The former U-21 national coach Horst Hrubesch cannot do anything with the repeated criticism of the level of German young football players. "There are always better and slightly weaker vintages," said Hrubesch of "Sport Bild" (Wednesday). “Because basically the youngsters are not bad, we just have to train them well. We have enough specialists who can change that, ”said the 70-year-old, who is currently working as a junior director at Hamburger SV and was previously responsible for various junior teams at the DFB for a good two decades.

Hrubesch said he couldn't do anything with the demand for more specialists or certain types for positions.

"I am equally annoyed today when my coaches tell me: We need a great central defender," he said.

"I answer: Why?

Where is the problem?

I don't have to have big boys to make them good defenders.

It's a question of training, of development. "

U 21 is weak, women are strong

Hrubesch has a problem with entitlement thinking in Germany.

“Sometimes I think: we're pretty arrogant.

With us there is nothing other than that we just have to win.

We also have to accept that other nations are better over a period of time, ”he said.

The discussions about the DFB youngsters had recently come up again after a weak performance by the German U21s. The team lost 4-0 to Poland in qualifying for the European Championship, the junior's first defeat in 14 months. Among other things, the long-time FC Bayern co-trainer and current assistant to U-21 coach Antonio Di Salvo, Hermann Gerland, then spoke clearly about the deficits in his opinion among some players and the general training path in German young footballers.

For the German women, however, things are currently going much better: After the successful end of the year, the European Championship year can come from the perspective of the German female soccer players.

"The anticipation is already huge," said midfielder Sara Däbritz with a view to the next few months with the EM mission in England in the summer (6th to 31st July 2022).

The 3: 1 (3: 1) on Tuesday evening in Portugal meant a big step towards the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The sixth win in the sixth qualifying game and five points ahead of their immediate rivals made the DFB selection happy to take stock of the year 2021.

“Overall, it was a really good year.

As a team, we now know very well how we want to play ”, said national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg,“ we have worked intensively on our playbook ”.

Now the “defensive topic” is automatically more in focus, since the mini-tournament in England will be played against the EURO hosts, EM group opponents Spain and Olympic champion Canada in February.

Däbritz also sees this demanding determination of the position as “the first test of strength and great preparation for the European championship”.

After two years without a major tournament, the record European champions want to appear again as title contenders at the finals in around seven months.

At the 2019 World Cup and the 2017 European Championship, the quarter-finals last ended for the 2016 Olympic champion and two-time world champion.