Michael Ballack calls for more player responsibility in German football to help "develop personalities"

The German national team have gone through several coaching changes in recent years, with Hansi Flick, Julian Nagelsmann and now Jürgen Klopp all having taken charge within the last five years amid a series of disappointing results.

But as Germany legend Michael Ballack points out, the coaches are not solely responsible for the team’s struggles. The players must also take responsibility themselves.

“It seems to me that we have very few leaders who speak their minds to each other in the dressing room. In other words, self-correction. That process has to come from within the team,” Ballack said in his role as a pundit for Sky Deutschland.

“We always talk a lot about the coach. Of course, the coach can have a big impact – above all, a negative one. But the final few percent, in a positive sense, also have to come from the team. Making decisions on the pitch, deciding things for themselves.”

Ballack went on to suggest that German football has become too focused on “over-coaching” and “over-systematisation”, arguing that the issue starts at youth level and ultimately leaves players with less responsibility for making their own decisions.

“The players need to be given that freedom again, even at youth level,” he argued.

“Maybe we need to take a little bit of this over-coaching in youth football, this oversupply of everything, this constant optimisation, away again, so that we can develop personalities.”