Julian Nagelsmann knows football — there is no doubt.
At Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig, he was lauded for his innovations, his ability to take mold nothing into something, and for his commitment to technology and analytics.
Even now, there is a good coach (somewhere) lurking in his brain.
However, his stint at Bayern Munich triggered something in him that he has not yet been able to solve. Always a serial tinkerer, Nagelsmann doubled-down on his tinkering at Bayern Munich to the point where no one ever seemed
to look or feel fully comfortable. Since taking over Germany, the experimentations were less, but the coach developed a more enhanced version of another problem he had at Bayern Munich — stubbornness.
It is truly a dichotomy for Nagelsmann — a coach who loves to tinker, but who will also dig in his heels and refuse to change. With Germany, the obvious changes that pundits and fans were calling for fell on deaf ears. Sure, a coach should probably never listen to the masses, but these were not normal people begging for change.
Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels, Didi Hamann, Lothar Matthäus, Oliver Kahn, Thomas Müller, and Jürgen Klopp all took issue with Nagelsmann’s decisions at one point or another in the past month. These are not your average fans.
Worse for Nagelsmann, this was not a witch hunt by a group of prominent figures, it was disbelief that the head coach of Germany — freakin’ Germany — was willing to jeopardize a World Cup run to satisfy whatever impulses he had. Nagelsmann did not seemingly want to prove anyone wrong, but wanted to prove himself right — and normally that is not a bad attitude to have.
Except when you are just doling out miss after miss — and refusing to change much of anything. While the players did not perform and were actually a major part of the problem, it was Nagelsmann who set the disaster in motion and refused to do anything to stop it, despite having every opportunity to save the World Cup campaign.
The DFB should have known this would happen, though. Nagelsmann’s flaws were evident at Bayern Munich and it is not as if things were going to change. Nagelsmann (rightly) felt wronged about his dismissal from the Bavarians and seemed to blow off the assertion that he had failed. Even if you believe he was sacked too early (which this author does), it was only because of the timing and ridiculous follow-up hire — Thomas Tuchel — who was not only worse than Nagelsmann, but created a division between the locker room and the club itself that only time and Vincent Kompany could heal.
Through it all, though, Nagelsmann was a coach who was lost and too immature to change and find a way to get himself back on track. Every fault he showed at Bayern Munich was amplified with Germany. Simply put, he did this to himself.
Is Nagelsmann a good coach? Yeah, probably. He can recover from this if he can grow as a person.
Does Nagelsmann deserve to be fired? Absolutely.
Nagelsmann just was not good enough on this big stage and if he cannot learn from this experience, it might be the last time he gets a truly profile position with any organizational power.
Song of the Week: “Animal” by Pearl Jam
Okay, you got me! I am back on another Pearl Jam kick.
The band that dominated the 90s (for me) had me a little exhausted of them the time the 2010s came about and I went on a little hiatus, but I have regrown my desire to listen to them again (a lot). Here is “Animal” from the album “Vs.”.
Enjoy:
Entertainment Rundown
House of the Dragon — Season 3, Episode 2
Yup, another solid episode. Admittedly, I did not see this coming. Let’s get into it:
- After two meandering season, there is action in each episode, but the success of the first two episodes is about more than just fight scenes. The dialog is crisp, the story continues to flow seamlessly, the acting is good, and it is…entertaining.
- The story picked up where last week left as the fallout from the Battle of the Gullet was in full force as the Sea Snake was having some real deadbeat dad regret and is aiming to make it alright.
- The Blacks celebration in The Riverlands was awesome.
- Meanwhile, Aemond torched Harrenhal before taking a shiv in the back and clinging to his life.
- Aemond and Daemon put on some extremely impressive destruction by just dismantling soldier after soldier.
- The storyline of Aegon and Larys has me captivated even though we have gotten a major dose of it yet.
- The taking of King’s Landing was actually really well done and worked within the storyline.
- All of Alicent’s maneuvering to end the conflict is having a massive effect on her own family (albeit, some of it was intentionally).
- Helena’s insanity is starting to shine through and the show is trying to make it more evident without beating you over the head with it.
- Those final scenes in the throne room were predictable, but still impactful.
- Overall, it was just another solid episode where the plot advanced nicely. We are getting truly pivotal moment sprinkled throughout each episode.
Rating: 8.00 / 10.00
Predictions
Sunday, June 28th
- Canada 2-1 South Africa (W)
Monday, June 29th
- Brazil 2-0 Japan (W)
- Germany 3-1 Paraguay (L)
- Netherlands 3-2 Morocco (L)
Tuesday, June 30th
- Ivory Coast 1-2 Norway (W)***
- France 3-0 Sweden (W)***
- Mexico 2-1 Ecuador (W)
Wednesday, July 1st
- England 2-0 Congo DR (W)
- Belgium 2-1 Senegal (W)
- United States 2-1 Bosnia-Herzegovina (W)
Thursday, July 2nd
- Spain 2-3 Austria (L)
- Portugal 2-1 Croatia (W)***
- Switzerland 2-1 Algeria (W)
Friday, July 3rd
- Australia 0-1 Egypt
- Argentina 3-0 Cape Verde
- Colombia 3-1 Ghana
Totals will not be entered into the records below until the Round of 32 is fully complete.
Round of 16
Saturday July 4th
- Canada 1-2 Morocco
- Paraguay 0-4 France
Sunday July 5th
- Brazil 3-2 Norway
- Mexico 1-2 England
Monday July 6th
- Portugal 1-2 Spain
- United States 2-3 Belgium
The remaining matches will be added when finalized.
Prediction Records
- Total: 96-52
- Perfect Picks: 19
- Bundesliga Last Matchday: 0-0
- Bundesliga Overall: 0-0
- DFB-Pokal: 0-0
- World Cup: 46-22
- International Friendlies: 50-30
- Champions League: 0-0
- Club Friendlies: 0-0
- Franz Beckenbauer Supercup: 0-0
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