Schalke start life after Rangnick with a win

Good day everybody. I’m here as ever to assess the last round of Bundesliga matches. Please excuse the tardy entry; Oktoberfest, enough said…

The big story of the weekend was the way in which Bayern swept aside title rivals Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday evening. They won by three goals to nil, have won their last six league matches and haven’t conceded in their last nine – all rather depressingly familiar. Elsewhere, Hertha Berlin’s unbeaten away record in 2011 came to an end after a 2-1 defeat to Werder Bremen, Claudio Pizarro bagging another couple; Dortmund returned to winning ways by scraping a last-minute goal of their own away at Mainz; and Schalke got off to a winning start without Ralf Rangnick (who resigned last Thursday) by beating SC Freiburg 4-2 at the Veltins Arena. It’s these two teams I’ll be focusing on this entry.

Last week, football fans here were shocked and puzzled in equal measure when news first broke that Ralf Rangnick had resigned as manager of Schalke, citing burnout and mental exhaustion. He’d been in the job since the end of March this year, and managed to save the club from what would have been a very unexpected relegation on the final day of last season. He also led them to the semi-finals of the 2011 Champions League, where they were beaten by Manchester United. The aim for this season was to write off their disappointing finish in the league last year and challenge Dortmund, Bayern and Leverkusen for the title. So far this season the club has been rather inconsistent. From their first six games, they had taken 9 points; the games they had lost were away at Stuttgart and Wolfsburg, and at home to Bayern, who seem to be hammering everyone at this moment in time.

In retrospect it’s not surprising that Rangnick decided to step down. He did the very same thing at the start of 2011, leaving the manager’s post at Hoffenheim, again citing the pressures of top-level management. On taking the job at Schalke in March, he admitted to a sense of obligation for the team he had managed in 2005-06. Since last Thursday, however, he has admitted that succumbing to that feeling of nostalgia in wanting to help out old friends was a mistake and an opportunity which came too early for him. Despite leaving Schalke somewhat in the lurch, his decision has been positively received by his ex-colleagues. Joachim Löw praised him for taking the job in the first place, while for Horst Held, Schalke 04 General Manager, Rangnick’s health was undoubtedly the priority.

I thought the situation made an interesting parallel with that of Steve Coppell, former Manchester United winger and Premier League manager. He took over as manager of Manchester City in 1996, but resigned six games and 33 days later due to the pressures of the job. And in 2010 he was appointed manager of Bristol City manager, but resigned after three months, this time citing a lack of passion for football management altogether. The two men, Coppell and Rangnick, are similar ages (56 and 53), and, while Steve Coppell is no longer involved in management, I wonder what the future holds for Rangnick. He has retained the respect and sympathy of other Bundesliga managers, and, should a managerial vacancy in the Bundesliga arise in the next few months, I can imagine his name will be on column writers’ lips. It’s currently Bundesliga 2-0 Premiership if we’re counting managerial casualties.

On the pitch, at least, Schalke seem to have got over the shock of losing their manager. Despite conceding inside two minutes to Freiburg (Demba Cissé, a recent transfer target for Fulham and Sunderland, added to his transfer fee with a well-taken goal after an error from keeper Ralf Fährmann), Schalke came back to win 4-2. Freiburg actually created a host of chances and should have won the game themselves. Cisse has scored six goals already this campaign, but the club is struggling. They’re currently second from bottom, level on points and goals conceded with Hamburg. Encouragingly, however, the performance against Schalke on Saturday was far better than their recent displays, especially the 7-0 annihilation at the hands of Bayern two weeks ago. Manager Marcus Sorg should be encouraged by that.

What he might be more concerned is the fact that Hamburg’s season is underway, finally. After sacking Michael Oenning, who, in truth, looked like a dead man walking, HSV won their first game of the season away at Stuttgart of all places, under the stewardship of interim boss and assistant to Oenning, Rodolfo Cardoso. Buoyed by superb displays from Jeffrey Bruma and Gökhan Töre, both signed from Chelsea, Hamburg came from behind to win and can now start focusing on climbing the table, starting with their next game at home to Schalke.  Incidentally, Schalke today confirmed the appointment of veteran coach Huub Stevens, another one who has managed the club previously, as Rangnick’s successor.

