Mats Hummels lashes out at critics of his post-match analysis

“We are the best at what we do. We’re being treated in part like complete amateurs,” Mats Hummels told the press after Germany’s 0-3 disaster in Amsterdam. Hummels cut a sorry figure in Germany’s loss yesterday, but he is not interested in media criticism of Germany’s performance.

Hummels anticipated the torrent of criticism that befell himself and the team as soon as the final whistle blew. Halfway between the pitch and the locker room, he stated in the mixed zone,

It will continue to be the case that the fans and media treat us this way. You have to live with that in soccer.

Legendary Bayern and Germany keeper Oliver Kahn had indeed already criticized Hummels (among others, including Manuel Neuer) at halftime on live television.

Now Hummels is especially under fire for his preposterous post-game analysis of the match in interview with ZDF Sport. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Hummels claimed Germany had been the better team:

It’s a question of failling to convert chances. Clearly. I don’t know whether you can see it differently, but we lost a game 0-3 that in my opinion we should have won. That’s how it goes sometimes. It’s not the case that one person is blowing all the chances. Everyone sometimes has a chance; sometimes it’s bad luck, sometimes inability. My header was cleared off the line — a thousand situations.

The opponent scores his first goal — as so often — with his first chance. Now we’re standing here with a 0-3, we’ll definitely get an earful, but we can’t blame ourselves that much today. We played a game in Holland in which we should have scored at least two, probably three or four goals. In the end, we were countered twice after simple ball losses; that of course drags the result down.

That’ll happen [i.e. a change in results] with a success; no doubt about it. Someone will knock one in [i.e. score]. So that the dam breaks, so that we have a sense of security again. The fact that after the two games against France and Holland we’re standing here with 1 point and 0:3 goal difference — it’s actually crazy when you look at the performances we delivered.

The press begs to differ as to what is “crazy.” Bild duly dubbed Hummels the team’s “whitewasher-in-chief” (Chef-Schönredner — the word Schönredner suggests someone who puts a nice spin on a disaster). Hummels himself then lashed out on Twitter at unnamed “journalists” for failing to cite ZDF, as if their version of his post-match comments was somehow incorrect.

The tweet prompted ZDF itself to reply with a recording of the interview. Hummels can’t simply have been angry that Bild failed to cite ZDF in its otherwise correct breakdown of his comments, can he?

Go ahead and criticize, dear “journalists,” but at least cite @ZDFsport and @SkySportDE correctly.
As it is that has nothing to do with seriousness

*whispers*

Dear @matshummels, we’re always open to criticism, but if you’re referring to the image we don’t know what is supposedly cited incorrectly there.

Even Jogi Löw directly contradicted Hummels’s rosy analysis. “Our failure to convert chances was not the only reason for the defeat.” Löw cited the team’s lack of self-confidence. “That we fall apart like that at the end is bad,” he concluded.

Joshua Kimmich was brutally to the point:

Whitewashing it doesn’t accomplish anything anymore. It’s not the case that it’s coincidence. Constant bad luck isn’t coincidence. We’re making mistakes at the back that you simply cannot allow.

— Quotes translated from AZ, Bild, and Kicker.