A complete departure from Julian Nagelsmann! Jürgen Klopp are not only breaking new ground with their squad for the Germany team
Germany coach Jürgen Klopp has sparked euphoria with his first DFB squad and is clearly intent on distancing himself from his failed predecessor Julian Nagelsmann in every respect. A comment.
About half an hour into the squad announcement press conference, Jürgen Klopp found himself facing a small riddle. It was about which successful club coaches later became Germany head coach. Hansi Flick quickly named Klopp, then could not think of anyone else. "Who then?" he asked the room. The answer: Julian Nagelsmann.
"Oh yes, sorry," Klopp shouted, and by then he had already realised it could make headlines. "Write the story you want to write," Klopp said, before going on at length to stress his greatest respect for Nagelsmann. Naturally, it immediately brought back memories of Klopp's legendary "still" remark before the World Cup. When he himself was a TV pundit and Nagelsmann was still Germany head coach.
That was in fact the only slight glance towards the DFB's gloomy recent past at Klopp's press conference. On every other subject, he very credibly tried to steer the focus towards the positives and build belief in a better future. For the national team, but also for Germany in general.
Klopp picked 44 players in his first selection, split into two squads for the upcoming four Nations League matches. It naturally features plenty of familiar long-serving internationals, but also 16 debutants, some of them barely known, such as Mika Baur of Celtic Glasgow, who would never have expected a call-up themselves. Klopp's message is clear: anything is possible.
Jürgen Klopp plans with Joshua Kimmich in midfield
Aside from that brief quiz, Nagelsmann was not a topic at the press conference, yet in one sense he remained omnipresent. Klopp at times tackled head-on several of the criticisms that had been aimed at Nagelsmann in recent months, each time insisting forcefully on his fundamentally different approach.
Take Joshua Kimmich, whom Nagelsmann had used at right-back. "Not in a single conversation that I had with my coaching colleagues was he listed as a right-back," Klopp said. "We see him as a midfielder." And still as captain, as he confirmed.
Klopp also dismissed the regularly voiced argument that Germany had no proper alternatives to Kimmich at right-back. Freiburg's Philipp Treu, called up by him for the first time, should, according to Klopp, be asking himself in this debate: "Eh, what are they talking about?" He also named Josha Vagnoman of VfB Stuttgart as a promising option.
Stuttgart is another area where Klopp's break from Nagelsmann is especially striking. Leaving aside Alexander Nübel, who moved to Besiktas Istanbul in the summer, Nagelsmann had selected three Stuttgart players for the World Cup in Deniz Undav, Angelo Stiller and Jamie Leweling. Klopp, by contrast, left out exactly that trio and instead called up four others in Vagnoman, Chris Führich, Finn Jeltsch and Maximilian Mittelstädt. Of course, Undav, Stiller and Leweling have recently been dealing with knocks, but each of them has also been on the pitch in all of their Bundesliga matches so far.
Jürgen Klopp shows a greater presence than Julian Nagelsmann
Missing as well are the two Nagelsmann favourites around whom probably the most controversial debates in the DFB team have swirled in recent years: Leroy Sane and Leon Goretzka, who is currently carrying an injury anyway. Klopp explicitly does not want their omissions from the squad, just like those of Undav and Stiller, to be seen as final. At the same time, though, he also revealed that he has not yet spoken with them. Unlike with almost all other remotely interesting German footballers.
"I was out and about a bit over the last four weeks, met many, many players in person, saw whether on the training ground or in conversation," Klopp reported. To underline the point, he then added: "Saw them, had them physically in front of me. The difference from the picture I had before is quite big. It makes a big difference in developing a feel for a footballer when you see him live."
Those sentences can certainly be read as a small disguised swipe at Nagelsmann. Poor communication and a lack of personal visits to clubs and stadiums were, in any case, criticisms often aimed at Nagelsmann. Through this completely contrasting approach, and through call-ups for players from smaller clubs such as Augsburg or Elversberg, Klopp is sending the message that he wants the whole of football Germany involved in the national team's fresh start.
Still, to keep riding the wave of euphoria unquestionably sparked by this selection and his press conference, football's usual rule still applies: results matter. Tough tests await immediately in the Nations League, starting away against the Netherlands and followed by three more games against Greece twice and Serbia.