Matchday 7 – Results:

Stuttgart 1-2 Hamburg

Schalke 4-2 Freiburg

Mainz 1-2 Dortmund

Wolfsburg 1-0 Kaiserslautern

Gladbach 1-0 Nürnberg

Augsburg 0-0 Hannover

Bayern 3-0 Leverkusen

Köln 2-0 Hoffenheim

Bremen 2-1 Hertha

Until the weekend then. Here’s to a heavy defeat for Man City tonight, and that Hannover actually entertain a few people in the Europa League this Thursday.

Bayern vs City - a preview piece

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http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/manchester-city-should-look-at-bayern-munich-for-how-to-run-a-football-club/

Hannover double shocks champions Dortmund.

Servus everyone. The Dirndls/Lederhosen  are out, the beer is flowing and the drunken tomfoolery of the masses of party-goers (who seem to be mostly Australian) is currently engulfing the city of Munich. The Wiesn, or Oktoberfest as it’s more commonly referred to, began last Saturday and so commenced three solid weeks of drinking. Brilliant! It was also a rather incident-filled weekend of Bundesliga action, which I’ll now try and makes sense of for you.

I haven’t mentioned much of Hannover 96 in my previous entries, and that’s possibly doing them an injustice. So this week I’ll be focusing on their shock 2-1 victory over champions Borussia Dortmund. Jürgen Klopp’s team threw away three points and the chance of a first win in four, as two goals in the last four minutes from Karim Haggui and Didier Ya Konan sealed an unlikely victory for 96.

What do people know of Hannover 96? Well, current Reds’ defender Emanuel Pogatetz spent a couple of seasons on Teeside in recent years; Fulham fans might remember Leon Andreasen, who had a brief stint at Craven Cottage a couple of seasons ago, before moving to the AWD-Arena; and there’s also Christian Pander, recently released by Schalke 04, who scored a screamer against England at Wembley four and a bit years ago during the McLaren era. On a sadder note, goalkeeper Robert Enke was Hannover’s captain and Germany’s no.1, before his tragic and untimely suicide in November 2009. Unless you’re a Football Manager fanatic, then, Hannover aren’t exactly a club which receive much mention in England. That has changed in the last few months, however. Last season, they were the Bundesliga’s surprise package, finishing in 4^th place and sealing their first European qualification for 19 years since winning the German Cup in 1992 (the first lower league team to do so, incidentally). Stoke, Birmingham, Tottenham and Fulham might just meet them in the Europa League as well this season.

In the current Bundesliga campaign Hannover started off well. They had two wins from their first two games, and could have gone top of the league on matchdays 3 and 4, but were held to home draws by Hertha Berlin and FSV Mainz 05 respectively. Last week they were swept aside 3-0 by a Martin Harnik-inspired Stuttgart (that’s right, Harnik is actually decent now, decent enough to look out of place in that dreadful Austria team at Euro 2008 anyway). Dortmund have also suffered from a lack of consistency this season. Since their opening day blitz of Hamburg, they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hoffenheim, and produced their poorest performance of the season last weekend, losing 1-2 at home to newly-promoted Hertha (who are still unbeaten away in the league in 2011). Having said that, their record against Hannover going into Sunday’s game was excellent. Last season Kloppo’s men romped to 4-0 and 4-1 wins. This was a game which would tell us a lot about the strength of the respective squads, since both teams were in action in Europe earlier this week.

Hannover have a reputation for being rather workmanlike and a dull side to watch. Last season they scored just 49 goals in 34 matches, and had a goal difference of just +4, compared to Dortmund’s +45. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the game began with the champions on top in possession while Hannover were solid and organised, looking to hit their opponents on the counter-attack. Dortmund took the lead through Shinji Kagawa just after the hour mark. Leaving Pogatetz and Karim Haggui in his wake, the Japanese midfielder man lifted a classy finish over the head of 96 goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler. The game ebbed and flowed, but slowly Hannover worked up enough steam to force home an equaliser. Minutes after hitting the bar, defender Haggui converted from close range (87). Then, two minutes later, Neven Subotic’s error afforded Ivorian striker Didier Ya Konan half a yard of space in the penalty area, and he completed an unlikely turnaround with one minute remaining in normal time. Hannover held out to record a famous win and end their temporary blip, registering their first victory in five games. 

