World Cup 2022: Hansi Flick may have found a solution to a permanent problem before the Costa Rica game

Hansi Flick is not a free man in Qatar. He’s caught in the same scenes, busy with the same problems, confronted with the same questions, even though the World Cup is well under way. On Thursday, the German national team, coached by Flick, will play their third group game against Costa Rica, but the coach still hasn’t answered how he wants to organize his defence.

Filling the outside positions threatens to become an eternal issue for Flick, and the respectable 1-1 draw against Spain on Sunday hasn’t changed that. On Wednesday afternoon, Qatar local time, Flick was sitting in Conference Room 1 at Doha’s National Convention Center. A room like a movie theater, with seats you can sink deep into. But Flick once again only presented the audience with a short film; before important games he is quite monosyllabic, giving similar answers even though he is asked different questions.

Flick was joined on Wednesday by someone who could solve at least one of the defensive problems: Lukas Klostermann, 26, RB Leipzig right-back. It can be taken for granted that Klostermann will play against Costa Rica – not only because Flick said: “Lukas is always a good option.”

Problem area in the back right

Probably no position in the German game was recently occupied as weakly as the right flank. Niklas Süle was allowed to try his hand against Japan, a man for tough duels, but certainly not for speed dribbling. Against Spain, Flick tried Thilo Kehrer, which wasn’t a good idea either. After just a few minutes, Kehrer no longer knew which was right and which was left. As if he had been placed in the Wilde Maus at the fair and forgotten to fold down the safety bar. Kehrer, as Sunday evening at the Al-Bayt Stadium showed, is overwhelmed when it comes to the big players. Technically, athletically, the pace seemed too high for him. Even in his four years at Paris Saint Germain, Kehrer had not been able to assert himself; since the summer he has been playing for West Ham United, an English middle-class team.

And now Klostermann, the third right-back in the third game. He came on for Kehrer in the 70th minute against Spain and kept his side calm for the rest of the time. Klostermann is fast, so fast that in his youth the question arose whether he should not try a career as an athlete. Klostermann won the “Deutschland sucht den Supersprinter” competition four times. He then stayed with football, in the youth department of VfL Bochum, because, as he says, “eleven seconds of happiness” in athletics was too short. He prefers the long version over 90 minutes when kicking.

But will the game against Costa Rica really be a rush? Klostermann says: “I sense a certain anticipation in the team” and then immediately qualifies that he expects an opponent who will play “very physically and passionately”. Just like Costa Rica recently played against Japan and made the game-winning 1-0 out of half a goal chance. It’s a style that is more familiar from the relegation zone of the second Bundesliga: close the back with two chains of four, knock the ball forward and hope that something will come of it somehow.

However, it is not Costa Rica in the relegation battle on Sunday evening, but the DFB team. They are bottom of Group E with just one point and need to win the game. Costa Rica, on the other hand, if Japan beat Spain, a draw would be enough to progress.

Losing to Costa Rica would put a lot of things into question

If the Germans don’t manage to win and are eliminated after the group stage, as was the case at the 2018 World Cup, this will trigger fundamental debates: Coach Flick, DFB director Bierhoff, President Neuendorf – are they still the right managers? Is it really the trio you want to play with at the EM 2024 in Germany?

The debates are already going on, albeit quietly and in the background. On Wednesday, Flick was asked if he could guarantee that he would still be the national coach the day after the Costa Rica game. He said: “I have a contract until 2024, but I don’t know what else will happen”, which should mean: I don’t know if they still want me then.

In the game against Costa Rica, the entire World Cup will be condensed for the Germans; Above all, there is the question of whether Germany can still master the format of major events after winning the 2014 World Cup. The EM 2021, when the DFB team, still coached by Joachim Löw, failed against England in the round of 16, was a disappointment.

Flick said on Wednesday that he felt “no pressure at all”, Lukas Klostermann said the same about himself. Whether these are just allegations, empty sports talk, remains to be seen. The Germans wanted to go to the World Cup final, and they now have a final against Costa Rica. What that means may not be felt for some of those involved until the day after.