Bierhoff, indictment of Italy: "You have been standing still for 30 years"

Oliver Bierhoff in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport commented bluntly on yet another debacle of Italian soccer, out of the World Cup for the third consecutive edition. The former AC Milan and Udinese striker ruthlessly analyzed Italy’s collapse. “What worries me is that Italy was always known for good coaches, good players, but it seems that the high tempo that is needed in soccer has been lost. It has stopped in the 1990s. The game has changed, the preparation as well, the intensity is higher,” said the former Teutonic point.

Bierhoff recalls how Germany overcame the crisis of the late 1990s: “At the beginning of 2000s to overcome a crisis we created youth academies, we improved the education of coaches, we changed the programs, the philosophy, in order to have less physical strength, more technique and many other fundamental aspects, however, it took us ten years. Around 2010 there were the fruits of this policy, and in 2014 we became world champions. It takes time. There is no solution, the magical coach. The problem is that you have to grow the players, give them more space and make them become better than the foreigners playing in the league.”

There is also a problem with tactics: “Italian soccer has always been tactically very strong, very fussy in certain aspects, however, we have seen that soccer has changed. It is more athletic, more offensive, and in this yours has not adapted, it has lagged behind. It also happens in Germany and also in other fields, you always think you are number one then we see in our economy that other countries who have more desire to improve become better.”

According to Bierhoff there is also the immigration factor to consider: “The national team has improved a lot because of the players who are children of immigration. We have some in Germany, too. The social aspect matters a lot, it’s also needed in soccer now: how you are, where you want to go, how much you are willing to suffer already at a young age. The hunger of the latest arrivals.”