So what of this rather stuttering start to the season for Dortmund? I’ll qualify the next three paragraphs or so by saying that today’s defeat wasn’t a disaster for Klopp’s team. They played well and should have won the game from the position they were in, and it would be unwise to speculate too much on the significance of a result with such a freakish climax. Instead I’ll just speculate a little.

Jürgen Klopp has undoubtedly done a superb job at Dortmund. They play exciting football and have a solidity at the back to go with it: last season they scored an impressive 67 goals while conceding just 22 in the league. And the energy in their performance against Arsenal in the Champions League a few days ago, where they forced a deserved late equaliser, was also characteristic of how they have played since he has been in charge. But it seems that the burden of playing in Europe, which they didn’t have last year, might be taking its toll. After Sunday’s defeat, their form in the league is now played six, won two, drawn one and lost three, and they’re already eight points behind Bayern.

One possible lesson to draw from the defeats today and last weekend is the problem that Dortmund’s young squad seem to be having in adjusting to league mode after a Champions League game. Dortmund do have a strong squad, which is good enough to play in the Champions League. But many teams have the adjustment from European football to league football at the weekend tricky. Luckily for Klopp, he wasn’t forced to dismantle his squad after winning the title last season. Nuri Şahin , the club’s youngest ever debutant and last season’s player of the year, transferred to Real Madrid for €10m in the summer. But apart from him, and the exit of veteran Brazilian left-back Dedê, the squad remained largely intact.

Kagawa and Ilkay Gündoğan have both been excellent signings, purchased for very modest fees and representative of the sensible business plan that the owners have pursued since they avoided going into administration in 2006. And they have a wealth of promising young German talent in the form of Sven Bender, defender Mats Hummels and, lest we forget, Mario  Götze. 

Nevertheless, despite having great young players in every position, there are question marks surrounding the depth of their squad. Injury has kept the team’s main striker, Paraguayan Lucas Barrios, out of action this season, and the loss of of Şahin, who provided seven goals and eight assists in the league last year, seems to have corresponded to the lack of creativity in midfield, which Klopp alluded to after the defeat to Hertha. One might also point to the fact that Dortmund’s squad has such a young make-up. Seven of today’s starting eleven are aged 23 or under, while nine of yesterday’s team started the game in midweek. Certainly that lack of experience contributed to their throwing the points away today from a winning position, and could also make the effective transition from European to league football slightly more difficult.

A second small lesson to glean might also be the importance of star midfielder Mario Götze, if that waasn’t obvious enough. His importance has been clearly illustrated in the last three games and the lack of creativity which Klopp mentioned accentuated by his absence. After his red card and three-match ban against Leverkusen three weeks ago, he has missed the last two games in the league, both of which Dortmund have lost. Those defeats came either side of the Champions League game with Arsenal, in which Götze played and shone, and Dortmund were more like the team we saw sweep all before them last season. He is so direct that he immediately puts teams under pressure. As well as being a superb talent, he’s brimming with confidence right now after having scored again for Germany in the 6-2 thrashing of Austria ten or so days ago. It seems fairly certain that, if he isn’t soon lured away from Signal Iduna Park by a bigger club, the team will be built around him in the seasons to come. Now that Nuri Şahin  has left the club, Götze is the focal point of the Dortmund midfield, and they need a player of his quality back as quickly as possible. Next week the champions face a potentially tricky trip to Mainz, which he will also miss through suspension.

A word on Hannover briefly, since it seems I may have neglected them again. They seem to be having no such problems adjusting to league football again after their European exploits. I would worry about injuries with them though. Luckily, last season’s top scorer Ya Konan has opened his account for this season, and he timed it well, since current top scorer Mohammed Abdellaoue is out injured. Next week they face a trip to Augsburg. With no Europa League fixture on Thursday, I’d fancy them to beat the Bundesliga newcomers.

