There can be no talk of relaxed evenings of soccer in the tv chair for joachim low these days. The national coach is guaranteed to be startled every time a national player lies on the turf with his face contorted in pain after a duel.
Before announcing his mammoth squad for the three-legged internationals at the beginning of october in colombia against turkey, in ukraine and again in colombia against switzerland, the 60-year-old low wanted to wait for the supercup final between FC bayern and borussia dortmund. The lineup will not be announced until friday.
But even before the bayern-BVB summit, the DFB head coach received some unpleasant news. The last came from his former assistant hansi flick. Leroy sane will be out for at least two weeks with a capsular injury to his right knee, where the winger tore his cruciate ligament just a year ago, the FC bayern trainer reported.
There is also a question mark behind toni kroos for the DFB service. The 30-year-old breaks at real madrid because of a muscle blister on the gesab. "It depends on the development now, how it gets better day by day," said kroos. In addition, midfielder ilkay gundogan is still in quarantane after a positive corona test.
Low is forced to improvise again. At the mabig successful new start of the national team against spain (1:1) and switzerland (1:1), he had last voluntarily waived the bayern stars manuel neuer, joshua kimmich, serge gnabry and leon goretzka as well as the leipzig lukas klostermann and marcel halstenberg. The sextet should recover from champions league exertions.
They are now returning, and perhaps BVB star marco reus as well. Low's actual sporting plan was as follows: "i wanted to see the team take certain steps in october, november." Of necessity, this must now happen without sane – perhaps also without kroos and gundogan. The national coach is looking for the right squad formula: "inevitably, the squad will have to be rougher," he had announced. 25, 26 or 27 players could be lows answer for three games in seven days. "The players have a hammer program ahead of them. I can't play three games over 90 minutes."
Low must manage a balancing act between player welfare and DFB constraints. For the association, every international match is financially valuable in corona times. Low is thinking above all of the european championship, which has been postponed until the summer of 2021: "everything should be geared toward the tournament for an association, a team, and a coach."
The national coach needs to forge alliances, especially with his former departures flick, who as bavaria coach is his most important supplier of players. "With the national players, you have to work together with the national coaches to make sure there is a balanced load," flick warned. Only then can everyone achieve their goals: "we have to agree on the best possible for the players."
Flick described the match schedule problems at FC bayern. On 13. October germany plays switzerland. Even on the following day, nations such as france, poland or austria will be fielding important munich players in the nations league. Less than 24 hours later, FC bayern will play against the. October in the DFB cup against the amateurs of 1. FC duren at. And just two days later, the record champion continues its bundesliga campaign at arminia bielefeld. "I didn't make the dates. But you have to ask yourself if that makes sense," groaned flick ahead of the supercup against dortmund.