By Jurgen Klinsmann
World Cup-winning striker, former Germany coach and BBC pundit


Germany have impressed everyone with their attacking displays en route to the semi-finals of this World Cup.

But it is only six years ago that, like England this summer, they were returning home early from a major tournament and wondering what the future held.

Germany had to rebuild after the disaster of the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. We did not win a game and failed to get out of our group.

I got the chance to decide on the direction we took when I agreed to take over as Germany coach that summer, with current manager Joachim Loew as my assistant.

'Jogi' and I began the whole regeneration process by trying to give our national team an identity.

We eventually decided to go down an attack-minded route, passing the ball on the ground from the back to the front line as quickly as possible using dynamic football.


Klinsmann and Loew designed a new blueprint for German football
From that, we created a style of play that this Germany team in South Africa now really lives and breathes. Since 2004, we have reached two World Cup semi-finals and the final of Euro 2008.

Can England recover from their poor showing in South Africa as quickly as Germany did six years ago? Yes, but they cannot just copy the German style and expect that to succeed for them.

Every nation has its own culture and specific environment as well as its own footballing identity. England have to develop their own vision and decide how they should play.

As I found, making that vision work is not an easy process. It will take time and England's results might not be positive while it takes effect.

England will also need the help of the Premier League. Every club coach will have their own philosophy but I tried to work with those in the Bundesliga to build something together.

There are a lot of foreign players and managers in England but that should not make a difference. You simply have to explain to them what the style of play is that you want to develop and be prepared to persevere.

When Jogi and I took over the German side, we made our plans very public and made it clear that we were trying to rebuild from the bottom up.

The German Football Association (DFB) helped us by putting a lot of pressure on all the first and second division teams in the Bundesliga to build academy programmes and ensure talented young players were coming through but we still had to decide on our playing style.

Whatever approach the England team decides on, everybody in the English game needs to sign up to it

Jurgen Klinsmann
To do that, we quizzed everyone we could.

We held workshops with German coaches and players, asking them to write down on flip charts three things: how they wanted to play, how they wanted to be seen to be playing by the rest of the world and how the German public wanted to see us playing.

If we could define all of that, we thought we could lay out how we wanted to work and then, from there, sort out the training and paperwork behind the scenes.

What we ended up with amounted to 10 or 12 bullet points laying out our proposals. We then announced that it was our intention to play a fast-paced game, an attacking game and a proactive game.

That last term was something the Germans did not really like because they did not really understand what proactive meant. We just told them it meant we did not react to what our opponents did, we played the way that was right for us.

Once we had done all that, we created a curriculum for German football and presented it to the Bundesliga and DFB boards.

Miroslav Klose - World Cup goal machine
At that point, I told them I did not have the time to implement the strategy at all levels because I only had two years to prepare for the World Cup, so I asked for Germany's Under-21 team to adopt it and that was it.

I brought in a former international team-mate of mine, Dieter Eilts, to run the under-21s and said they had to play the same way as the senior team because they would be a feeder for it.

I was always looking long-term but I knew our plans would be measured by our success at the 2006 World Cup.

There was a lot of negative media at the start. Everybody agreed German football had to change after 2004 but nobody actually wanted to adopt our proposals.

For example, we told the Bundesliga teams and coaches that their players needed to be fitter to play the kind of football we wanted to play.


Germany thrashed England 4-1 in the quarter-finals
That meant carrying out fitness tests every three months, which did not go down well with some clubs because I was able to prove that some of them were training their players properly and others were not.

I was basically doubted for the two years I was coach - and when we lost 4-1 to Italy in a friendly game three months before the 2006 World Cup, everybody wanted my blood!

We had another game three weeks later against the United States and we won that one 4-1.

That victory saved my job and kept me in charge for the World Cup because the DFB had been ready to make a change. They wanted the conservative approach again, not the revolution.

But I kept on being positive, explaining that this was how I wanted us to play. I did not know if we would master it in time for the 2006 World Cup but we would give it a shot.

We had the players for four solid weeks before the tournament began and were able to get our thoughts across. They agreed to train the way we wanted them to and do extra work. Soon they started to believe in the system.

606: DEBATE
Germany will prove to be the most influential team at this World Cup

djmolineux 49
That was crucial because, no matter what your job is, you need to identify yourself with the work that you are doing and be happy.

I was happy because, as a former striker, I liked the style we intended to play. I could never coach a team that played defensive-minded football.

I also think the players understood that I was the one taking the risk and that if it did not work out the DFB would send me packing back to California!

We started well at the 2006 World Cup and the public began to feel that something special was going to happen.

In the second game, when we beat Poland with a last-minute goal, the whole nation embraced us and said "yeah, that's our team and that's how we want them to play". We lost in the semi-final against Italy but I was still very proud.

