Crisis of the national team: Vogts and Helmer: Current players satisfied too quickly

“That’s where we have to start: Why are our players no longer world class? Why are we behind in the disciplines that used to make us strong? The others are faster, they are more athletic, they can fight better. We have missed crucial developments in international football, that is becoming increasingly clear,” continued the 1996 European champion coach.

Helmer calls for Schweinsteiger

Helmer accused the national team, which had already failed in the World Cup round of 16 against outsiders Paraguay, of not giving it their all. “If every one of the current players had pushed themselves to the limit – I’m sure Germany would still be in the tournament,” said the 1996 European Championship winner in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.

The 61-year-old ex-professional is calling for a 2014 world champion to join the national team. “It doesn’t really matter whether it’s in the coaching team or in the general staff. Bastian Schweinsteiger, for example, could perhaps have explained to the boys what it means to play for Germany and tear themselves apart,” said Helmer, who, like former coach Vogts, was there in 1994 when the then DFB team, also in the USA – and similarly disappointing as the current one – failed in the World Cup quarter-finals against Bulgaria.

Vogts wants orientation towards other countries

Vogts, on the other hand, is in favor of orienting himself towards other nations in the future: “The national coach has to go to England, to France, to South America. He has to look: What is being done differently and perhaps better, what can we use for ourselves?”

In his opinion, there should be regular meetings between the national coach and the Bundesliga coaches “in order to carry out a modern analysis of international football”. Foreign national coaches should also be invited. “You learn more there than on courses at the sports college,” Vogts continued.