Löw: Selfish players are undesirable

Löw: Selfish players are undesirable

Egotism undesirable: Joachim Löw looks very closely at the personality of the players when he chooses his team for the Euro2012. While giving interviews for several magazines and newspapers, the coach of the German national football team discusses the high pressure in the football business and advises to get professional help if necessary.

Joachm Löw intends to look very closely at the character traits of the players with whom he wants to hunt for the title. "Which players are possibly driven by jealousy? Who has the greatest persistence? All these things are important. During a Euro or World Cup we are 60 or 70 people who live together in closely confined quarters", the German national football team coach stated in interviews that were published in several newspapers on Saturday.

Ahead of the European championship in Poland and the Ukraine in the next summer, the 51-year old coach wants to take special care of certain questions. "Which players are able to give the team more energy? Which players can cope with the frustration of being benched? Which players can cope with the competition within the team and improve", so Löw described the criteria he wants to observe.

The DFB (German FA) coach reflected positively on the character traits of his current personnel and acknowledged their impeccable character. "I don't see any downright egoist in our team whose sole ambition is to look good himself or who wants to score all goals himself. I see a very good team without anyone trying to take all the spotlight for himself", Löw said. In May, Löw will name his squad for the Euro2012. Ahead of this, there will be another tryout match against France in Bremen on February 29th, 2011.

Due to the increasing pressure and the recent cases of burnout syndrome in professional football, Löw insisted on the importance to seek professional help. "It is good for a person to be monitored from the outside, to reflect on one's actions and accept help, whether from sports psychologists or in form of conversational therapy or counseling. Löw doesn't think that pressure is solely a problem of professional football, but it affects all parts of the society.

Löw himself feels the pressure, too, but he tries to keep "a certain distance from football". That's why he tries to separate his private life as good as he can from the public view. He was also helped by better time management and consciously setting limits to the time he spends at work in his office at home without getting distracted by e-mails or the telephone. "One day I told myself I shut down everything when I'm at home. I just work fully concentrated for four or five hours and afterwards I drink a cup of coffee or play a little football."

It is important for him to be able to delegate his tasks to the people who work with him. "My closest associates in the coaching team know all of my strengths and weaknesses. In the past I always believed I could do everything on my own and I had to do everything on my own", Löw stated. "Now I know there are people in my staff who are better than me in certain areas and I trust them." These persons scrutinise him and challenge him, telling him: "There you are on the wrong track. That's the real strength in our team."

Source:
http://www.transfermarkt.de/de/loew-keine-egoisten-in-unserer-mannschaft/news/anzeigen_79267.html
Translation by my humble person - so all errors are solely mine

Do we know which players he is keeping away?

German and selfish dont even rhyme.

Well, right now he seems to have the players in his squad that he considers fitting. We know that he kicked out Kuranyi in the past and Ballack more recently, so probably these were players that he considered just not fitting. Hm. I wonder if Weidenfeller might not fit his bill either. Weide is exemplary in the Dortmund goal, but somehow he never really got into the German NT.

BTW, due to the requirements Löw listed, I doubt he would start players like Robben or CRonaldo.

Nice interview. (and translation) I like his views and I've seen other interviews from him. So far he has been excellent and I'd like to see him coach club level sometime.

Great view on football and I like his attacking philosophy.