Just to finish, here’s a quick review of the rest of the weekends results. Manuel Neuer enjoyed a winning return to old club Schalke 04, with goals from Thomas Müller and Nils Petersen giving Bayern a 2-1 win; Hamburger SV’s woes continue after another defeat, again at home, this time to high-flying Mönchengladbach. Manager Michael Oenning looks a sure bet to be the first Bundesliga manager for the chop; far from being the Macht am Rhein, Leverkusen were embarrassed 1-4 at home to local rivals 1. FC Köln; and Hoffenheim continued their good start to the season with a 3-1 home victory against Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg.

Try and set aside some time to catch highlights of Nürnberg’s 1-1 draw with Werder Bremen on Saturday (link below). Tim Wiese was one of two goalkeepers sent off this weekend, after briefly morphing into Heurelho Gomes. He came charging out of goal to receive the ball, but lost the ball to Nürnberg striker Christian Eigler and hauled him down 25 yards from goal. Despite the fact that someone followed up and scored into an empty net, the referee curiously chose to bring play back and send Wiese off, giving a free-kick as the offence was outside the area. The match was also memorable for the incredible support of the Nürnberg fans, who belted out song after song with unerring passion, despite the golf-ball sized hailstones falling from the Nuremberg skies.

The pick of next week’s fixtures is Bayern’s clash with Leverkusen, although Werder Bremen against Hertha also looks one to watch out for. I’m predicting a lot of goals in that one. Anyway, here’s to a great weekend for Tottenham fans and a fun Oktoberfest!

Hau rein,

Bernie

http://www.footytube.com/video/1-nurnberg-v-werder-bremen-90781?ref=wv_relbox

Results

Freiburg 1-2 Stuttgart

Leverkusen 1-4 Köln

Hamburg 0-1 Gladbach

Nürnberg 1-1 Bremen

Hoffenheim 3-1 Wolfsburg

Hertha BSC 2-2 Augsburg

Kaiserslautern 3-1 Mainz

Hannover 2-1 Dortmund

Schalke 0-2 Bayern

What has gone wrong at Hamburger SV?

Hi there everybody. Now that we’ve had enough time to digest the weekend’s results in Germany (and England, where Tottenham Hotspur finally got their first points on the board this season), I’m going to discuss, analyse and inform you as to how the Bundesliga is shaping up.

This blog’s featured game is the north German derby which took place at the Weserstadion on Saturday evening. It finished Werder Bremen 2-0 Hamburg. I’ve decided to mention this game in detail as these are two teams which football fans in England will know a little about. Werder Bremen won’t be an unknown entity to fans of the aforementioned Tottenham Hotspur, since the teams met in the group stages of last season’s Champions League. Players such as Claudio Pizarro once tormented defences of the Premier League (well, Birmingham City at least), while Arsenal fans might be interested to know how the previous employers of Tony Adams-inspired Per Mertesacker might be getting on without their 6’7” defender. All you need to know about Hamburg right now is that they’re bang in trouble after a run of poor results, and Sporting Director Frank Arnesen (formerly of Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea) looks like his head might be the first to roll, just as soon as the sword has fallen on a defeated-looking manager Michael Oennig. Arnesen’s policy of putting the club’s faith in half of Chelsea’s academy, and Michael Mancienne, has gone rather awry.

As two of the nation’s best-supported clubs, and with only sixty-odd miles of autobahn between the cities, these two clubs share an impassioned rivalry. People may remember the conclusion of the 2008-09 season, when Hamburg, then managed by current Fulham boss Martin Jol, were twice beaten semi-finalists at the hands of their age-old rivals. They first lost to a Diego-inspired Bremen in the German Cup and then, two weeks later, in the UEFA Cup, the last season before it was rebranded as the Europa League. Last season this fixture was a close-run affair which saw Bremen come out 3-2 winners, while Hamburg won the return fixture 4-0.

The form table going into this game didn’t look good for Hamburg at all. The club had had the entire international break to reflect on its worst ever start to a Bundesliga season, and on an awful defeat at home to Köln. Leading 3-2 with ten minutes to go, an equaliser for Köln followed by a late blunder from HSV keeper Jaroslav Drobny gifted Stale Solbakken’s side, themselves struggling near the foot of the table, a 3-4 win in the Veltins Arena. Bremen, on the other hand, were one of the form teams in the league with three wins from four. The only points they had dropped were away at Leverkusen where they lost 1-0 to an injury-time winner from Michal Kadlec, and in their last fixture they had ground out a gritty 2-1 win away to Hoffenheim. Their confidence levels, by contrast, were high.

