Matthäus: Klopp needs 'time and authority' as Germany coach
· Yahoo Sports
Germany icon Lothar Matthäus hopes Jürgen Klopp receives plenty of creative freedom if he is appointed as the new national team coach following another World Cup debacle.
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Klopp is the top favourite to take over as Germany coach after Julian Nagelsmann resigned following the World Cup last-32 exit in a penalties defeat to Paraguay. The former Liverpool coach is set to hold talks with officials this week having said he wanted the role.
"I hope that the German Football Federation (DFB) gives him all the time and authority he needs to make real improvements. That includes allowing him to bring in the right people for every position, people who will work with his vision," 1990 World Cup winner Matthäus wrote in a column for the Sport Bild weekly on Wednesday.
Matthäus specifically mentioned 2014 World Cup champions Per Mertesacker and Bastian Schweinsteiger, whom he could easily envision as part of Klopp's coaching team and who possess the necessary expertise.
DFB sporting director Rudi Völler has also said that he would like to have more 2014 World Cup winners in key roles at the federation.
"There are some who could become a topic of discussion," he said during a news conference with German media on Tuesday.
"There are a few who want that, and it will happen. This generation also has a bit of a duty to perhaps step up and take on some responsibility," he said, specifically naming Mertesacker, Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller, Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira.
"Hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone. These are names I can all imagine eventually taking on some role at the DFB, whether alongside me or after me," said Völler, who plans to fulfil his contract, which runs to Euro 2028.
Mertesacker, who served as head of Arsenal's youth academy for eight years, has already offered his services to the DFB.
Müller, working with Klopp as a pundit at the World Cup, said the new era was about more than just a fresh coach after flops in 2018 and 2022 too.
"What matters to me is that we build structures. A lot has already been set in motion in recent years after the last failure but it is not just a new coach coming in now who writes the names on the tactics board," he told MagentaTV.
"If it is Jürgen, then someone is there who not only has the experience of how to set up his team tactically. When you are a coach in England, you are more than a coach. In this role, he has to structure teams and shape structures across several age groups."