi Flick has made the decision to not involve Bayern Munich 's Thomas Muller in the German national team squad for the two upcoming international breaks.One of the breaks is later this month while the other is slated for June.They are set to play a pair of friendlies this time around (this month); first against Peru, and then Belgium.

Germany manager Hansi Flick is no stranger to close Champions League ties vs PSG.After all, in the former Bayern Munich coach's only full season in Bavaria, Bayern lost to PSG on away goals in truly heartbreaking fashion.After Bayern's recent 1-0 triumph over the French side, Flick was full of praise for Bayern's overall performance and quality of players:

Hansi Flick: "Bayern played very well in Paris and deserved to win 1-0 - although Paris obviously showed their quality towards the end of the game.

Bayern Munich played out a rather terrible follow-up to the PSG game with a 3-2 loss against usual suspects Borussia Mönchengladbach.An early red card to Dayot Upamecano set the tone for Bayern's game as they fell to the team whom they failed to beat since May 2021's 6-0 rout in the days of Hansi Flick.

Defensive midfielder Marc Roca endured a frustrating spell at Bayern Munich.For two years after his transfer from Espanyol, Roca cut a largely anonymous figure under a succession of coaches - Hansi Flick, then Julian Nagelsmann.Now at Jesse Marsch's Leeds United team in the Premier League, Roca is finally thriving.

RB Leipzig star Timo Werner has had a hell of a ride in recent years.From VfB Stuttgart wunderkind to RB Leipzig star to Germany starter to passing up a transfer to Bayern Munich to winning a Champions League title with Chelsea FC to falling out of favor in England and returning to Leipzig...it has been wild.

In their return to club football after the World Cup, Bayern Munich faced RB Salzburg in a friendly in Munich.Surprisingly, the hype situated around Bayern's return was not as high as anticipated though the void without football had left fans wanting Bayern back at the soonest.This game was the perfect return for Bayern as it provided the exact amount of pressure, spectacle and enjoyment we needed.

Speaking to the media during the during the club's training camp in Qatar, Bayern Munich center-back Matthijs de Ligt commented on a number of topics, including the stylistic approach of his new coach Julian Nageslmann.In doing so, he brought up a similarity between Nageslmann and current Manchester United coach Erik ten Hag.

There are still some potential roadblocks in the way, but one thing is for certain, Borussia Monchengladbach's Yann Sommer wants to move to Bayern Munich and Bayern wants Sommer to come in as a replacement for Manuel Neuer.At this current juncture, Gladbach just want to ensure that they will be bringing in a Sommer replacement to make sure they don't leave themselves without a starting, top quality keeper in the event that Sommer does, eventually, leave for Bayern.

Oh god, I'm going to get flamed for this for years on end.Don't let me down, Jules.Julian Nagelsmann took over as head coach of Bayern Munich in 2021 after Hansi Flick decided to leave at the end of the 2020/21 season, to largely positive reactions.As a young German with so much time on the clock and a forward thinking approach to the game, he was practically made for this job.

2022 was...well, not the best year for Germany fans.The German national team won a measly four games all year, and failed to advance to the latter rounds of both the Nations League and the World Cup.The only positive was that the team didn't finish dead last in their respective groups in both competitions, like they did in 2018.

The wounds of Germany's World Cup failure in Qatar are still fresh.There's plenty of work for Hansi Flick to do prior to Euro 2024 kicking off on home soil, but the DFB has shown their continued faith in the man that won the treble with Bayern Munich in the 2019/20 season by sticking with him as Germany manager for the foreseeable future.

Bayern Munich has had a fair share of great coaches in its long and rich history.Instantly recognizable names like Udo Lattek, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jupp Heynckes, and Hansi Flick come to mind, while the likes of Louis van Gaal and Pep Guardiola are worth mentioning.But there is one coach who stands head and shoulders above everyone else: Carlo Ancelotti.

The FIFA World Cup has concluded and Lionel Messi has finally won the trophy that has eluded him all these years.There's a different article about that here that you can check out, because this article will be me choosing the Bundesliga's best performers at the World Cup and explaining why I chose them.

Hansi Flick has had himself quite a year to forget.He drove Germany right back into the ground after winning a sextuple with Bayern Munich, and he desperately needs something to rejuvenate his career.Unfortunately, the German national team seems like too big a job for him, as the World Cup has proven.

According to a report from Abendzeitung journalist Maximilian Koch (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Austria national team coach Ralf Rangnick is dangling a pretty nice carrott to Bayern Munich phenom Paul Wanner: A spot on the 2024 Euro squad.The 2024 Euros, of course, will be held in Germany, which could entice Wanner, whose father is German and mother is Austrian, to make a quick decision on where to play his international ball.