The match itself was a typical derby game, with chances a plenty for both sides and a total of eight yellow cards issued by referee Manuel Gräfe. After an even first half, that wily old fox in the box Claudio Pizarro produced the quality needed to break the deadlock. Doing what he evidently found he found so difficult in the Premier League, but does so well in the Bundesliga, Bremen’s Peruvian striker first netted after 52 minutes, and then made the game safe with his second goal 12 minutes from time. Last October, Pizarro overtook former Stuttgart and Bayern Munich striker Giovane Elber as the Bundesliga’s leading foreign goalscorer, and has now amassed a staggering 145 goals in 308 Bundesliga appearances for Bremen and Bayern Munich.

While the result was immensely pleasing to everyone connected to Werder Bremen, I want to bring to your attention the crisis that is now enveloping Hamburger SV. Frank Arnesen, ‘that guy who discovered Ronaldo’, was appointed at the beginning of July 2011 as the clubs new Sporting Director. As a talent scout of some repute, Arnesen was charged with improving the squad and turning the club into title challengers. It was reported that he would be promised, by the then President of HSV, Bernd Hoffmann, somewhere in the region of €20 million to turn the team into achievers once again. In actual fact, due to Hamburg’s financial predicament, Arnesen had to sell before he could buy. Money was raised through the sale of players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Joris Mathijsen and Piotr Trochowski. Other experienced players such as Frank Rost and Ze Roberto also moved on to pastures new. 

Arnesen’s answer to losing such a wealth of experience from the dressing room was to invest in a long-term plan to restore Hamburg to its former glory. He did this by investing in youth. Jeffrey Bruma, Gökhan Töre, Jacopo Sala, Slobodan Rajkovic and Michael Mancienne were all signed from Chelsea, while Per Ciljan Skjelbred joined from Rosenborg. The new recruits from Chelsea have an average age of just over 21, and, apart from Michael Mancienne, who spent two seasons on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers, hadn’t played more than 5 games between them in the Chelsea first-team. Rather like the problem that ‘Arsenal London’ were suffering at the beginning of the season, Hamburg’s team was too young and inexperienced to deal with the pressure of maintaining the standards set by a well-supported and prestigious club.

They did indeed lose a lot of experienced players in the summer, and replacing them with promising youngster who, let’s face it, aren’t up to the job right now, was always going to be a risk. Is the fact that they lost those players enough to explain Hamburg’s terrible start to the season? After all, they still have experienced heads in the team: David Jarolim (300 appearances), Mladen Petric (106), Heiko Westermann (198), Dennis Aogo (94), Marcell Jansen (154) and Jose Paolo Guerrero (141) all have ample Bundesliga experience. But beyond the six names mentioned above there aren’t any that stand out in the squad as ‘experienced’ enough to handle playing for a top-six side in the Bundesliga. It is the fault of Frank Arnsesen for pursuing a strategy laden with such obvious risk, and ending up with a squad that blatantly lacks depth. Some blame should probably be laid at the feet of the club owners and ex-President Hoffmann for failing to deliver on his promise.

We shouldn’t also neglect to mention the man who has had to watch Hamburg’s defeats from the dugout this season – manager Michael Oennig. His managerial record is modest, only including a year-long stint at 1. FC Nürnberg and a spell in charge of the under 19s team at VfL Bochum. His career at the Veltins Arena also started off rather ignominiously, when it was revealed that the owners had earmarked Bernd Schuster as their preferred choice, but couldn’t afford his wages (doesn’t sound like Schuster does it?). Frank Arnesen’s problem now is that he has no choice but to publicly back a manager, who, with every passing game, looks even more resigned to the fact that he won’t be in a job very soon. Hamburg’s Sporting Director declared in a press conference this afternoon his ‘utter satisfaction with the current make-up of the squad’ and that he wasn’t panicking at all. But he also uttered those dreaded words after Saturday’s defeat, “if we play like that, we’ll pick up points.” I think I remember Sammy McIlroy saying something similar during Northern Ireland’s goalless/winless/joyless run that seemed to last for an entire qualifying campaign.

