Beaten in Austria (2-0) to conclude a catastrophic year 2023, Germany has “a lot of work” ahead of it to perform well at “its” Euro 2024 (June 14-July 14), its coach Julian said on Tuesday evening. Nagelsmann. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. We must not put ourselves in the position of the victim, telling ourselves that we will not succeed. We have to accept that we have a lot of work,” explained the former Bayern Munich coach on German public television ZDF.
In 2023, the Germans have lost six of their eleven friendly matches played to prepare for Euro 2024 at home which begins in just under seven months (June 14-July 14). Germany will play the opening match in Munich. “We have to accept that it will only work with extremely difficult work,” added the German coach, in office since the end of September, after the sidelining of Hansi Flick.
“It’s not that the team doesn’t know what they need to do or that they don’t want to do it. Blocked is not the right word, but it is not released. It’s a good group when you look at it, but the transfer on the field is not happening yet,” said Nagelsmann. “It can’t be worse, maybe that’s the only positive thing. Everything we do on the pitch has a reason, the coach knows these reasons,” noted Germany captain Ilkay Gündogan speaking to ZDF after the match.
“We will have to live for the next three or four months with these negative results”, the last two on Saturday in Berlin against Turkey (3-2) and Tuesday in Vienna against Austria. “Everyone needs to clarify what they can do to be optimally prepared for the match. If we do it in a club until March, it can be better in March,” he tried to be positive. The Germans will have two preparation matches at the end of March, then two or three more matches at the end of May and the beginning of June before starting their Euro 2024 at home.