Adrion sizes up Germany task

UEFA European Under-21 Championship holders Germany will have a radically different look about them when they set out on the road to defending their title in 2011, starting with a new face in the dugout following Rainer Adrion's appointment in place of Horst Hrubesch.

Stepping stone
Hrubesch, the ex-Germany striker, led the U21 side to the European title in Sweden in June at the end of his caretaker stint and will now take charge of the U20s, leaving his old post open to former VfB Stuttgart reserve-team trainer Adrion. The 55-year old is known to be close to Germany's senior coach, Joachim Löw, having served as his assistant at Stuttgart from 1996-98, and his CV also features coaching spells with SV Stuttgarter Kickers, SpVgg Unterhaching and SSV Reutlingen. "I want to work closely together with Joachim Löw and the senior side as the U21s are the stepping stone to that team," said Adrion, who takes charge of the side for the first time tonight against Turkey in the four-team Lobanovskiy Cup in Ukraine.

Löw links
With former U21 coach Dieter Eilts having been dismissed due to differences over tactics and playing style, Löw has not hidden the fact that he believes the right man has now been found for the job. "During my time as head coach at Stuttgart, Rainer was always a competent and reliable partner for me," he explained. "Rainer is exactly the man who we've been looking for to provide a link to the A team. He's also someone who can implement our playing style [with the U21s]."

New team
While Hrubesch's team defeated England 4-0 in the final in Sweden with a 4-1-4-1 formation, Adrion has already stated that he prefers the 4-4-2 approach customary to Germany's senior side, perhaps sometimes swapping to 4-3-3. The new coach will be without many of Hrubesch's title-winning squad, however, with 14 of that group, including skipper Sami Khedira and two of their final scorers, Gonzalo Castro and Sandro Wagner, ineligible for the upcoming campaign. It is also likely that Marko Marin and Mesut Özil will soon become permanent fixtures in the senior set-up, with Mats Hummels, Benedikt Höwedes and Jerome Boateng tipped to join them. "We will weigh our options carefully now to see if we'll keep top players like Marko Marin and Mesut Özil with me or with Joachim Löw," said Adrion. "I'll create the new team from these guys and the U19 European champions. Maybe some élite players born in the 1990s will join us there. It will be a big change, but we have high quality in these age groups."

Young talents
Of the 23-man squad that won the title in June, only Marin, Mats Hummels, Daniel Schwaab, Änis Ben-Hatira, Marcel Schmelzer and Tobias Sippel have been included in the party for Ukraine, with injuries depriving Adrion of Höwedes and Boateng. Constant turnover is something every youth coach must learn to live with and Adrion can look forward to welcoming fresh young talent into his side. Though not included in the squad for Ukraine, the likes of Florian Jungwirth, Richard Sukuta-Pasu, Danny Latza, Bayer 04 Leverkusen midfielder Toni Kroos, who is currently injured, and new FC Schalke 04 signing Lewis Holtby, as well as the Bender twins Lars (TSV 1860 München) and Sven (BV Borussia Dortmund) are all tipped to shine during upcoming qualifying campaign. First up though for Adrion are the matches in Ukraine, before qualifying for the 2011 finals starts against San Marino at Alemannia Aachen's new Tivoli Stadium on 4 September.