German national team head coach Julian Nagelsmann spoke on the omission of three Eintracht Frankfurt players and the recent sacking of his friend and former assistant head coach Dino Toppmöller at Thursday’s DFB press conference.
About one third of the way through the press conference, a reporter from Hessen’s FFH radio asked about the retention of rising German star Nathaniel Brown, as well as the absences of Robin Koch and Jonathan Burkardt.
Nagelsmann didn’t directly speak on Koch (in poor form) and Burkardt (returning from injury and pushed out by Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav. His statement on the Toppmöller probably suggests that the former SGE head coach might eventually join him as an assistant once again.
Nagelsmann’s words on the Eintracht Frankfurt trio and Toppmöller
“I’ve had relatively positive exchanges with all three players,” Nagelsmann said. “I explained to all three of them the all the ‘whys’ [of their selection and non-selections]. I think Frankfurt haven’t had an easy season. They’re stabilizing a bit now. There’s a lot of new ideas from the new head coach.
“I found their previous head coach to be a very good one as well,” Nagelsmann continued. “He [Toppmöller] is a very good friend of mine. It’s always a shame when your friends lose their job. Right now, they [Frankfurt] are experimenting with different ideas.
“That doesn’t mean better or worse ideas, just different ones,” Nagelsmann went on to say. “Players are playing in different positions, which I’m in favor of. Nene [Brown] is very fast, creative, and very composed on the ball.
“I think that Nene has delivered the most consistent performances of all Eintracht players,” Nagelsmann concluded. “He does have strong competitors in the form of [Stuttgart’s] Maxi [Mittelstädt] and [Leipzig’s David] Raum, but we expect a lot of him and his time will come soon.“
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