There is trouble brewing at Hamburg, and there’ll be casualties to boot. It seems clear that the manager will have to pull off a miracle to keep himself from the chop, and Frank Arnesen might also have cause for concern for his future. On the pitch, things certainly aren’t getting any easier for Hamburg. Their next three fixtures are Gladbach (home), Stuttgart (away) and Schalke (home). Now is definitely a good time to be playing the 'Redshorts.'

Results elsewhere on matchday 5 were also interesting. Now we’ll start to see what Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund squad is made of, after they succumbed to a 1-2 home loss to Markus Babbel’s Hertha Berlin (Hertha’s superb away run continues); Ryan Babel scored twice to help Hoffenheim to an impressive 0-4 away win at Mainz 05, their first ever Bundesliga win there; Leverkusen had too much quality for newly=promoted Augsburg, winning 4-1. Oh, and Bayern Munich beat a hapless SC Freiburg 7-0. Watching Mario Gomez score from three yards gets a bit dull after a while. Here’s to also hoping for two entertaining games when Dortmund meet Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen face Chelsea in the Champions League this week. I know who I’ll be supporting.

Results, Matchday 5

Augsburg 1-4 Leverkusen

Dortmund 1-2 Hertha BSC

Bayern Munich 7-0 Freiburg

Mainz 0-4 Hoffenheim

Stuttgart 3-0 Hannover

Gladbach 1-0 Kaiserslautern

Bremen 2-0 Hamburg

Köln 1-2 Nürnberg

Wolfsburg 2-1 Schalke

Next week sees another full schedule, but super Sunday looks the one to watch out for – Dortmund travel to Hannover, while Manuel Neuer and Bayern Munich face a testing trip to Schalke. I’ll leave you with something that we didn’t see enough of when he was in the Premier League: Ryan Babel tormenting the opposition defence:

http://www.footytube.com/video/1-fsv-mainz-05-hoffenheim-sep10-90133?ref=tchan_ov_vidgrid

Hau rein,

Bernie

What difference did Philipp Lahm's comments make to the Germany team?

Hi all. This is a quick mid-week review of the international games, since the last entry I posted seems like an age ago. I’ll make a brief mention of Germany’s progress in their last two matches. But I also want to focus on Germany and Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm.

Last Friday, Germany (surprise-surprise) became the first team to qualify for the European Championships next summer after an easy win against Austria in Gelsenkirchen. Goals from Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Özil among others, a couple of assists from Thomas Müller…. sound familiar? This time it was neighbours Austria on the wrong end of a thrashing. At least they didn’t get embarrassed in a World Cup, but that’s ancient history now.

A lot had been made of the match in the build-up to it, by the German and the Austrian press. The return fixture in Vienna had actually been a close-run affair, with Germany winning 2-1 in stoppage time thanks to a Mario Gomez goal. People hoping for an upset were emphatically disappointed, as this time there was no question of Anschluss, or indeed of a Spain-82 scenario, where both sides take it easy and let each other qualify. As ever, Jogi Löw’s team moved the ball around with such speed and fluency in the final two thirds of the pitch that they could have posted a cricket score with the number of chances they created. Klose and Podolski kept up their sensational scoring records for the national team by scoring their 62^nd and 43^rd international goals respectively, while talents like André Schürrle and Mario Götze added weight to their already blossoming reputations with a goal apiece towards the end. Having already qualified, therefore, Germany played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with Poland in Gdansk yesterday, with Wojciech Szczesny giving Arsenal fans at least some reason to feel optimistic by putting in a superb display.

