Football | Christian Wück wants more friction in the DFB team – and receives criticism

Niko Arnautis and his coaching team have made an offer: Eintracht Frankfurt 's players can voluntarily keep fit under supervision next week. VfL Wolfsburg is sending everyone on vacation this Thursday and will invite those female footballers who aren't playing at the European Championships in Switzerland in July to start training on June 30th. Double winners FC Bayern Munich will compete in an invitational tournament next week: eight top European teams will compete in a hefty seven-a-side match in Estoril. Three clubs, three variations – if women's football still needs improvement, then it's certainly not the case with its disjointed schedule.

No casting

The only truly important matches are the DFB Women's Nations League matches on May 30th against the Netherlands and four days later against Austria, when the meeting in Bremen simultaneously kicks off European Championship preparations. Next Tuesday, national coach Christian Wück will name the squad for the two international matches. If there's one thing the 51-year-old won't do, it's hold a casting call like the one under Martina Voss-Tecklenburg before the 2023 World Cup . Back then, the atmosphere wasn't right because there was a fight for the 23 spots until shortly before departure for Australia. On June 12th, Wück announced, he will then name the "final squad" for the tournament: "I'm a big fan of clarity."

Even now, the uncertainty is already wearing on nerves, otherwise Frankfurt's Nicole Anyomi wouldn't have criticized the lack of communication. "There hasn't been any concrete and direct communication recently," said the speedy striker, who feels underappreciated since the new national coach took office . In the hierarchy, Munich's Lea Schüler, Selina Cerci from Hoffenheim, and Leipzig's Giovanna Hoffmann are ahead of her in the center of attack – and that's unlikely to change for the European Championship.

Brave Team

It's not necessarily a bad thing that a national team player is now publicly rebelling. At least internally, the national coach has determined that his DFB team is still far too well-behaved. So far, no one has been late—that really shouldn't be true. When Wück was coaching the DFB's U17 juniors to European and World Cup titles, he once remarked, not entirely seriously, that he had "some gangsters" on his team. By this, he meant players who were constantly testing their limits.

Such influences are lacking among the DFB women. Wück, of course, doesn't want his women's soccer players to break all the rules, but he doesn't think more friction is a bad thing. He's now faced that with Anyomi's criticism. And the national coach also has to manage a fundamental dissatisfaction among his players. They're getting annoyed by the long waiting period: The Bundesliga ended too early, and after the international matches, there's another two weeks off before the only training camp in Herzogenaurach starts on June 19. From there, they'll head straight to the base camp in Zurich on June 30, before the first match of the European Championship against Poland in St. Gallen on July 4. Wück considers the lead-up to be sufficient.

Genius and madness

Whether Anyomi will live to see all of this is questionable. While she's the Bundesliga's most-scoring player with 14 goals and nine assists, she too often oscillates between genius and madness. With determination, the 25-year-old can sprint forward, outdance two or three opponents, and casually slot the ball into the net. But she can also run toward goal alone, where she starts to think things over, steps on the ball, and stumbles. All of this was evident in Eintracht's 2-0 win at RB Leipzig in their final game of the season.

Wück's predecessor , Horst Hrubesch , and Martina Voss-Tecklenburg were unable to utilize Anyomi's talents for the national team. She says: "I can also play on the wing. It's about being recognized and appreciated as a player." Her club coach, Arnautis, can confirm this: No one needs as much encouragement as Anyomi. In Frankfurt, she's repaying that trust with goals.