Manuel Neuer is recovering from a serious injury. On top of that, his goalkeeping coach was recently fired.Image: dpa / Tom Weller
FC Bayern is trying to keep calm before the top games against Union Berlin next Sunday and Paris St. Germain next Wednesday. “I wish that our coach would be left to work in peace,” pleaded Hasan Salihamidžić after the first leg in Paris.
The Bayern bosses were all the more annoyed by Manuel Neuer’s unauthorized interview: after his goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalović was released, Neuer had let his anger run free in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “I felt like my heart was being ripped out,” he said, describing the renewed setback after his injury.
“What Manuel [da] said does not do justice to him as a captain or to the values of FC Bayern,” countered board boss Oliver Kahn publicly. In an interview with the dpa, the Bayern boss was very disappointed in Neuer and drew one Comparison with himself: Kahn showed greatness when he was demoted in the DFB team in 2006, Neuer did not do the same.
Kahn (right) and his goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke (left) at the 2006 World CupImage: imago / MIS
But the comparison lags, at least finds ex-national goalkeeper Andreas Köpke. In an interview with “sports1“The former DFB goalkeeper coach spoke about his two former protégés and about the future of the goalkeeper nation Germany.
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Köpke contradicts Kahn: “I would have given a more blatant interview”
“I was disappointed at the time too, and I was angry at the DFB,” Kahn recalled to the dpa. Under the new team boss Jürgen Klinsmann, the DFB decided in 2004 to work with Andreas Köpke as goalkeeping coach instead of Bayern legend Sepp Meier.
Sepp Maier was against open competition between Kahn and Lehmann, so he had to leave the DFB.Image: dpa / Wolfgang Kumm
A little later, Kahn himself was demoted to second keeper behind Jens Lehmann, but he willingly sat on the bench at the 2006 home World Cup. “For me, the common goals were paramount. They were more important to me than my personal feelings,” explains Kahn proudly afterwards.
The fact that Jens Lehmann was given preference over Oliver Kahn at the 2006 World Cup was hotly debated at the time.Image: imago images / teutopress
Sepp Maier’s successor, Köpke, still remembers Bayern’s outcry when their club hero was suddenly no longer the goalkeeper guru for the national team. Within his own club, Kahn would never have had to accept such a setback. In addition, Kahn was not on the ground at the time, but continued to belong to the world elite of goalkeepers.
“How would Oliver Kahn have reacted if the goalkeeping coach had been taken away from him during an injury break?” Köpke asks himself in an interview with “Sport1” and immediately sends the answer interhere: “It would have rattled at Kahn too,” Köpke is certain. “I think he would have given an even more blatant interview.”
Manuel Neuer (r.) and his longtime goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalović.Image: dpa / Matthias Balk
On the other hand, Köpke did not find Manuel Neuer’s statements in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that “brutal” at all, since Neuer did not shoot at individuals. “The interview arose out of disappointment and I don’t find it as dramatic as it was portrayed”, explains Koepke. “If you read the interview in its entirety, Manu has expressed his feelings and I can understand them.”
The Bayern bosses apparently see it differently, in the course of the workup – which should only take place after the PSG games – Neuer is threatened with a mega fine. Nevertheless, Köpke believes that Neuer will come back to Bayern. “I think so,” he says confidently. “The important thing now is that Manu’s shin heals. If everything goes according to plan, Manu will come back really strong.”
Köpke sees the next generation of goalkeepers “with great concern”
In the national team, on the other hand, Barça keeper Marc-André ter Stegen will take over for the first time. “He’s 30 and has a few years left in goal at the top level.” Köpke does not yet dare to judge whether Neuer will be able to oust him again. “We’ll have to wait and see how that develops.”
Ter Stegen had to sit on the bench behind Neuer for years. Image: IMAGO / Charlotte Wilson
In general, Köpke sees the national team in terms of goalkeepers as “super positioned”. With Neuer, ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp and Bernd Leno, national coach Hansi Flick still has four world-class keeper available.
“But After that I see problems coming our way”, Köpke fears the generational change. “I don’t know of any name right now that I would say could follow in these footsteps,” he said of the German U30 goalkeepers.
“Nübel would be the only one I could name as an option at the moment,” admits Köpke. But even with him, you first have to “see how he develops.”
Alexander Nübel is currently playing on loan for AS Monaco. It is questionable whether he will return to FCB in the summer.Image: dpa / Federico Gambarini
Köpke’s doubts are strengthened by the new youth concept of the DFB: In order to encourage more creative players, children should in future only be played three-a-side – from the age of 10 then also five-a-side – i.e. with “flying Goalkeeper”. This should force the kids to go into dribbles and tackles.
However, Köpke fears that the supply of top keepers could suffer as a result. “The boys have to try out different positions, get age-appropriate goalkeeper training and also get good football training.” Instead, there is now a threat in goalkeeper training that “the first few years will be wasted [zu] become.”
It was probably something like the scene that decided the game: shortly after half-time, Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani put the ball a bit too far in front of him and kicked his opponent, who got the ball just before him, on the ankle. The Portuguese referee Soares Dias immediately drew the red card for the star striker.
