Jürgen Klopp plays his first match as Germany manager tonight, against the Netherlands. Two years after leaving the touchline for life at the Red Bull franchise network, he’s back with a bench and a dressing room. Since his appointment on 24 July, he has shaken up the Mannschaft’s habits: no phones in the physio room, the warm-up area or at the table on matchdays, only in players’ rooms. And everyone now eats together, at the same time. Personal hairdressers are no longer allowed at the hotel, and visits from partners will be limited.
Freddy read all that on Monday morning, between two coffees at the clubhouse bar, his team-sheet folder already open on the table.
Eating at a fixed time, everyone at the table, I’ve been doing that since the club was founded. At mine it’s simpler: we’ve only got a microwave, so nobody hangs about.
Under Julian Nagelsmann, players ate whenever they liked, kept their phones and could have their own hairdresser brought to the hotel. Klopp has tightened everything, with the stated aim of making Germany European champions in 2028. Freddy, for his part, is aiming for survival, a flat pitch away, mind you.
The hairdresser at the hotel has never been a problem for us: nobody has one. The club delegate cuts hair with the scissors from the team-sheet folder, between two line-ups.
He also points out that his Sunday team talk has never needed a written rule to ban phones: there’s no signal in the dressing room, which sorts the problem out before he has to. Eleven years away from Germany for Klopp, apparently. Freddy, for his part, has never left the third provincial division, Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues, except for two summers to repaint the portacabin.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