Will Bayern Munich make a move for Werder Bremen's Niclas Füllkrug?Even after a bright start to the Bundesliga seasons with Werder Bremen, having already bagged 10 league goals, Füllkrug announced himself even further with his performances for Germany at the World Cup in Qatar.He was one of a small list of bright spots from what was an otherwise incredibly disappointing tournament from Hansi Flick and company, and the striker is now highly sought after both in the Bundesliga and abroad.

Thomas Müller is one of a small handful of players on the German national team that have been to four different World Cups and Bayern Munich's Raumdeuter is at a crossroads in his international career.At 33 years of age, while the decision might not be entirely up to just him, he'll have to think about whether or not he wants to continue on playing for Germany.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is currently a part of a five-man DFB panel alongside Oliver Kahn, Rudi Voller, Oliver Mintzlaff, and Matthias Sammer that's been constructed in efforts to directly aide Bernd Nuendorf and Hans-Joachim Watzke in strengthening German football in the buildup to Euro 2024.It's partially been taken as a bit of a knee-jerk response to Germany's failures at the World Cup in Qatar, but that was just one of many arrows slung through the core of Die Mannschaft that hasn't yielded a fairly decent return at a major international tournament since Euro 2016 in France, where they went all the way to the semifinals, getting knocked out by Les Bleus.

Bayern Munich never really seems to be able to catch a break when it comes to luck with injuries, as they'll now be without both Manuel Neuer and Lucas Hernandez for the the remainder of the season.The latter tore his ACL in France's opening match of the World Cup in Qatar, which was a 4-1 win over Australia, and will miss the remainder of the season, giving Julian Nagelsmann a bit of a defensive headache - losing both Neuer and Hernandez ahead of the Rückrunde as Bayern pushes across all three fronts is less than ideal.

This will not come as a surprise to many, but likely will not help Bayern Munich secure a deal to bring back loanee Alexander Nübel from AS Monaco early: Bayern Munich and Germany captain Manuel Neuer is not ready to cede his position for club or country just yet.After suffering a serious and unfortunate leg injury while skiing, Neuer was declared out for the season - and Bayern Munich has been in scramble mode ever since.

The sour taste of Germany's abysmal World Cup showing in Qatar is still fresh in the mouth, and to add insult to injury (quite literally) for German and Bayern Munich football fans, Manuel Neuer's broken leg as a result of a skiing accident sees that he will miss the rest of Bayern's season.It's an added blow that will come with an added sting for Bayern after their contingent for the German national team failed to make the necessary impact in Qatar that they would've hoped for to progress to the knockout stages.

According to a report from Sport1's Kerry Hau (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Germany manager Hansi Flick will continue to rely on Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer as his No. 1 goalkeeper despite Neuer's tragic leg injury that will sideline him for the rest of the season:

Hansi Flick is planning with Manuel Neuer as the starting goalkeeper in 2024.

While at Bayern Munich, Hansi Flick captured the imagination of fans by resurrecting a once-dead season and pushing the team to new heights  which resulted in a sextuple.Those days, however, are gone, but not altogether forgotten, even after Germany's poor showing at the World Cup in Qatar.Bayern Munich president Herbert Hainer is one of the people who remembers Flick's great success and is more than willing to give him more time to make it happen with the German national team.

Germany are facing a potential crisis in the center of the park, and it's one that men's national team coach Hansi Flick would do well to address early on.Bayern Munich 's double pivot of Joshua Kimmich and Leon Goretzka form a compelling starting duo, but behind and around them the well is starting to run dry.

As has been widely reported, the DFB held a crisis meeting today where several key decisions were made for the future,
As you probably saw posted on BFW earlier, former Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick will be staying on as coach despite rumors of locker room discontent.According to Sportbuzzer, this is what went down:

DFB President Bernd Neuendorf, DFL Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke and national coach Hansi Flick met on Wednesday to analyze the World Cup debacle of the German national team in Qatar.

In encouraging news coming out of Germany this morning, Hansi Flick will remain as head trainer of the DFB following the departure of Oliver Bierhoff earlier this week.According to Sport1's Kerry Hau, Hansi Flick is expected to remain despite Germany's exit at the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup.He will lead the DFB into Euro 2024, which is being hosted in Germany:

Hansi Flick bleibt Bundestrainer! „Wir als Mannschaft können viel mehr erreichen, als wir in Katar gezeigt haben.

Former (!!) technical director of the DFB Oliver Bierhoff's contract was terminated a while back amidst much chaos.Unrest within the DFB became more glaring after Germany's appalling World Cup campaign and the political statements with regard to One Love.Group stage exits in two consecutive World Cups and disastrous European Championship campaigns taken into consideration, Bierhoff finds himself leaving the DFB two years ahead of his contract's expiration.