Not only is Joachim Löw’s squad blessed with some fantastic players, but they all want to give their absolute best for their country. Lukas Podolski is one good example. His career-goals tally in the Bundesliga is only one better than his record for the national team. Another good example, which I’ve been meaning to cite for a couple of weeks, is that of German Captain Philipp Lahm. He released an autobiography recently, in which he criticised past German managers Jürgen Klinsmann and Rudi Völler, as well as Felix Magath and Louis van Gaal. He accused Völler of a lack of professionalism and too much focus on leisure. But it was his comments about Klinsmann which really caused a stir here. Of the former Germany captain and manager he said that, when Klinsmann was manager of Bayern Munich in 2008-09, the team had to develop and practise its own tactics for games, without receiving any help from the management. Lahm asserted that Klinsmann had lost the dressing room after six weeks, by which time the players expected, and probably hoped, that he would soon be fired. The book is called Der Feine Unterschied, which roughly translates to “The Minute Differences”, a reference to, among many things, Lahm’s rise to the top of international football, but also to how close Germany have come to winning a major tournament in the last decade or so, in 2002, 2006 and 2008. (There’s also, I would wager, a dig or two aimed at Michael Ballack, which we’ll get to later).

Lahm has played 83 times for his country and is still just 27 years old. He was appointed captain for the 2010 World Cup, and stated publicly that he wouldn’t be relinquishing the captaincy when Michael Ballack returned to fitness. It’s clear, then, that he doesn’t mince his words. Reactions to the revelations he made in his autobiography were animated to say the least. He was disciplined by Joachim Löw, and by Bayern’s big cheeses Uli Hoeness and Franz Beckenbauer, who no doubt had some egg on their faces due to their previous association with Klinsmann.

What riled people, aside from the lack of respect shown to popular figures in German football, was the fact that the culprit was the current captain of the national team and the nation’s most successful club. The popular feeling was that he should have waited until he had retired, or was no longer involved with the national team, to express his feelings, as was done by previous internationals like Stefan Effenberg and Oliver Kahn. He did show a lack of respect to fellow professionals, some of whom, such as ex-Bayern coach Felix Magath, now managing Wolfsburg, he’ll line up against this season. Lahm himself defended the book by saying that he was just writing what he saw, that he wouldn’t change any of it and that the hysteria surrounding its content was exaggerated.

Crucially, Joachim Löw retained his services as Germany captain, despite calls for him to be replaced. John Terry did something far worse when he had an affair with the girlfriend of a former team-mate last year, and deserved to have the captaincy taken from him. But there still seems to me a marked difference between the manager-player relationships in the German team and the England team. Fabio Capello publicly criticised Andy Carroll for his lifestyle recently, whereas Joachim Löw sat next to his captain and defended him against probing questions from masses of reporters. Löw would have been well within his rights to criticise his captain, since an attack on Klinsmann’s management techniques was an attack on Löw’s as well (they managed Germany together in the 2006 World Cup, Löw as assistant), but he stood by him. I can’t imagine Fabio Capello doing such a thing. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, he reprimanded John Terry for complaining that Joe Cole wasn’t being played last year in South Africa. Admittedly the situation isn’t really comparable to Lahm and Löw, but there’s an interesting contrast there nonetheless.

This story also made me reflect on what present England players, like Steven Gerrard, for example, or ex-England internationals have to say about the national team in their autobiographies. Gerrard revealed that he was thinking of moving to Chelsea during Euro 2004, but changed his mind after missing a penalty in the shoot-out against Portugal. That shows you what he was really focusing on then. Gary Neville recently recalled that he considered playing for England a waste of time, while Jamie Carragher expressed indifference when he lost a game for England as opposed to losing with Liverpool. It’s fairly clear that, for these players, playing for their country wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all, when it should be exactly that, as ex-England captain Paul Ince stated publicly today.

I read into the Philipp Lahm situation how seriously he takes playing for, and captaining, Germany. If you accept that, then you can forgive his disrespectful comments towards other professionals. But you can’t question his commitment. He saw problems in the Germany and Bayern set-ups and decided to make them public. Germany have always had big personalities in their team – Beckenbauer, Matthäus, Effenberg, Ballack and now Lahm – but it’s precisely because they can still play as a team, and want to give their absolute all for their country, that they, and Lahm, are more successful than England. There was some personal score-settling in Lahm’s book, and his timing was probably ill-judged (not to mention that he’s only 27 – he’ll probably need to write a new one in ten years’ time). But I’m sure many England fans would like to see John Terry take the same attitude of highlighting the England’s teams many problems so frankly that they might be addressed and resolved more quickly, as well as a favourable reaction from Fabio Capello.