By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- 2014 World Cup winners Germany are not among the favorites for the 2020 European Championships, says national team manager Oliver Bierhoff.
Ahead of Germany's qualifiers against Belarus and Northern Ireland this Saturday and Tuesday, the 51-year-old admitted: "We are not yet back among the world's top and are far from leading the pack."
The former striker said significant changes are needed to close the gap to the likes of France, Belgium and the Netherlands, adding that coaching should focus more on individual positions.
Bierhoff noted that individuality had been neglected for too long, with tactical issues dominating training sessions instead.
After a disastrous 2018 World Cup and a poor performance in the newly-formed Nations League, Germany ranks only 16th on FIFA's latest world rankings.
Euro 96 winner Bierhoff complained about sizeable gaps among the country's youth footballers, "especially when it comes to strikers and full backs." He added that, since 2006, Germany has missed out on several developments as "things in football seemed to work easily, and we remained in an enthusiastic state after hosting the 2006 World Cup."
Bierhoff's concerns were also echoed recently by German national coach Joachim Low and junior coach Stefan Kuntz.
Former German international Kuntz said alarm bells were ringing, as many players in Germany's U-21 team are not playing for club sides in the Bundesliga. Only eight squad members are contracted to top division outfits, and only two of those are seen as regulars.
An injury crisis is harming the progress of the newly formed A-team, as between ten to 12 vital performers have been sidelined for recent games.
Leroy Sane (Manchester City), Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Julian Draxler and Thilo Kehrer (both Paris Saint-Germain), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Marcel Halstenberg (Leipzig) and Kai Havertz (Bayer Leverkusen) are all out injured.
Low admitted to ther squad being behind schedule due to a lack of practise, making it harder for the players to familiarize themselves with each other on the field. Unlike in recent years, the coach can't count on a bedrock of players from leading clubs like Bayern and Dortmund.
Only four Bayern players and just two from Dortmund form part of his latest selection. In recent years, Bayern provided twice as many. Meanwhile, Low's latest squad consists of several inexperienced players from the likes of Freiburg, Hoffenheim, Cologne, or Hertha Berlin.
Low said that the days of a team winning with superior technique alone are over. On the international stage, he said, speed is not enough without determination and robustness in direct man-to-man duels.