After that World Cup, I was burned out after two years of banging my head against a wall but I made it clear to the DFB that Jogi had to take over after me to continue the job we had started.

He has continued to develop that initial style of play and is enjoying success. It has taken Germany six years to learn to play it properly - and it has developed along the way - but the players are completely comfortable with it now.

Germany's style of play might work for England because, in a way, Germany now play a lot like a typical Premier League team, with the emphasis on pacy attacks.

But whatever approach the England team decides on - whether it is attacking or defensive, patient or high tempo - everybody in the English game needs to sign up to it.

After all, it is the players, coaches and clubs who will help to make it work.

Jurgen Klinsmann was speaking to Chris Bevan in Cape Town


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8789682.stm

I remember posting somewhere that no Nation has won the world cup in the last 50years without a decent local league.

Jurgen Klinsmann's revelation on how he worked with their local league, their country's FA to set in motion the process that produced the machine we have all come to love in this world cup has proven my argument right.

We need a credible local league, even if we can not achieve the standards of Europe we at least need something as good as what is obtainable in South America or South Africa.

Jogi Loew (The German Coach) also said somewhere that the precondition to success at international competitions  were passion, committment and willpower. I do not think anything stokes more passion than a native coach leading his native country to a world cup. This fact has also been supported by the fact that no country has ever won the world cup with a foreign manager.

Easy to talk cos cos it has worked. . .

you celebrate the victory, but you analyse the defeat

But at least the Germans gave themselves a chance to succeed by re-building from bottom up.

and succeed they did after working hard for it. We Nigerians have not learnt that success will never come on a platter of gold for God is God of all humanity and not specifically Nigeria.

mikeansy:

I remember posting somewhere that no Nation has won the world cup in the last 50years without a decent local league.

Jurgen Klinsmann's revelation on how he worked with their local league, their country's FA to set in motion the process that produced the machine we have all come to love in this world cup has proven my argument right.

Kilnsmann made that assertion but he didnt specifically say how that was achieved?

How do U get all the clubs in ur league to adopt one philosophy? Is that really possible in other countries, say, England? How do U convince Wenger, Mancini, Grant, Hiddink ( or Abrahomivic, the Glazer family, the Abu Dhabi group, Gillet/Hicks) to put the national interest above club interest?

Now How do you think this to be feasible if Nigeria as a nation is struggling to stay together to make it to the next hour? Nigeria has many problems and i think the one that need the most urgent attention is the education. This culture of corruption is a disease that starts from school. The cheat factor in Nigerian education is the main cause of corruption in Nigeria. Additionally a character of selfishness which many Nigerians grow up with will deter any success for this country in the near future. I believe Nigeria needs to go back to the drawing board to redefine itself then we can talk about fixing the football problem. Any country that made it anywhere has done so with unity not as divided people.

@Mikeansy

This is what i was talking about when i said Amodu shouldn't have any future with Nigerian football because he claimed there is no good players in Nigeria's local League. Don't you think instead of sitting down saying that , he would have sit down talk to the NFF/NFA and come out with some kind of program that would produce something in the future? did Klismann said "we have a problem , we don't have good players locally" and just walked away? In the other hand we know Siasia worked with many young Nigerians since 2004 at least. So in fact this Siasia is a Genius because he in fact did the same thing Klinsmann did but the difference is in Nigeria if you are corrupt then you are minority therefore your programs don't succeed because you be will fired and barred from doing your job properly.

Basseti:

Kilnsmann made that assertion but he didnt specifically say how that was achieved?

How do U get all the clubs in your league to adopt one philosophy? Is that really possible in other countries, say, England? How do U convince Wenger, Mancini, Grant, Hiddink ( or Abrahomivic, the Glazer family, the Abu Dhabi group, Gillet/Hicks) to put the national interest above club interest?

I honestly don't know how that was achieved and surely that wont work in places in like England because it will be more difficult to get the foreign billionaires and foreign coaches who control the premier league to sign up to such English Nationalistic programme at the expense of their clubs.

However what I am necessarily calling for is to have a half decent Nigerian league. At least something good enough as what is obtainable in places like Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, Argentina.

This will ensure that we do not have to rely on bench warmers of European clubs to play world cup.

We need to plan, we no dey plan but we want results.
We have achieved moderate success at youth tourneys, we can build on the U23,u20 and U17, however we need a Siasia (attack minded coach)
Our league need to improved to keep this young stars at home for some time before they leave, It is no surprise that Spain, Germany and Holland have been succcessfu in the WC. Unlike England they attend junior tournaments.

I just hope the new NFA guys give Siasia the SE job and also the U23, my sadness over SE at the WC was the lack of depth on our bench. I believe the future is bright but only if we train our coaches and improve our league

Klinsmann appointed as coach of USA

How many championships did they win with this new style?