When avoiding change prohibits success

Success is a delicate matter. It is sweet. It opens up new possibilities. But it also creates new challenges.

One of my most important experiences is that it is nearly impossible to be successful twice in the same way.

The example of the German national football team shows this very clearly. Since we became world champions in Brazil in 2014, none of the players who play for Germany have forgotten how to kick. Also, the coaching team still knows which tactical tricks and motivation to use to bring out the best of our players' abilities.

To understand what happened differently from the World Cup in Brazil to the World Cup in Russia, it's worth taking a look at a few small but important background details.

The generation of players that formed the framework of the team in 2014 had been trained in youth performance centres, but still lived at home with their families. In other words, they were not only football-trained by the coaches of the performance centres, but also influenced by their families. For me, an essential cornerstone of this family background is the view of the whole: for the family, but also for the respective team of which you are a part.

Today's generation is one hundred percent from youth performance centres. The young men train, play and live in the performance centre. Their ambitions are clearly defined: they want to become professionals. They want careers like their famous role models. They want to rise socially. They want to make money. A fifteen-year-old player living at FC Bayern in the youth performance centre has no other goal than to sign a professional contract as soon as possible.

A career like that of my long-time colleague and teammate Miroslav Klose, for example, would not be possible today. Klose completed a traineeship as a carpenter and played for 1. FC Kaiserslautern’s amateur football team before becoming a Bundesliga professional and eventually completing his first match for the national team as a 23-year-old. The fact that a 23-year-old debutant could rise to become the record scorer of the German national team is an unlikely success story. It seems like a completely different time.

The professionals of today's generation are completely different. That should not surprise anyone. The different origins of their families and their cultural influences may also play a certain role, but I consider the education system to be more important. The young athlete almost inevitably grows up to be an egoist. For them, the most important questions are:

- How do I progress?

- What helps my career?

- Which circumstances are best for me?

The view of the bigger picture and the individual’s responsibility for the team as a performance motive is sliding into the background.

That does not necessarily have to be a problem, but it needs to be handled competently: These players need a much tighter leadership than the generation before.

Because football is and remains a team sport, it is the task of the coaches to help the players identify the needs of the team at all times.

This not only includes the behavior on the field, but of course, also off it. The coaching team must motivate and steer their individuals. If they do not move in the direction the coaches want them to go, they need to be sent a clear message.

This clear address was needed, for example, at the time of the affair surrounding Mesut ?zil and ?lkay Gündo?an sharing a photo with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. ?zil (and initially also Gündo?an) felt no need to speak out and explain themselves in public. This necessity should have been communicated quickly and clearly in order to improve the harmony portrayed to the outside - and to the inside.

This clear address was omitted. The coaching team relied on the fact that the successful leadership culture of the past is enough to be successful once again.

Often it does not take much to get a team back on track after a surprising failure. Leadership means dealing with the situation head-on, as well as re-assessing your own methods, putting them to the test.

I am convinced that Jogi L?w has to change his collegial leadership style of recent years if he wants to succeed again with the new generation of internationals. This is not a sign of weakness, but of further development. He must show individuals that they are responsible for the entire team. He must establish a culture of tighter, clearer decisions than he was previously accustomed to. If he succeeds, I am very optimistic about the future of our team.