According to a report from Sport Bild (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Germany went into the World Cup as a team divided because of Hansi Flick's previous work with Bayern Munich.All in all, this past World Cup was an underwhelming experience, with Germany ultimately being eliminated due to their untimely first loss to Japan 2-1 and Japan performing as the nemesis again beating Spain 2-1 in the last game of the group stage.

Bayern Munich and Germany legend Lothar Matthäus knows what it is like to be a player on the back end of his career.When Matthäus analyzed Thomas Müller's performance at the World Cup in Qatar, he could see that the Raumdeuter was not himself - and Matthäus could relate."Thomas Müller is at a certain age and had phases before the World Cup where he was injured.

Sometimes, writing is hard and reading (about all things Bayern Munich) is much easier.So, I have spent my time reading countless articles about the World Cup, including about Germany's exit, South Korea's last minute win in the group stages and so much more.And yet, I am still struggling to write about it.

There's a lot to digest and unpack with Germany's exit from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in the group stages - the second consecutive time they suffered that fate having crashed out at the same point in Russia back in 2018.For a nation that's so synonymous with footballing heritage and success, that is something that's simply unacceptable on all levels.

Former Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick could be in some hot water with the DFB, but still has the support of his players.According to a report from kicker (as captured by @iMiaSanMia), Flick and Oliver Bierhoff are both facing major scrutiny, but right now there is a stronger focus on Bierhoff's role in the disaster at the World Cup in Qatar.

Breaking news out of Germany - DFB team director Oliver Bierhoff has had his contract terminated.After a second consecutive World Cup failure that saw the Germans bounced out in the group stage, Bierhoff has now been held responsible.He will not see out the remainder of his contract, which was set to run until 2024.

Well Germany are out of the World Cup, and as a Bayern Munich fan it feels miserable to see how devastated everyone looks because of it.This elimination hits much harder after the disaster in 2018, and it could have serious implications for the club season coming up, especially in the Champions League.

28-year-old Matthias Ginter has had an up-and-down run with the Germany national team.First selected to a major tournament in 2014 in Grazil, Ginter didn't really establish himself regularly over the years.In fact, 2022 marked his third straight call-up to the Men's World Cup - all without making a single on-field appearance.

The knives are out for Hansi Flick (Netflix, please sponsor our podcast!)... Germany do not like to lose, and after a second straight exit at the FIFA Men's World Cup, the mood is apoplectic.Bayern Munich alumnus and current Sky Sports pundit Dietmar Hamann came out blasting."I think it's impossible that we can continue with the coach.

Are we really doing this?Former Bayern Munich man Hansi Flick is an elite coach, but off the heels of Germany's unfortunate exit at the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup, speculation about a possible successor is already beginning.First, there's no indication that Flick will be fired by the German national footballing association, the DFB.

Bayern Munich's Thomas Müller and Manchester City 's İlkay Gündoğan have each had a fantastic career.In fact, some would say that they are two of the best players - at their respective positions - that Germany has ever produced.Some...would say that.Certainly, Müller is more legendary and has accomplished more, and even though both players have had great careers, their best days are behind them.

Jersey Swap: Keylor Navas
Navas found himself with a decent amount of work to do, making multiple saves from the starting minute.For a guy that found himself beaten four times, he was truly Costa Rica's best player (bar Tejeda, who was fantastic!).Der Kaiser: Joshua Kimmich
Much to the frustration of fans, Hansi Flick decided to start Joshua Kimmich at right-back this game.

Hansi Flick didn't have a clue
If Flick has any dignity, he should probably offer his resignation.For a man who won the treble with Bayern Munich, he has shown none of the intensity or tactical acumen that took the football world by storm in 2020.Germany floundered, and the coach was heavily responsible.

Germany must win to have any chance of making it through to the knockout stages and it has taken less than ten minutes for die Mannschaft to break the deadlock against Costa Rica.After Thomas Muller missed very presentable early chance, David Raum came down the left, he put a perfect cross in for Serge Gnabry to flick into the corner.

Okay, this is it.If there was ever a time for Germany to start winning games, this would be it.Hansi Flick won a sextuple with Bayern Munich - in comparison, a World Cup group stage game vs Costa Rica should be a walk in the park, right?Well ...
Germany have not been good in this tournament.A combination of bad lineup selection, poor performances, and boneheaded mistakes have all contributed to the team's embarrassing position in the group table.

Germany players past and present can see that little extra something Werder Bremen striker Niclas Füllkrug brings to the national team setup.Now, with qualification on the line, the question on everybody's mind: will Hansi Flick trust his man of the hour enough with a start today against Costa Rica?